Adolescent Mental Health Care

Dominion Hospital is setting the standards for adolescent psychiatric care in the DC metropolitan area. Our adolescent staff is specially trained to identify and treat the difficult issues facing teenagers today. Through psychoeducation, psychotherapy and expressive therapy groups and adolescent psychoparmocology we work with your family to help you understand your child's diagnosis and develop a plan to stabilize and manage your child in a less restrictive environment.

Our hospital offers patients different levels of care, depending on a patient's needs. For those in need of 24-hour care, an inpatient program is available. The partial hospitalization program is designed for adolescents who are able to function at home in the evenings, after spending the day in treatment. This level of care is ideal for those adults who are able to function at home for short periods of time but need assessment to identify and treat issues that are not successfully treated in an outpatient setting.

We work through a multi-disciplined treatment team approach consisting of physicians, nursing staff, social workers, expressive therapists, education staff and other specialists.

• Our physicians work with you and your child to assess the need for medication and to decide when your child is stable enough to move onto the next level of care.
• Our nursing staff monitors inpatient adolescents for safety 24 hours a day, educating and encouraging them to move on in their treatment. Partial hospitalization patients will work with nursing staff and be monitored during their time at the hospital.
• Our social work staff meets with you and your family to identify issues and stressors and to set up a plan for maintaining safety and continued therapy after discharge from the hospital.
• Our expressive therapists introduce a host of complementary therapy techniques including, but not limited to, dance and art therapies to assist your child in identifying alternative forms of expression and communication.
• Our education staff teach and monitor your child in a school atmosphere and then work (with your permission) with your child's student services to set in motion any changes that may need to occur before your child returns to school.