What hospitals provide short term acute psych care (inpatient)
What does her psychiatrist recommend? Perhaps he/she should be the gateway.
As I said, her psychiatrist just sends her to Overlook....and did prescribe the milder medications.....and take her off the anti psychotics ....she tried a number of psychs over the years...some of them had me wanting to bang my head against the wall because what they recommended was bad (as verified by the pharmacist and personal research...and the current doc that she has been going to for a year). Some of the behavior of the psychs indicated they had uncontrolled mental health issues themselves (disturbing nervous habits, poor hygiene, etc)...This does seem to be the best doc...just clueless on acute care....
The outpatient doc doesn't seem to work with the hospital docs at all.
one of my friends issues is that she doesn't think ahead...when she is stable, she thinks she will never need a hospital, when she is in crisis, she is in no condition to think about where to go instead of Overlook
Does Morristown have a psych unit? If you really want to be her advocate I would call the social worker there and see if the psychiatrists there will collaborate with her psychiatrist. Another possibility is to call Essex County Mental Health association. Also Morris County. See if you can find a compassionate social worker who has had experience referring to hospitals.
Mental health in hospitals is the worst. There may be an exception now and again, and that is what she needs.
There's lots of good info on the NAMI website: http://www.naminj.org/
I'd call their main number and ask your questions.
phyllis said:
St. Clare's in Denville area
Carrier Clinic
I was going to suggest the same.
She would be better off if she was seeing a psychiatrist who has admitting privileges at Overlook (or another hospital). That way he or she could be the admitting physician and control her care at the hospital.
Hospitals don't usually consult with a physician who isn't on their staff and this isn't limited to mental health.
St. Clare's in Boonton
http://www.saintclares.org/index.php
East Orange General also has a behavioral unit. No idea of quality. I met a nurse who works intake there which made me think of it.
Her current psych is affiliated with Overlook and does nothing...except send her there and then stay out of it....my old primary care did something similar..made it clear that i would only deal with a Hospitalist in the hospital...and he wouldn't be involved once I was admitted...
The thing is I am trying to avoid having to call every hospital within an hour's drive only to find out most don't have a unit....I am trying to get a list of hospitals to call that do have units....specifically the specific location within a hospital system
She doesn't want to get a new psych....so that is a non issue....
I personally had a very bad experience at St Clare's.Dover.and fled for my life....but maybe the other locations and departments...
jmitw said:
Her current psych is affiliated with Overlook and does nothing...except send her there and then stay out of it....my old primary care did something similar..made it clear that i would only deal with a Hospitalist in the hospital...and he wouldn't be involved once I was admitted...
The thing is I am trying to avoid having to call every hospital within an hour's drive only to find out most don't have a unit....I am trying to get a list of hospitals to call that do have units....specifically the specific location within a hospital system
She doesn't want to get a new psych....so that is a non issue....
I personally had a very bad experience at St Clare's.Dover.and fled for my life....but maybe the other locations and departments...
FYI, St. Clare's Behavioral Health is a different building/location that St. Clare's Dover. And it's a behavioral health hospital (so more than just a "unit").
I can't speak to quality.
What is the location of the St Clare's behavior health hospital....is it denville or boonton? or does one have a unit and another a full hospital?
i think i found it...Boonton
http://www.saintclares.org/acute-care-adult-inpatient/
http://saintclares.org/saint-clares-hospital-boonton-new-jersey/
Saint Clare's Hospital/Boonton Township
130 Powerville Road
Boonton Township, NJ 07005
Saint Clare's Hospital/Boonton Township is a behavioral health hospital. There are no Emergency Room or medical/surgical inpatient and outpatient services available. Please proceed to our nearest acute care hospital location, Saint Clare's Hospital/Denville, for these services.
General Information: 973-316-1800
Our psychiatrist who was only affiliated with Mountainside in Montclair was always in consultation with the psychiatrists at the different hospitals. Everyone acted like they were collaborative with her. At the time we were dealing with adolescent programs. Payne Whitney, Columbia Presby was decent. Ironically, the psychiatrist at Summit Oaks really worked hard, and included me in the discussions, but the program there was horrible for my daughter.
problem is the problem can't really be handled short term, IMO. a longer stay will get medication and behavior stabilized. a short term stay can only get patients over immediate issues -- and often that's nothing beyond the mania, break, or suicidal ideation.
particularly if this has been a pattern. IMO only way to break it is a longer in patient, perhaps day patient, program.
Yes, it would have to be an outpatient day program. Insurance will not cover for long term inpatient care any longer. Of course, this seems to me to assume that the person who is suffering badly enough to be hospitalized will be motivated suffficiently to get to a day program.
she is now in a day program..and short term stays like she experienced in over look only made things worse..because she was loaded with inappropriate meds and not started on meds that would help.
