Inpatient Services and Programming for Children

The Inpatient Child Program is dedicated to providing evidenced based treatment to children ages three to 11-years-old, diagnosed with a variety of mental health problems affecting their behavior and safety. This unit provides treatment designed to help patients learn skills that will help them manage their behavior and emotions.

Our treatment model includes psychiatric services, individual, group, family and expressive therapies. A psychologist, therapist, or social worker will work with the individual and family to develop a treatment plan that meets individualized needs.

The direct care staff have been trained to run therapy and skill-based groups that promote social skills, safe choices/anger management, impulse control, coping skills, self-esteem, healthy expression of feelings, and positive family dynamics. Our goal is to provide effective inpatient treatment and facilitate appropriate aftercare planning that supports the individual and the family in a successful transition back to the community and home environments.

With that being said your child has been admitted for the purpose of inpatient stabilization. Although we endeavor to foster skills that will set a foundation for successful outpatient treatment, our primary objective is to help your child reduce aggression, self-injury, suicidality, and/or homicidality so that they may safely return to your care.

Children engage in an age-appropriate schedule with activities including wake-up and bedtime routines, group-based activities, expressive therapy, recreation time, and academic support. The child unit utilizes The Zones of Regulation™ curriculum (or “The Zones” for short), which are lessons and activities designed to help him/her gain skills in the area of self-regulation. Self-regulation can go by many names, such as self-control, self-management, and impulse control. It is defined as the best state of alertness of both the body and emotions for the specific situation. For example, when a child plays on the playground or in a competitive game, it is beneficial to have a higher state of alertness. However, that same state would not be appropriate at bedtime. The programmatic activities are designed to help children recognize when they are in the different Zones as well as learn how to use strategies to change or stay in the Zone they are in. In addition to addressing self-regulation, the children will gain an increased vocabulary of emotional terms, skills in reading other people’s facial expressions, perspective about how others see and react to their behavior, insight into events that trigger their behavior, calming and alerting strategies, and problem-solving skills. 

To reach the Child Unit, please call 630-837-9000 and ask to be connected with the Child Unit.

As you can see by our treatment chart, your child, our patient, is the center of what we do every day. Led by the psychiatrist and therapist, the team will respond to your child’s needs throughout their stay with us. Beginning with the first treatment team meeting and throughout follow-up meetings, we will constantly review your child’s progress, getting critical input from him or her on their recovery.

Discharge planning is a multi-step task and begins the moment a patient is admitted to our facility. Discharge dates are discussed with patients and their parents or guardians during the meetings/sessions/conversations with the child’s psychiatrist and/or assigned therapist.  Our goal is to ensure that our plan for your child’s smooth transition to outpatient care is finalized and clearly communicated to your child and to you prior to discharge. We also commit to ensuring all follow up appointments are scheduled. If your child does not have a therapist and/or medication prescriber who can work with them once they leave our facility, we will assist in identifying aftercare providers. If your child is prescribed medication by the hospital psychiatrist, they will leave the hospital with a prescription for up to a 30-day supply of medication. Outpatient physicians or primary mental healthcare providers assume responsibility for managing medication and prescriptions following discharge.

At the time of discharge, the unit nurse will meet with you to review your child’s medication (if prescribed) and to review the clinical aftercare plan. During your child’s time in treatment, his or her treatment team will work with your child and you to develop the clinical aftercare plan. This plan includes a safety plan, a description of triggers, warning signs, coping skills and resources to support patients in maintaining their health and safety outside of the hospital.  

We encourage feedback from patients regarding the experience they had with us. Please feel free to complete a Service Excellence Counts card and place it in the suggestion box on the day of discharge or hand it to any staff. We welcome all feedback in order to continuously improve our services.