Please walk me through what happens when you bring a suicidal child to the ER

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Getting the kid to the ER is a good first step! They will go through regular triage at the ER and then into the ER psych ward. There will be a lot of waiting. Eventually, they will see a doctor who will do an assessment of whether they seem to be in immediate danger.

Depending on the results of that assessment, they will either be admitted on a psych hold or released with recommendation to follow up with their pediatrician or mental health provider.

Suicidal ideation and attempting suicide have slightly different assessment/next steps paths.

OMG! Have you ever taken a mentally ill child to the ER around here? That is not at all what happens.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It will be deeply traumatizing. They will have no privacy, no modesty.

Every experience is different. In our experience Suburban ER was not traumatizing. The events leading to needing the ER were. And in-patient at Dominion was hell, pure toxic hell and traumatizing.
Recommend Montgomery County crisis center to triage and , sandstone, heartwood, Embark for intensive outpatient and/or php. The ER can be a relief to a child who needs to know adults are taking the suffering seriously. That one example though, not universal

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Getting the kid to the ER is a good first step! They will go through regular triage at the ER and then into the ER psych ward. There will be a lot of waiting. Eventually, they will see a doctor who will do an assessment of whether they seem to be in immediate danger.

Depending on the results of that assessment, they will either be admitted on a psych hold or released with recommendation to follow up with their pediatrician or mental health provider.

Suicidal ideation and attempting suicide have slightly different assessment/next steps paths.

OMG! Have you ever taken a mentally ill child to the ER around here? That is not at all what happens.

Wow, that is really insensitive. Yes, I took my mentally ill 12-year-old to Childrens ER for suicidal ideation last fall. My kid told a friend they were in crisis, the friend told a teacher, the counselor at school did a high-level screening, and I got a call at work. We went immediately from school to the Childrens ER and spent the next 8-9 hours there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It will be deeply traumatizing. They will have no privacy, no modesty.

I agree with this. Just the experience scared my kid straight; she never wanted to go through that again and worked hard to get better. It’s been two years and she still struggles but at least the self harm stopped.

We went to the children’s ER at Inova. DC was wanded, given a gown and paper underwear while all personal belongings were bagged. Someone was assigned to sit in the cubicle with us at all times. DC had a telemedicine visit with a psychiatrist and went through a physical exam and bloodwork. We were waiting for a bed (which could have been anywhere in the state, DC would have been transported without us by ambulance) and they had no idea how long we’d be in the ER waiting on availability. We ultimately decided to create a safety plan with the on call doc and take DC home because the entire experience was horrible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Getting the kid to the ER is a good first step! They will go through regular triage at the ER and then into the ER psych ward. There will be a lot of waiting. Eventually, they will see a doctor who will do an assessment of whether they seem to be in immediate danger.

Depending on the results of that assessment, they will either be admitted on a psych hold or released with recommendation to follow up with their pediatrician or mental health provider.

Suicidal ideation and attempting suicide have slightly different assessment/next steps paths.

OMG! Have you ever taken a mentally ill child to the ER around here? That is not at all what happens.

Wow, that is really insensitive. Yes, I took my mentally ill 12-year-old to Childrens ER for suicidal ideation last fall. My kid told a friend they were in crisis, the friend told a teacher, the counselor at school did a high-level screening, and I got a call at work. We went immediately from school to the Childrens ER and spent the next 8-9 hours there.

Seems like Childrens has a better situation than some of the others

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It will be deeply traumatizing. They will have no privacy, no modesty.

I agree with this. Just the experience scared my kid straight; she never wanted to go through that again and worked hard to get better. It’s been two years and she still struggles but at least the self harm stopped.

We went to the children’s ER at Inova. DC was wanded, given a gown and paper underwear while all personal belongings were bagged. Someone was assigned to sit in the cubicle with us at all times. DC had a telemedicine visit with a psychiatrist and went through a physical exam and bloodwork. We were waiting for a bed (which could have been anywhere in the state, DC would have been transported without us by ambulance) and they had no idea how long we’d be in the ER waiting on availability. We ultimately decided to create a safety plan with the on call doc and take DC home because the entire experience was horrible.

