When do you consider referring to residential mental health facilities for patients in your adolescent psychiatry clinic?

In general, I do my best to avoid placements in residential facilities. I rarely find that they provide effective treatment. So, I refer to residential facilities when the teen is either a danger to themselves or others and when they are chronically gravely disabled.

I think the data supports that g...

I have to begin my response by noting that both the number and quality of residential facilities for adolescents - particularly, but not exclusively, those from low-income families - appear to have declined considerably in the 30+ years I’ve been working with this population. This must, of course, f...