The only thing the CNMC psych ER does is decide whether a kid can be admitted. If they aren't admitting the child, they won't provide medication and no psychiatrist will meet with the child. They just give you a list of community resources. Calling ChAMPS can be helpful sometimes--they can help deescalate a situation or call 911 if they think it's necessary, and having them accompany you to the ER can help increase the likelihood that the child will be admitted.

Admission doesn't guarantee improvement though--it's more like respite care with some new meds added in. There's a bit of group therapy, very little individual therapy (and no time to build rapport), and some nurses are better than others about calming kids down (if they can't, the options are seclusion, Benadryl, and/or Haldol). The kid will miss a week of school, and there is no followup with CNMC after release.

If you truly cannot keep your kid safe at home, then inpatient is the only choice. But if you don't want inpatient, there is no reason to go to the ER. You will sit for a few hours, chat for 10 minutes with a social worker, your kid will eat pizza and watch cartoons (if you are lucky enough to get a room and not be in the hallway) while wearing a hospital gown and there will be a bunch of other families in crisis around too.

The ER, even at Childrens, is not much help in a situation like that. Unless you want your child admitted to the hospital (and in certain situations they SHOULD be admitted to the hospital). But if you can contain a younger child who is not harming themself, you are better off having a treatment team (therapist, psychiatrist) in place that can give you more immediate care. (Obviously not necessarily immediately, but next day, hopefully.) The psych ER is traumatic for a young child. In our case, they did not offer meds, we did not see a psychiatrist and they couldn't get us in anywhere faster than I could do myself. My pediatrician insisted that we go, and honestly, it was bad advice.

Anonymous wrote:FWIW, there are ``rescue meds'' you can give when your child needs to go to the emergency room for situations like this -- clonazapam, diazapam...talk to your doctor

If the child is so out of control that they are a danger or in danger, how do you get them to take a pill?

Anonymous wrote:<<We took our child to the ER there fearing he would harm himself or someone else. They suggested an outpatient neuropsych and said the wait was about 8 months but since it was a serious situation they could maybe squeeze us in in about 3 months time.>>


You left off the LOL on this, right?

Think the ironic LOL was implied in that anecdote.

The person to go to at CNMC is Lauren Kenworthy -the top person there for neuropsychs (if she still does them - she is there but not sure if she still does them)

FWIW, there are ``rescue meds'' you can give when your child needs to go to the emergency room for situations like this -- clonazapam, diazapam...talk to your doctor

Good to know about Inge. AND, to those who have physically violent kids, have you explored a possible PANDAS diagnosis? This sounds like a PANDAS flare from strep.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We took our child to the ER there fearing he would harm himself or someone else. They suggested an outpatient neuropsych and said the wait was about 8 months but since it was a serious situation they could maybe squeeze us in in about 3 months time.

Can you please elaborate what happened that made you take your son to the ER and what they did once you got there? We had a horrible weekend with our 8 year old this weekend, physically pushing me, hitting me, screaming, etc and she was escalating and it really scared me because I felt like I couldn't control her. At one point, I thought about taking her to the ER but didn't know how to physically get her into the car. She's a lot stronger than me.

New Poster here - My 7 year old was attacking me yesterday evening and it was so frightening to me as well. I did not want to hurt him. I was threatening to call the police because I was not sure what to do and did not want to lock myself in a room and have him ruin our rental house or hurt himself.

Anonymous wrote:We took our child to the ER there fearing he would harm himself or someone else. They suggested an outpatient neuropsych and said the wait was about 8 months but since it was a serious situation they could maybe squeeze us in in about 3 months time.

Can you please elaborate what happened that made you take your son to the ER and what they did once you got there? We had a horrible weekend with our 8 year old this weekend, physically pushing me, hitting me, screaming, etc and she was escalating and it really scared me because I felt like I couldn't control her. At one point, I thought about taking her to the ER but didn't know how to physically get her into the car. She's a lot stronger than me.

Inge is in private practice now - with David Black

<<We took our child to the ER there fearing he would harm himself or someone else. They suggested an outpatient neuropsych and said the wait was about 8 months but since it was a serious situation they could maybe squeeze us in in about 3 months time.>>


You left off the LOL on this, right?

We took our child to the ER there fearing he would harm himself or someone else. They suggested an outpatient neuropsych and said the wait was about 8 months but since it was a serious situation they could maybe squeeze us in in about 3 months time.

I had a very positive experience getting a neuropsych eval for my child with non-verbal autism. Dr. Anne Inge is an advocate for families and drafted a report that helped me maintain my child in the appropriate classroom setting (ABA) while the school was trying to force us out likely due to costs and limited resources.

What is it? Thinking about it for our kid with epilepsy.

Hi -- does anyone have experience with neuropysch evaluation through CNMC? My child has a complex neurological disorder....