It is so good at least (bar is so low) that INOVa was willing to talk safety planning so going home could be an option. All that wanding, security stuff was for the ER at suburban and had a feel of we don’t want to get in trouble for you hurting yourself on our watch. It was less about providing any sort of treatment or care. If you need in patient, Once the assessment is done they don’t even talk to you until a bed is found, which can be days later. The crisis counselor evaluation can be in person or on an iPad depending on the day and time. Tons of waiting. At least at the er parent can be there 24-7. The in patient is restricted and very scary, depending on the kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What age?

They can put them on a 48 hr hold and they are put in a hospital room.

They will be given some drugs probably to calm them.

If they can’t stabilize them to go out patient they will go to an inpatient program.

If they are over 18 the hospital can only hold them if they are a danger to themselves or other.

But then it’s up to the 18 year old to decide if they get help, in patient or out.

In VA it is 14 to consent

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What age?

They can put them on a 48 hr hold and they are put in a hospital room.

They will be given some drugs probably to calm them.

If they can’t stabilize them to go out patient they will go to an inpatient program.

If they are over 18 the hospital can only hold them if they are a danger to themselves or other.

But then it’s up to the 18 year old to decide if they get help, in patient or out.

Why not a lobotomy while they're at it?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Getting the kid to the ER is a good first step! They will go through regular triage at the ER and then into the ER psych ward. There will be a lot of waiting. Eventually, they will see a doctor who will do an assessment of whether they seem to be in immediate danger.

Depending on the results of that assessment, they will either be admitted on a psych hold or released with recommendation to follow up with their pediatrician or mental health provider.

Suicidal ideation and attempting suicide have slightly different assessment/next steps paths.

OMG! Have you ever taken a mentally ill child to the ER around here? That is not at all what happens.

Wow, that is really insensitive. Yes, I took my mentally ill 12-year-old to Childrens ER for suicidal ideation last fall. My kid told a friend they were in crisis, the friend told a teacher, the counselor at school did a high-level screening, and I got a call at work. We went immediately from school to the Childrens ER and spent the next 8-9 hours there.

We took our child to Childrens ER. We were there for maybe two hours. There were no inpatient beds anywhere in DC, VA or MD. We were told we could leave OR board in the ER. We waited in the ER two days. Still no beds. They discharged us with a piece of paper with outpatient resources. When I called, they were all running waiting lists.

[Anonymous]

^^Oh, and we received a $6000 ER bill from Childrens as well for the two days of waiting.

[Anonymous]

OP l have no experience with this, just wanted to say thank you for potentially helping your kid to help their friend with this. I cannot imagine how stressful this must be for all involved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^Oh, and we received a $6000 ER bill from Childrens as well for the two days of waiting.

Omg that is awful. Insurance sometimes covers. So sorry

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: All that wanding, security stuff was for the ER at suburban and had a feel of we don’t want to get in trouble for you hurting yourself on our watch. It was less about providing any sort of treatment or care. If you need in patient, Once the assessment is done they don’t even talk to you until a bed is found, which can be days later. The crisis counselor evaluation can be in person or on an iPad depending on the day and time. Tons of waiting. At least at the er parent can be there 24-7. The in patient is restricted and very scary, depending on the kid.

Honestly, I think it's punishment. "You're not acting appropriate and giving others a hard time, so we'll strip search you and treat like you a prisoner."

[Anonymous]

Just a heads up that Children’s doesn’t take all insurance plans. We were at Georgetown after an attempt and a bed opened up at Children’s, but they did not take our insurance (Cigna). We then waited another day for a bed to open at Dominion and DC transported there by ambulance. The Georgetown social worker handled all of the administrative transition from Georgetown to Dominion so we didn’t need to do anything and it was almost entirely covered by insurance. It was a godsend to have that be seamless at a time when we couldn’t handle one more thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is not my child, but a friend of my child. My kid knows what is going on with his friend and asked me what happens next. And I don't know what to tell him, because I have not experienced it.

Make sure you go to a hospital that can evaluate children. If they can’t evaluate kids they’ll automatically hospitalize the child.