Big Lots Behavioral Health Pavilion at Nationwide Childrens Hospital — Local services in Columbus

i’ve seen a lot of bad reviews especially reguarding inpatient. i’ve been on nearly every inpatient floor for depression/anxiety and, well, let’s just say i know my way around crisis. here is my full guide on everything inpatient. it’s long, but i tried to put everything you’d need to know along with my honest opinions, so please read it all if you’re going to crisis or are taking your kid there. :)

first off, i’ll get the bad stuff out of the way. you may not get into inpatient from crisis. and i know that it can really suck when crisis can’t take you to inpatient. it’s happened to me. but at the very least they’ve been able to help me plan going home and the next steps for keeping safe. they are also all very sweet! i’ve gone all hours of the day/night many days of the week (meaning different staff) and have never really had a bad experience. at the end of the day, they do what’s best for you.

as my final “bad part” section, i’ll say this: it can be boring. they do strip you of your clothes if they have drawstrings, zippers, etc. and they do make you use special pens and all that sort of stuff. its for safety. and you can bring your own clothes and some other stuff if they meet the requirements! and sure, sometimes the wait in the crisis center can be long. i’ve had to go to the waiting rooms behind assessment where you may wait for a bed before too, and those do kinda suck. they’re very boring.

HOWEVER…my inpatient team on every floor was amazing. i have been multiple times to certain floors, too, so it wasn’t just that i got a certain “lucky staff team”. they made me feel safe and comforted. not just the therapists—but ALL parts of the staff…all AMAZING. the nurses, MHS’ (mental health specialists—aka the staff who run your groups and hangout with you on the upper floors), therapists, and even the security guards are all super friendly and very sweet.

on the YCSU the nurses would take the time to take me for walks and some played cards with me. we’d walk and talk and they made me feel beyond appreciated. theres also a super cool music room! Oh, and don’t skip TR (therapeutic recreation)—it’s tons of fun and you learn a lot too. my TR helped me learn new card games while also helping me find things i can do outside of the hospital such as volunteer work. you MAY also have the chance for AAT (animal assisted therapy). THIS IS NOT PROVIDED AT EVERY STAY—it depends! however, if you do get a chance, all the AAT doggos are super cute and tons of fun. and their owners are always THE BEST. (p.s. i love you boltz!)

and on the upper floors, it was the same, except i got to meet some great kids up there too (although FYI, you can’t share contact information —but it’s in your best interest). these floors offer group therapy AND really fun group activities alongside your individual therapy. plus, when just hanging around in your hallway, you get to play cards and board games and color and all sorts of fun stuff with the staff and other patients. the lunch hall is super nice too.

my therapists made me feel validated while also providing me with helpful feedback and coping mechanisms. i will say, the therapist i met on one of the upper floors wasn’t greattt, but it didn’t effect my stay much because i was primarily doing group work.

and you get used to the rooms. i actually grew to like them (for a hospital id say they’re pretty sweet). oh, and the tv isn’t bad either. there’s limited channels but there’s a few good ones. and there’s ad-free movies (they’ll usually have seasonal ones too). plus, i thought the food was actually pretty great. i’d recommend going for the pizza or the grilled cheese with a side of the yogurt parfaits—these always turn out well from my experience (also while i was in PHP, which is also awesome). plus, there’s specials too!

throughout my seperate weekly therapy visits, i still say hi to some of the staff i’ve met along the way! obviously, THIS IS JUST MY EXPERIENCE(S), but i’d recommend NCH and know people with similarly positive...

For other parents of kids with mental illnesses that are beyond garden-variety, I am sorry. This is a big, beautiful facility--it purports to be the largest in America--and it offers substandard care. The only reason to come to the emergency department here is if you need a physical place to put your child where he or she cannot harm themselves. That is it. This is the third time I have been here, and I will only return as an absolute last resort, as that is what this is designed to be. The doctors will not make any effort to help you figure out what is going on with your child, even if your child is admitted. They will not admit to make emergency changes to medications (although they did medicate him when he was admitted the first time). They do not care about your child's whole history; they only want to know what brought him or her on that occasion (which would be a travesty, if they were at all concerned with your child's actual diagnosis). They will not even refer you if they do not deem you to be immediately suicidal or a serious threat to someone else. In fact, the only way to receive anything other than a safety plan and a validated parking ticket is if the intake counselor is able to convey to the psychiatrist that your child is an immediate suicide risk or risk to others. Is it possible that the intake counselor might be biased or lack the knowledge/experience to convey an accurate message to the psychiatrist? What if your child, like mine, is highly manipulative and does not want to be there in the first place? My child admitted to me that he lied when asked if he thought about committing suicide in the last week. When I told the the intake counselor that, and that he was dishonest (a compulsive liar, in fact), she replied, "He was not dishonest; he didn't answer 'No' to ALL of the questions"?! So, perhaps you, like I, will get to leave without talking to a trained psychiatrist and knowing that all that stands between you and the safety of your child is the piece of paper that is the safety plan that he or she may or may not follow. (The counselor will inform you that the whole family must follow the safety plan, but you already know that.) Yes, they know you cannot lock up all the chemicals and all the cords; unfortunately, "you must deal with these facts as your child becomes older". Your child is unpredictable and impulsive? Well, accidental injury or death is not the same as suicide or homicide, now is it? Just be sure to follow the safety plan. Even if there are no warning signs. Especially if there are no warning signs. You are good to go. Wait, how did that just address the concerns you had about the safety and wellbeing of your child? You have talked the talk, Nationwide Children's Hospital. Now it is time to...

Worst place for any child with a behavioral developmental disorder. My daughter who’s 3.5 years old was first seen at 19 months old for her epilepsy surgery evaluation and during the evaluation with the psychologist my child was rushed so much from one item to the next she would be asked to show them how to do something with an item and when she would start to try to do it they would want her to immediately start doing the next thing even though she hadn’t finished the first one and if she didn’t do something perfectly she was automatically told she couldn’t do said thing. I was also talked to like I’m stupid when I asked if her brain malformation or epilepsy could be a reason for her delays and I was immediately told that that wasn’t possible and that she could only have autism and that nothing else could be going one and when my daughters grandpa was asking the psychologist what we were to do next he was told to shut up by the psychologist and also told not to play with her during her evaluation. After her Brain surgery it was proven she had a rare genetic disorder and that was the reason for her developmental delays and the genetic doctor we seen was phenomenal we love our genetic doctor he’s always taken Evie very seriously and noticed the developmental inconsistency’s from what he saw Evie doing to what the psychologist was saying and said she didn’t have autism but has adhd and referred us to the developmental behavioral specialist where we was treated the same way we were by the psychologist and this time the developmental specialist keeps changing things after her appointment and saying she has these symptoms that she doesn’t have and has never had and saying she was doing something during the appointment that she was clearly not doing during the appointment like licking items she’s never licked items before or during her appointment and again didn’t take her medical history seriously or her brain malformation or genetic disorder and never took the time to even look into her rare genetic disorder to understand her development better so many things on my daughters after visit summary are just straight up lies by this specialist and I will be taking my daughter to the adhd clinic at Cincinnati children’s where she will be taken seriously and evaluated throughly and not just by herself but with mom and dad together and separate and with her...