Inpatient Psychiatric Services

Our psychiatry inpatient program is a family-centered setting focusing on crisis stabilization, intensive evaluation and short-term treatment for problems affecting children and adolescents, ages 3 through 17 years. Our unit serves patients who require 24-hour care. Diagnoses include:

  • Depression
  • Bipolar disorder
  • Psychosis
  • Anxiety disorders
  • Post-traumatic stress disorder
  • ADHD
  • Developmental disorders such as autism
  • Behavior disorders
  • Combined medical and emotional or behavioral disorders

Through brief hospitalization, we evaluate and stabilize your child, while preparing them and your family to transition as quickly as possible to success in life at home and in the school community.

Our inpatient program integrates services including:

  • Expert multi-disciplinary patient and family evaluation
  • Individual, group and family therapy
  • Recreational and behavioral therapy
  • Classroom instruction with specialized teacher
  • Carefully monitored medication (pharmacotherapy) as needed
  • Parent education

On-site access to collaborative diagnosis and treatment at our hospital is available for children who have medical disorders in addition to emotional/behavioral problems.


Diagnostic Evaluation

Upon admission, your child is evaluated by a fully trained child and adolescent psychiatrist who can access an array of diagnostic and evaluation techniques, as medically necessary. An attending child psychiatrist sees your child and reviews progress every day during the inpatient stay. Referring psychiatrists or therapists are welcome to participate. After assessing factors that contribute to the condition, we develop individualized treatment plans to meet your child’s needs.

Family-Centered Treatment

We believe family involvement is key to a child’s healing process. Through family therapy sessions and working visits, parents and guardians are provided with the special support and training needed to more effectively care for and interact with your child once hospital treatment is complete.

A Multidisciplinary Professional Team

Our child and adolescent psychiatrists, all of whom hold faculty appointments at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, lead an experienced team of pediatricians, psychologists, social workers, registered nurses, recreational therapists, milieu therapists and a specialized teacher. Team members meet regularly to discuss each child’s progress and refine treatment goals and after-care planning. Our goal is to work collaboratively with patients, families and community providers to advocate for the best patient and family services.

Make an Appointment

To make a first-time appointment, call 1.800.543.7362 (1.800.KIDS.DOC) or visit our Appointments page for more information.

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