Yes insurance covers longer term in patient if needed.....i know of people that got fair oaks and carrier long term (months--not sure how long exactly) paid for....really long term may be limited to the 'state' hospitals and paid for by medicaid/state funding...i'm not sure how that works
but years ago--fair oaks made national news because of the horrible care and abuses that went on there.
as i said the problem CAN BE HANDLED SHORT TERM inpatient..it was in another state where she did get started on appropriate treatment....short term can be about 2 weeks..
but we are getting away from the original question...as to where to go for short term inpatient care to get started (restarted) on APPROPRIATE treatment in a secure environment....
day program/outpatient is taken care of....
Interesting how different that was from our experience. We were told we were lucky because we got 8 days. But, our psychiatrist was very involved with the medication determination.
NYC meets the "within an hour's drive" criteria.
NY Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center located on far East 68th street has a psychiatric emergency room attached to the hospital. There is even a phone number listed on their website to call and say you are enroute. We did not use them but we have had some experience with their psychiatric departments in general. Amazing resources and solutions all around.
http://www.nypemergency.org/wcmc.html
We went to the one in White Plains. Didn't want to deal with city traffic.
Can she go to Carrier Clinic? They have short-term programs.
http://carrierclinic.org/
Carrier is about 45 minutes without traffic I think...it can be accessed 78 to 287....the problem with carrier is that they don't have an ER...and we want something where you can go straight to an ER and be admitted that way.....a transfer can be done from some place like Overlook ER to Carrier, but its not ideal.
With her insurance, I think she needs to stay in state.
finnegan said:
There's lots of good info on the NAMI website: http://www.naminj.org/
I'd call their main number and ask your questions.
I was also going to suggest NAMI. They are a clearinghouse for info on this exact subject and would know who has what services.
I just took a look at the website for NAMI NJ. THey provide a link to the Directory of Mental Health Services, which is a compilation of all inpatient and outpatient services in the state, as well as family services. They are listed by location and by services provided. The cover page says it was updated in September 2015, so you can't get ay more current than that.
http://www.nj.gov/humanservices/dmhas/home/hotlines/MH_Dir_COMPLETE.pdf
Newark Beth Israel has inpatient. They were far better than Livingston St Barnabas. St Barnabas was just atrocious and so beyond clueless.
I looked on Nami...on 2 different lists...and one hospital I knew of was not on the list...so it makes me wonder....but it at least lists some.
She was at Barnabas years ago (the unit is closed I think)...and they almost killed her by mixing meds that can't be mixed
Sponsored Business
Promote your business here - Businesses get highlighted throughout the site and you can add a deal.
For Sale
-
REVO luggage $100
More info
I have a friend that needs occasional inpatient treatment to be safe until she stabilizes. The problem is that you can't call what she has gotten treatment. At Overlook, she is just heavily drugged with antipsychotic (which do not treat her condition) medications that just put her in a stupor. She was even physically assaulted (severely bruised) by the staff for sitting on the floor (non threatening)..it was just a power struggle move..but harmless....i believe her when she says it wasn't warranted...because she does admit when she was presenting a threat..she doesn't want to pursue any claim against the hospital....but she needs to find somewhere she can go and get proper treatment to actually stabilize, not just chemically restrained. Her doctor just sends her to Overlook.
Summit Oaks doesn't do short term acute care. Trinitas also has a bad reputation...what other options are there. I tried looking on the Barnabas website...they do have units..but don't say where..it could be down the shore..
It is possible to get good care...she did when she lived in another state...just need to find something in north/central NJ.
One time she had an issue was because she couldn't sleep and was essentially delirious from exhaustion...there were at least 2 milder options for treatment (low dose doxepin or low dose seroquel) that would have allowed her to sleep and stabilize, but they only gave her HIGH doses of anti psychotics to put her in a stupor. She does not have any delusional disorder that is treated with anti psychotics. The only purpose was chemical restraint. Which made her unable to even seek out patient care because she was too drugged...and when the stupor wears off she is just back where she started. Once her head cleared and she found a new outpatient doc she was taken off the antipsychotics completely as they were inappropriate (including the RX she was given to take at home).
She was fine for about a year..and only had a problem again because she tried stopping the regular antidepressant....and all she would have needed was to be put back on it in the hospital...but instead of the milder SSRI, they just drugged her into a stupor again with anti psychotics...
she recognizes when she has a problem and goes for help herself and would restart the SSRI herself but knew it wasn't safe for her to be home until they kicked back in.....having someone stay with her is not enough, she needs to be physically kept away from anything dangerous...she did make an attempt in front of a strong athletic male who was unable to stop her as she was saying she needed to go to to the hospital..sure it would have been worse without him there, but it would have been better if she were somewhere there was better monitoring around the clock.
Carrier might be a possibility...but a place she can go direct through an ER is better without arrangements being made...with Carrier it looks like you have to have your personal doc make the arrangements or get transferred from another facility.
She may have needed sedation the 1st day at Overlook...but she did stay calm after that ..but they just kept giving her more...and more to take at home.