Get your teen medically evaluated first, and keep them within sight until a clinician has assessed their safety. Then ask the hospital team for a written discharge plan before anyone talks about going home. You don't have to decide on residential care tonight, but you do need to know what comes next.
If you or someone you love is thinking about suicide or self-harm, call or text 988 any time, day or night. You can also chat with a trained crisis counselor at [988lifeline.org](https://988lifeline.org). If someone is in immediate danger, call 911 right away for emergency help.
What to Do After a Teen Suicide Attempt, Starting at the Hospital
The emergency department's first job is medical stabilization, and the psychiatric evaluation usually comes once your teen is physically safe to be assessed. Expect to wait, sometimes for hours, and expect to be asked the same questions more than once by different staff. That's normal, and your answers help the team decide what level of care your teen needs next.
While you're there, stay close and tell the team what you know. Share what you've noticed in recent weeks, any medications your teen takes, and whether alcohol or other substances might be involved. If your teen has a therapist or psychiatrist, give the hospital that clinician's name so they can talk before discharge.
A few steps are worth doing before you leave the building:
- 1Ask who completed the safety assessment and what it concluded, in plain words.
- 2Find out whether the hospital recommends admission, a step-down program, or outpatient follow-up, and why.
- 3Get the discharge plan in writing, including follow-up appointment dates and a number to call if something changes.
- 4Request a copy of the medication list, with any changes made during the stay.
Hospitals sometimes discharge a teen within a day or two when a bed isn't available or the team judges the immediate crisis has passed. A discharge doesn't mean the underlying problem has been treated. It means the emergency has been managed, and you may still need a longer-term setting that can keep working on it.
If you're already thinking about residential treatment, you can start that conversation while your teen is still in the hospital. Our admissions team can talk with you and, with your permission, coordinate with the hospital's discharge planner. The levels of care we offer are laid out on our site if you want to see the options before you call.
Questions to Ask Before the Hospital Discharges Your Teen
The most useful questions are the ones about the first 72 hours at home, because that's when families most often find the plan has gaps. Before you sign anything, ask the discharge planner who your teen will see, and when. A follow-up appointment with a date and a clinician's name is a plan. "Follow up with outpatient care" without either is only a suggestion.
Ask what the team saw that made them comfortable sending your teen home, or what concerns remain. If the answer is vague, request the specific risks they considered, such as access to medications or a recent change in your teen's mood. You're entitled to a clear answer, and it helps you judge whether home is realistic.
Then bring up what level of care the hospital would recommend if you could choose anything. Some teens need more daily structure than weekly therapy can offer, and a hospital clinician can often say so plainly. If residential comes up, ask whether the team will send records to a program you're considering. That usually needs your signed consent, so it's worth giving early.
Cover the practical questions too:
- 1Find out which medications changed and who will manage them after discharge.
- 2Get a clear answer on who to call, and what to do, if the same warning signs return tonight.
- 3Learn whether the hospital has a social worker who can help with insurance authorization for the next step.
- 4Confirm that your teen's school can be told only what you choose to share.
Write the answers down as you hear them. You'll be tired, and a page of notes will matter when you speak with a residential admissions team.
Making Home Safer While You Decide on Next Care
Start with medications, because they're the item most families can change within an hour of getting home. Collect every prescription and over-the-counter bottle in the house, including your own and other family members', and lock them in a box or cabinet that your teen can't open. Hand out single doses yourself if your teen's clinician has prescribed something. Ask the hospital team or a pharmacist to confirm that anything you're discarding can be thrown away safely, and take old prescriptions to a pharmacy drop-off rather than the trash.
Next, ask whether there are firearms in the home or at a relative's house your teen visits. The safest answer is to have them stored away from the house entirely for now. If that isn't possible, they should be locked, unloaded, and stored apart from ammunition, with keys or codes your teen doesn't know. Look at sharp tools, ropes, belts, and alcohol too, and keep them out of reach.
Then think about supervision. For the first days, many families keep their teen in shared spaces, check in at night, and leave bedroom doors open. Say it plainly and kindly: "We're not punishing you, we just want you close right now." Teens usually take this better when you name the reason than when the rules appear without explanation.
Keep the discharge paperwork where you can reach it, and write down the warning signs the hospital team named. If your teen talks about wanting to die or you see those signs return, use the crisis plan on the discharge papers instead of waiting for the next appointment.
