Dominion Hospital - Partial hospitalization program

[Anonymous]

We have a 10 year old with severe ADHD and anxiety who is becoming increasingly difficult to manage at home with lots of defiance at home and some aggression. Does anyone has experience with the Partial hospitalization program at Dominion Hospital? Ideally, we wanted an intensive home therapy program because these behaviors are primarily occurring at home. However, the intensive in home programs I've found are only for Medicaid patients. TIA.

[Anonymous]

My son went to the PHP program for HS. It was awful I am sorry. I know gettingin there is quicker, but look to other programs like the Kellar Center.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son went to the PHP program for HS. It was awful I am sorry. I know gettingin there is quicker, but look to other programs like the Kellar Center.

Thanks for the feedback. All the reviews I've read have been bad about Dominion. However, our psychiatrist says it's been a good experience for her patients. DC is too young for Keller. Their program starts at age 13. I'm now exploring programs in Maryland. I'm worried that a poor program will make a bad situation even worse.

[Anonymous]

If you’re looking for PHP it’s one of the few that treat children. You might not find other options.

[Anonymous]

DS was there last fall. It wasn't bad, but, I'm not sure how necessary/appropriate it was in our particular case. He needed to have his meds adjusted, and the doctors only wanted to do it there. So if the therapy was or wasn't effective, it is hard to know. That wasn't what he needed.

Communication was an issue. We'd drop him off then pick him up, but it took days and lots of phone calls to be able to talk to the doctor about a treatment plan.

And months later we are still getting bills. Although Dominion will tell you what the hospital part costs and what is typically covered by insurance, you have no control over all the doctors who see your kid, so 3 months later get bills from people you have never heard from who saw the kid. I'm sure this is typical for how hospitals work, but when you aren't the patient it is a bit harder to manage.

Also, for in-home, have you looked into going through CSA? That's the only way we were able to find in-home, since as you have seen, most programs (with the same providers) are for Medicaid patients.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DS was there last fall. It wasn't bad, but, I'm not sure how necessary/appropriate it was in our particular case. He needed to have his meds adjusted, and the doctors only wanted to do it there. So if the therapy was or wasn't effective, it is hard to know. That wasn't what he needed.

Communication was an issue. We'd drop him off then pick him up, but it took days and lots of phone calls to be able to talk to the doctor about a treatment plan.

And months later we are still getting bills. Although Dominion will tell you what the hospital part costs and what is typically covered by insurance, you have no control over all the doctors who see your kid, so 3 months later get bills from people you have never heard from who saw the kid. I'm sure this is typical for how hospitals work, but when you aren't the patient it is a bit harder to manage.

Also, for in-home, have you looked into going through CSA? That's the only way we were able to find in-home, since as you have seen, most programs (with the same providers) are for Medicaid patients.

What is CSA?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS was there last fall. It wasn't bad, but, I'm not sure how necessary/appropriate it was in our particular case. He needed to have his meds adjusted, and the doctors only wanted to do it there. So if the therapy was or wasn't effective, it is hard to know. That wasn't what he needed.

Communication was an issue. We'd drop him off then pick him up, but it took days and lots of phone calls to be able to talk to the doctor about a treatment plan.

And months later we are still getting bills. Although Dominion will tell you what the hospital part costs and what is typically covered by insurance, you have no control over all the doctors who see your kid, so 3 months later get bills from people you have never heard from who saw the kid. I'm sure this is typical for how hospitals work, but when you aren't the patient it is a bit harder to manage.

Also, for in-home, have you looked into going through CSA? That's the only way we were able to find in-home, since as you have seen, most programs (with the same providers) are for Medicaid patients.

What is CSA?

We are in Fairfax, so how it works likely varies by location. https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/healthymindsfairfax/childrens-services-act

We went through school social worker, who sort of functioned like a case manager to bring together resources from the county and the providers. In the end, we had several months of services, from one of the groups that provides in-home. We scheduled directly with the provider, who invoiced the county. We paid a (high) co-pay and not through insurance for the services we received. But it seemed to be the only way to access that type of therapy.

[Anonymous]

I committed my child to the Inova adolescent psych ward. Then they graduated to the Inova Kellar PHP. Both are good programs. Not sure what they do for ten year olds, however.

We started at the urgent care where they had a psychiatrist assess my child who recommended in patient committment and sent my child from the Inova ER to Inova fairfax via ambulance. We got very lucky to end up in such a good system.

[Anonymous]

Stay away from Dominion unless you truly have no other choice and your child’s safety is at risk. Go through the county. Call the school social worker.

[Anonymous]

CSA and the school social worker. Child is about to be removed from your home. They try to help prevent that with inhome care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS was there last fall. It wasn't bad, but, I'm not sure how necessary/appropriate it was in our particular case. He needed to have his meds adjusted, and the doctors only wanted to do it there. So if the therapy was or wasn't effective, it is hard to know. That wasn't what he needed.

Communication was an issue. We'd drop him off then pick him up, but it took days and lots of phone calls to be able to talk to the doctor about a treatment plan.

And months later we are still getting bills. Although Dominion will tell you what the hospital part costs and what is typically covered by insurance, you have no control over all the doctors who see your kid, so 3 months later get bills from people you have never heard from who saw the kid. I'm sure this is typical for how hospitals work, but when you aren't the patient it is a bit harder to manage.

Also, for in-home, have you looked into going through CSA? That's the only way we were able to find in-home, since as you have seen, most programs (with the same providers) are for Medicaid patients.

What is CSA?

We are in Fairfax, so how it works likely varies by location. https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/healthymindsfairfax/childrens-services-act

We went through school social worker, who sort of functioned like a case manager to bring together resources from the county and the providers. In the end, we had several months of services, from one of the groups that provides in-home. We scheduled directly with the provider, who invoiced the county. We paid a (high) co-pay and not through insurance for the services we received. But it seemed to be the only way to access that type of therapy.

What was your opinion on the quality of the providers the County contracted with? We haven't heard great things.

[Anonymous]

When we had CSA services, the provider we ultimately ended up with was good. It was a bit slow in getting started, and then our initial therapist became unavailable. But the replacement was good. The group our therapist was from is one I've seen recommended on this board for its services in the past.

(And our experience/situation was nothing like what 19:55 suggests.)