There is a lot of variation between psychiatric hospitals. Some are still out of Hieronymus Bosch. The best advice I got (from a good hospital) was to make sure a bed is saved first before heading to the ER. The ER will send you wherever a bed is available. One place made my daughter sicker: she retreated to bed and stopped talking. It was a hellish place, understaffed, with some scary stuff going on. Another place, a world-famous place, did amazing things in just one week, medications added and adjusted, a calm environment, art and other groups, concerned peers, and meetings with MD’s for an hour each day. Huge difference. The second time, we saved the bed in the good place before heading out to the ER. The first time, we managed a transfer but only by bringing her home thanks to advocacy by psychiatrist then going to the ER three days later- after saving a bed!
Beds are in such short supply in our area that you often have no choice at all. We once called to confirm that a bed was available in the adolescent unit only to arrive and have her placed in the adult unit. I don’t know if this is standard elsewhere, but the hospitals in my city won’t allow a patient who identifies as LGBT to be in a shared room which means that if they don’t have two beds available they will deny a bed to an LGBT patient. Hardly seems legal or ethical, but when your child is in the middle of a mental health crisis, you are not in a good position to be arguing for a change in hospital policies.
Confirming a bed is different from saving it. It sounds like, in your area, you cannot save a bed. In our area, the private psychi. hospital (that takes Medicaid however) will actually hold the bed.
Unbelievable about the LGBT issue.
We can’t hold beds here, unfortunately.
I would also like to add here that students fixate on majors thinking that they are going to take classes that remotely relate to that major their first year. They won’t. You are going to spend your freshman year for the most part getting general distribution and pre-reqs out of the way. Eng 101 or the foreign language requirement for example. These can be taken at any school and later transferred.
If there is an alternative and you feel she should be closer to home, this might be the option for you. There’s no shame or ding for taking a year at community college first. It’s far more cost-effective and she will still end up taking the classes in her major from “more prestigious” professors at the four-year school.
Our kids had chronic physical health issues that greatly affected their stamina and abililty to attend class and overall health (both missed 50% of their final year in HS due to health issues). We (actually I) did a LOT of talking to the Us they considered attending, after S was admitted to figure out how they would work with the student on absences due to documented health issues. All of the Us except one were pretty helpful and promised to work with the student.
We talked with their physician and their HS counselor, both of whom felt our kids could handle going to whatever U they wanted. S chose a U that was 2500 miles & a 5-6 hour plane ride away. We went 2 weeks prior to move-in day to campus with S and have him visit 3 MDs who are at the Health Sciences Campus of the U he was attending (There is a free shuttle from his campus to that campus), so that if he had any health issues, he could make an appointment and catch the free shuttle. (The U recommended this.) We also all met with the Dean of the Disabiliities Office and presented the letter that the MD had written. He agreed to work with our S and provide him with letters each quarter for him to share with his professors each term. (A letter was to be submitted to the Disabilities Office each year about accommodations needed.)
We chose NOT to buy tuition insurance (in retrospect we should have as one of our kids bombed due to health issues one term). We repeated this process with D, who chose to attend the same U as her brother, as a transfer student. It was helpful that they were both at the same U. Neither of them used the MDs we introduced them to when they started at the U until D was having a lot of health issues after a major infection, when she FINALLY started seeing a MD who was very helpful at helping her physically get through and get her degree. He then referred her to a community MD that specialized in her health issues.
I wish you the best and hope that this is in some way helpful, even tho these are physical health issues that plagued both of my kids over the past decade and thru college.