Leviah Rose
I spent two weeks in the 21 North Adolescent Inpatient Unit this year. I want to share some of my experiences with the child & adolescent psychiatry program to hopefully give people an understanding of what it’s like: - The staff are excellent. The doctors and nurses provide top-notch care. - They offer visiting hours twice a day. This may surprise some people, but not all pediatric psych units let parents see their kids daily. Some only allow visitation once a week. Being able to see my family every day made a big difference for me. - They have an excellent understanding of autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders and work very well with kids who have autism and co-occurring mental health issues. Unfortunately, I still would not consider it a suitable environment for kids on the spectrum because it is very loud, and the lights are very bright. If it weren't for the harsh sensory atmosphere, I wouldn't have had to transfer to another facility as quickly as I did. - The facility needs to be more sanitary. When they brought me to my room, vomit was all over the windows. The floors were sticky and gross. - A lot of the food is gross, but they let patients pick out their meals from a menu, so we could always pick out something we liked, like chicken fingers or pizza. They allow personal snacks to be stored in snack bins and the refrigerator and accessed at any time. I found this incredibly helpful because I have trauma with food being restricted in inpatient/residential facilities. - They have school on the unit, but I could not attend because they did not have the resources to accommodate my 504 plan. I require assistive technology for typing and spell check (I cannot write with a pencil due to a severe fine motor skills deficit, and I have a language disorder). I can only complete schoolwork with my 504 accommodations, so I rarely had anything to do during the day besides the infrequent but often fun recreational groups. Bellevue isn't a great place to be, but having been to eight pediatric psych wards and residential treatment facilities across the country, I can attest that it's still one of the best. I don't think parents should ever send their children away, but if they have to send them somewhere, Bellevue is the best place.