Unfortunately I got familiar with this issue when I spent a month at the hospital because of an eating disorder.
The locking up the purse and cell phone is standard for any mental health hospital setting. Even if this woman wasn’t suspected of being suicidal or harmful to others, other patients could get their hands on, say, her tweezers. It’s easier for the staff to forbid those items for all patients. They may be allowed under short supervised intervals. I was allowed to take out my spiral journal during the day but had to return it to the contraband closet at night.
After I’d graduated from inpatient to partial, every day when I came in, the first thing I would do is give my purse over to the staff so they could lock it away.
We weren’t allowed cell phones, but the hospital was pretty liberal with phone privileges as long as they didn’t interfere with programming or occur after bedtime. We had some free time in the evenings and the weekends.
My state doesn’t allow anyone who has stayed in a mental hospital to own a gun for five years.
My boss knew the reason I was staying at the hospital, and she legally cannot divulge anything about it. I’m sure other coworkers knew why I had been away but nobody asked me directly. I didn’t really care if they knew but I didn’t volunteer that information. But I was lucky that my boss was willing to hold my job for me. Many places would not do that, and they aren’t necessarily legal obligated to.
If she goes to job interviews in the future, prospective employees might ask why she wasn’t working at the time. She doesn’t have to tell them she was hospitalized, or she can tell them she was in the hospital but she doesn’t have to specify her illness.
The biggest disadvantage (so far) was the cost. My hospital stay and subsequent treatments (medications, outside therapist, dietician, etc.) have eaten up my life savings. I did have insurance, but it capped out.
Once your wife’s sister gets out the hospital, she might be a little disoriented in resuming her life outside. I wish I could describe it more specifically, but my memory of it was a little fuzzy, because I was so mired in my ED. Simple things may pose more of a challenge to her. Recovery is a slow process. But there’s a chance, with the right medication and therapist, etc, that she might have a clearer outlook on her life than when she came in.
Best wishes, and may there be fewer bumps to her recovery than I had experienced.