My teen son (dx: mood disorder/presumed bipolar disorder, ADHD, ASD, etc.) recently did the residential program at Pathlight Seattle for a month. Unfortunately, it was an incredibly disappointing experience. I would not recommend it.
The program is in an upper floor commercial space, and they usually only went outside the front entrance twice daily briefly for "fresh air breaks." There were supposed to be weekly outings, but they were revoked. This was very upsetting to most of the youth, who pleaded to go outside more but were dismissed, and who even met with the patient advocate and wrote a letter themselves to management about this. There was no gym or way to get any movement, and they couldn't run around at all when on the short breaks.
There were various therapy groups throughout the day, which my son did not find helpful. Some were just listening to music, watching kid movies, or drawing on their own, while watched by regular staff. Likewise, I did not find parent groups at all helpful--extremely basic and general info, and I did not think the staff leading the parent groups were very skilled.
The positive part was that their psychiatrist seemed excellent. Unfortunately, though, I believe he is only on staff there part-time. He also was out of the office for a chunk of my son's stay, and the one and only time I was able to speak with him directly was after my son had already been there for ~3 weeks, and only after that did he receive a recommendation for medication. He was reluctant to take it, and this wasn't enough time to persuade him to try it before he left. Note, there was also a physician assistant, but whom I also found disappointing for various reasons. Seemed to me nowhere near the skill level as the psychiatrist (and per their bio graduated just ~2 1/2 yrs ago), and I also did not hear from them after intake day except for when they responded to an email I sent (because I was concerned that a med contraindicated for BD may have been brought up to my son as an option). A patient with complicated, severe mental illness like my son required the knowledge/training of a psychiatrist.
I had little communication with anyone from Pathlight after the intake day, when I was able to meet with several staff (but not the psychiatrist). The communication was generally just from my son's therapist, but this was during the weekly family therapy session. In reality, since this was the time to talk about my son and how he was doing, that is what most of the session time went towards. There was also not a way I could call my son or easily reach staff by phone; I had to wait until my son called me during limited call times they had.
There is supposed to be a care coordinator, but I only heard from her when he first started there, when she emailed me a quick intro and directed me to complete a survey. Nothing since.
We are left particularly soured from his quick exit. He was suddenly kicked out early due to minor misbehaviors, and I needed to get him on very short notice. He told me another teen there was also suddenly kicked out for minor misbehavior on the same day he was (plus I am aware of a third teen discharged early for minor misbehavior from around the same time). He said the other teen found out when staff, while laughing, told them to start packing. That was 1 1/2 weeks ago, and I never heard from anyone at Pathlight since. To my disappointment, I was not able to have a final/second conversation with the psychiatrist first, which I really wanted to ask about recommended medication, etc. When I had let the therapist know that I would have really liked to have been able to have a final conversation with the psychiatrist, he said he would ask him to call me the next day, but that didn't happen. When I arrived to pick him up at the agreed time, he was just brought out by a nurse--no final contact with anyone on the treatment team. He was just dumped out, with no apparent improvement from anything there, then silence. I also think his physical health was worsened from the month indoors without movement, etc.