If home doesn't feel workable, say so. Telling the discharge planner that you can't keep the house safe or supervised is an accurate answer, and it can change what they recommend. Hillside runs three six-bed residential homes in Southern California, in Villa Park, Yorba Linda, and Perris, so a residential option may be closer than you expect.
When Residential Treatment Fits and When Outpatient or Virtual IOP Does
Residential care fits when a teen's safety or daily functioning can't be held together at home, even with weekly therapy and a locked-up house. Outpatient treatment fits when your teen is stable enough to live at home, can get to appointments, and has adults who can supervise the evenings and nights. Virtual IOP sits between those two. It adds several hours of structured treatment a week through video, but the teen still sleeps at home, so it only works when home is safe.
Residential is usually worth serious consideration if any of these are true:
Your teen has attempted before, or talks about wanting to die since coming home.
You can't supervise closely, or you can't remove the means of harm from the house.
Anxiety, depression, trauma, substance use, or self-harm have kept getting worse despite regular therapy.
The hospital recommended a higher level of care than outpatient follow-up.
Outpatient or virtual IOP is more realistic when the hospital team judged the crisis contained, a clinician has already scheduled follow-up, and your household can keep a teen in sight through the first weeks. Some families use one of these as a step-down after residential, and our team plans that transition during the stay.
If you can't tell which one applies, ask admissions to talk it through with you. We'll tell you honestly whether residential fits a 12 to 17 year old or whether another level of care would serve your teen better, and we'll point you there if it would. Our levels of care page describes each option in plain terms. Bring the discharge paperwork and the notes you took at the hospital, since they let us answer faster.
What Residential Care Looks Like Day to Day for a Teen After a Crisis
At Hillside, your teen lives in a six-bed neighborhood house, not on a locked ward or a hospital floor. Boys and girls live in separate homes, two teens share each bedroom, and staff are awake overnight. For a teen coming out of a hospital stay, that means adults are present through the hours families worry about most.
Days follow a steady routine with a set wake time and regular meals. An in-house chef prepares lunch and dinner, and the group eats family-style from a shared kitchen. Therapy happens in private offices and includes individual, group, and family sessions. CBT and DBT are the core approaches, and DBT is built for the hardest hours, including urges to self-harm. The clinical team assesses for suicidal talk on day one and every day after, so your teen's safety isn't checked once at intake and then left alone.
School continues during the stay. We coordinate with your teen's school, and teens practice returning to it before discharge. Licensed vocational nurses handle medication coordination and medical monitoring, and psychiatry is consulted when the clinical team recommends it. Outdoor time on the terrace and in the yard gives teens room to move.
You stay involved throughout. The same clinicians work with your teen for the whole stay, and family therapy is where you learn what to say and what to stop doing at home. Aftercare and step-down planning happen during the stay, so a plan for going home exists before discharge day.
Several details aren't ours to guess at, so ask admissions how often families can visit, how phone calls with your teen work, and what the weekly schedule looks like. They can also tell you what records they'd want from the hospital.
What Happens When You Call Hillside Admissions
Our admissions team answers your call at (951) 498-5096 and starts by asking about your teen, not about payment. Expect questions about what happened, where your teen is now (hospital, home, or elsewhere), their age, current diagnoses, medications, and any therapists or psychiatrists already involved. If you have the hospital's discharge paperwork and your notes nearby, use them. If you don't, call anyway, because we can tell you what to gather afterward.
We'll also ask what you've seen at home and whether your household can keep your teen safe right now. Answer plainly. That answer is what tells us whether residential care, outpatient treatment, or virtual IOP is the better fit, and we'll say so even when the honest answer isn't residential. Hillside serves teens ages 12 to 17 only, so we'll confirm your teen's age early.
If you're calling from the hospital, ask us how we can coordinate with the discharge planner. That typically requires your signed consent for records, and we'll explain what we'd want to review.
Insurance comes up next, and it's a short conversation. We work with plans including Aetna, Anthem, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Carelon, Cigna, GEHA, and Magellan. Benefits vary by plan, and verification is free, so have your insurance card ready and we'll check what your plan offers for residential care.
Ask us anything you couldn't get answered elsewhere, such as:
How family visits and phone calls with your teen work.
What the weekly schedule looks like.
Which house your teen would live in, and in which city it's located.
How long records review takes before a decision.
You can also send a confidential message if you'd rather write than talk. Either way, our admissions team will talk through whether residential care fits your teen. If you're ready, call (951) 498-5096.
Clinically reviewed by Alejandro Alva, M.D., Medical Director.