Residential Psych Facility

[Sheryl]

Does anyone know of a good English-speaking residential psych faciliuty,. preferrably with experience dealingf with troubled youth, anywhere in SE Asia? It is for a 19 year old Cambodian girl who does not speak any Thai but is fluent in English. Not psychotic, but depressed and conflicted as result of a traumatic childhood and failed romance. Has been seeing a good shrink but attempted suicide last night (overdose of anti-depressents) will pull through physically OK but we are naturally concerned about future attempts and thinking she should be in a more structured and intensive therapeutic environment for a while. Any ideas where????

PS Some months back I asked about inpt alcholol rehab for her brother, in case anyone else ever needs to know there are 2 reputable 12-step based ones in the Philippines. no where else inr egion that I could find. These are:

New Beginnings - in Manila

The Recovery House - in Cebu

The Cebu one is far cheaper, quite reasonable at about $500/mo inclusive of room & board & therapy. Too soon to report on its quality.

[h90]

I don't know, but I wish you good luck!!

h90

Does anyone know of a good English-speaking residential psych faciliuty,. preferrably with experience dealingf with troubled youth, anywhere in SE Asia? It is for a 19 year old Cambodian girl who does not speak any Thai but is fluent in English. Not psychotic, but depressed and conflicted as result of a traumatic childhood and failed romance. Has been seeing a good shrink but attempted suicide last night (overdose of anti-depressents) will pull through physically OK but we are naturally concerned about future attempts and thinking she should be in a more structured and intensive therapeutic environment for a while. Any ideas where????

PS Some months back I asked about inpt alcholol rehab for her brother, in case anyone else ever needs to know there are 2 reputable 12-step based ones in the Philippines. no where else inr egion that I could find. These are:

New Beginnings - in Manila

The Recovery House - in Cebu

The Cebu one is far cheaper, quite reasonable at about $500/mo inclusive of room & board & therapy. Too soon to report on its quality.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[donna]

A friend of mine attempted suicide 2 months ago. We got her to Bumrungrad, but they advised us to take her to Bangkok Hospital because their psych unit was better.

We got her in there, watched 24 hours a day by a nurse in her room.

The doctors were very good, but I don't think they had much experience dealing with her disorder - Borderline Personality Disorder. When I spoke to the doctor about her condition, and asked if he knew much about it, I was told "I know it's very hard to fix, if it can be fixed at all".

After she was discharged, she ran her long list of drugs by her sister (who is a registered nurse in Australia) and it was discovered that the drugs she was on were all contra-indicating each other.

You could give them a try. I wish you luck. We all need someone like you, Sheryl.

[baht&sold]

I recently had a late night call from a friend in England (married to a Thai lady, both were in uk at the time) asking if I could help get their daughter in Ubon to a physchatrist as she was deeply depressed and showing similar symptoms. They arranged transport to Bkk, I made an advance appt at Bumrungrad Hospital.

8 weeks on, they're here now and the daughter is on meds (not contraindicating) and is doing much better thankfully. Doc spoke perfect english, explaining everything to me (to relay to her folks) and has now given her a referral near Ubon for follow-up. BTW, cost of intake assessment and meds was a mere 2000 baht and follow-up weekly appts and including meds ran about 900 baht per.

You can call for an appt, or better yet, just take her directly in. There seems to be an open door policy since in the waiting room, there were a mix of ppl, some with appts and some whom dropped in, hoping to get a minute with the doctor. They seem to fit everyone in.

Web: http://www.bumrungrad.com Tel: 66 (0) 2667 1000

Sukhumvit Soi 1/1

Wish you both the very best, good luck.

[Sheryl]

Thanks all for the suggestions/support. I was able to locate a facility in Singapore, it is Mount Elizabeth Hospital which has a 20 bed inpatient unit. My niece was admitted there Saturday. To soon to comment on the quality of the treatment but the facility is nice, with a good atmosphere and secure enough to handle suicidal patients but with the security handled in a low-key manner. Its website is www.mountelizabeth.com.sg and costs for inpatient care inclusive treatment, room etc are about US $200 per day, a deposit on Singapore $4,00 (US$2,500) is required at admission....in case anyone else out there ever needs to know (I hope you don't)!

Opted for Singapore rather than BKK because 1) they have more of a counselling/therapeutic focus at this particulalr place than any of the hospitals in BKK, all of which seem more geared towards treatment with medications which is appropriate for pyschotics but not so much for non-psychotics; and 2) Cambodians are not too comfortable, and not too well treated, in Thailand (same problem as Burmese), and since low self-esteem is already part of the problem it was important to get her somewhere she'd feel respected. Of course, for a Thai patient matters would be totally different.

[Sheryl]

Thanks all for the suggestions/support. I was able to locate a facility in Singapore, it is Mount Elizabeth Hospital which has a 20 bed inpatient unit. My niece was admitted there Saturday. To soon to comment on the quality of the treatment but the facility is nice, with a good atmosphere and secure enough to handle suicidal patients but with the security handled in a low-key manner. Its website is www.mountelizabeth.com.sg and costs for inpatient care inclusive treatment, room etc are  about US $200 per day, a deposit on Singapore $4,00 (US$2,500) is required at admission....in case anyone else out there ever needs to know (I hope you don't)!

Update: niece back from Singapore, cost a lot more than they told me (about US$5,000 for a 10 day stay) and other than being kept safe she got almost nothing in the way of treatment. Hospital refused family's request to have counsellors from a well known clinic come and see her, saying their team would do it, but they didn't. Fact that she was so far away and we couldn't afford to stay in Singapore with her added to problems but in general I found the system there not as responsive to clients as private hospitals in Bangkok are. If I had to do it over again I'd opt for Thailand. Samitivej now has a small inpatient facility to augment its outpatient clinic which included specialists in adolescent pysch. They probably also don't do more than medicate and warehouse inpatients but based on past experinece with them I think one could successfully insist on bringing in some counsellors.

It's ironic that there are many good intensive residential counselling programs for substance abusers (not in Thailand, but in the region) but none for those equally troubled but not taking drugs or drinking. I believe this is true even in the US. There is good outpatient therapy and then there is inpatient drug-and-storage, nothing in between. If anyone knows otherwise please advise, thanks.