Reviews of CHI Health Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facility (Psychiatrist)

Jeffrey Fushia

Our mildly autistic son was having erratic behaviors, delusional thought processes, poor hygiene, suicidal and homicidal ideations, and symptoms of depression and anxiety. He had threatened to "slice our throats open while we slept, let us bleed out....onto the bed.....onto the floor, eviscerate my wife, light our house on fire, and jump out of a window 25 feet off the ground onto a pillow to escape. After being mistreated, misdiagnosed, and sent away from "the only 24/7 emergency mental health facility in Lincoln, NE" we brought our son to CHI Immanuel PRTF in Omaha. The staff at the PRTF were outstanding. We actually felt like they cared enough to LISTEN to what we were saying, and use that information to develop a treatment program that worked for my son, despite the complexity of multiple diagnoses. It is a locked-down facility that is free-standing and independent from the hospital itself, with a regimented schedule that includes medication therapy, school time, personal and group therapy sessions, family therapy, gym and rec therapy, time for socialization, hygiene, meal time, daily phone calls, personal time, and more. The kids are scored on how well they achieve, behave, and respond in all of the above activities on daily score cards. The program stresses target skills that include following directions, accepting decisions of authority, and expressing feelings. Based on how well the kids score each day, they earn certain privileges and status. Thanks to the hard work of a whole lot of professionals, our son was stabilized and able to come home where he has been doing great. Our son would like to give his thanks to Mr. Chase, Mr. Zach, Miss Jenna, Mr. Tim, Miss Carryn, and Mr. Sean for their kindness and patience during his long stay. He says you are all awesome, and he misses you very much! We can't say enough good words to express our gratitude to our son's therapist (Mr. Chase) for all of the hard work it took to get our son where he needed to be. He was very responsive to our needs as parents, and really seemed to value our input in our son's care. We would also like to thank Mr. D for all of the assistance he gave our son with his school work, and the unit manager, and Ms. Kristy for her assistance in helping us get in touch with our son's doctor. Our only input for improvements to this program is that more physicians needs to be hired to help Dr. Bharwani so that patients and parents can have better access to their doctor. Also, I felt that a written care plan with specific set goals for each patient (S.M.A.R.T) could be of benefit to the program, so it feels a bit less like fishing and more like we are working toward something. My final comment for improvement is that the billing for this long stay is all messed up, because an incorrect diagnosis and inaccurate information was submitted to United Healthcare for April, May, June, and possibly even after. The insurance company has been waiting for Dr. Bharwani to fill out the requested paperwork and return it to them for months. (UHC needs an updated list of diagnosis, a statement that our son was still having aggressive episodes and medication adjustments as late as the Sunday before July 4th, 2018, and a copy of his "care plan" with set goals and periodic reviews of progress toward these goals). For all parents with children in severe mental crisis, we HIGHLY RECOMMEND CHI Immanuel PRTF. Even driving from Lincoln, it is definitely worth the commute!