Bradley Hospital's adolescent inpatient services are for children ages 11 to 17, who suffer from serious emotional and behavioral disorders and are in need of short-term stabilization, assessment and treatment for suicidal, aggressive or other unsafe behaviors. The unit features 26 private adolescent rooms and 4 rooms shared by two patients. Rooms are located in small pods that enable staff to closely monitor and quickly respond to patients.

Adolescents and their families are assigned to an attending psychiatrist and a family therapist. The clinical team also includes a psychologist, nurses and milieu associates who work directly with the adolescents. Treatment includes group therapy two or more times a day that focuses on addressing behavioral and emotional challenges and helping to develop coping skills.

About the Inpatient Program

Family Meetings: Families have regular meetings with the primary therapist and attending providers to define and work on treatment goals and to discuss treatment planning for discharge.

Individual Meetings: The assigned psychiatrist will meet with your child regularly to discuss his or her treatment and provide supportive psychotherapy. (For adolescents requiring longer stays, a psychologist or supervised psychology trainee may be assigned for longer-term individual therapy using specific short-term approaches.)

Other Morning and Afternoon Activities: A variety of milieu activities are planned throughout the day. These may include outdoor activities (e.g., basketball, fitness course), art, current events, psycho-educational discussion groups, and other recreational activities (e.g., board games, videos).

Evening Groups: Every night there are scheduled evening groups run by milieu associates, including: health and wellness, physical fitness, expressive therapy (e.g., journaling, art, poetry) and life skills.

Bedtimes: 10 p.m. for all ages.

Strategy Sheets: Upon admission every patient is given strategy sheets to help identify therapeutic goals and better ways of coping. Milieu associates may help children complete these, and sheets may be discussed with the doctor. Adolescents may be asked to complete other worksheets based on their individualized treatment plan.

Meet the team