Bradley Hospital's inpatient services are for children ages 3 to 12 years who suffer from serious emotional and behavioral disturbances and are in need of short-term stabilization, assessment and treatment for suicidal, aggressive or other unsafe behaviors.
Your child will be treated by a team of professionals, including a child and adolescent psychiatrist, a clinical social worker, psychologists, nursing staff, and milieu therapists. We also have a pediatrician and a pediatric nurse practitioner who may be consulted for medical issues during the hospitalization.
We have prepared this handbook to help you become familiar with the program, the staff, and the services we provide. We want you to better understand what you can expect from your child’s treatment here. We also want to invite you, as the person who knows your child best, to actively work with our team in helping your child.
Your child will undergo a comprehensive psychiatric, psychosocial, and psychological assessment that includes a diagnostic evaluation. Included in this assessment are the comprehensive psychiatric evaluation, the social worker family assessment, a nursing assessment, psychological screening questionnaires, and observations and behavior ratings from the milieu and from group therapies.
The treatment team integrates the diagnostic information we obtain from the comprehensive team assessment into a proposed individualized treatment plan. The plan will be discussed with you and your child. Your child will be provided with intensive inpatient treatment, including possible medication treatment, family therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy, social skills therapy and milieu therapy. Individual therapy (supportive and/or cognitive-behavioral) is also provided. We never start any medications without parental consent. Our philosophy is to be conservative about the use of medications. Medications are only recommended when appropriate and every effort is made to have children on the fewest number of medications. Before discharge, you and your child’s treatment team will work to develop an after-care plan for ongoing treatment outside the hospital.
We realize that admitting your child to the hospital is a difficult and stressful time for you and your family. It is our earnest wish that despite the current difficulty your child might be facing, we can help you and your family to get things back on track and to feel a renewed sense of hope for your child's future. You are our partner in your child's treatment and we look to you for suggestions and feedback on how we can do better.
