hi auja-

i would first ask are you in danger of hurting yourself right now? if yes, then get to a hospital.

if though you are looking for a long-term treatment facility due to needing help functioning/diagnosing/etc i think unfortunately it is problematic a bit.

i, too, at one time searched high and low for a long-term psych facility. i have very good insurance by the way.

here is what i found-out;

1. in the states most psych facilities are for 'acute' care. meaning a stay of a week to a few weeks. the idea is to quickly stabilize you. keep you safe. then, try and get you and often into a 'out=patient' daily program.

2. i made several calls to my insurer. bottom-line is that most long-tern facilities are more set-up for addictions. 30/60/90 day programs for rehab. i actually had one person i spoke with on my insurance plan say it's too bad you don't have a drug/alcohol addiction. argh.

3. then you have private pay facilities. these are astronomically expensive. generally not covered by insurance. in my research i was not 'sold' on these places. many are set in beautiful settings (nice) but, cater to the very very wealthy. we have one such place here up in malibu. i dug very deeply and read not so great reviews of these places to be honest. for example there is a very high-priced place in the desert out in arizona. celeb's go there. jesse jackson jr went there first for his bipolar. lasted a few weeks and then ended-up at mayo. he actually stayed there for quite a while. so, yes some places i believe that are covered by insurance will keep you in longer than a few weeks or week or days.

4. in my research the best rated psych facilities are not these private pay places. by far the top-rated places are usually hospitals attached to universities; mclean, ucla-resnick, menniger/houston!, etc. do a google search on this. you'll get 2 things on your search; legitimate sites (i.e. 'objective' articles from online well-known sites like the wall street journal/etc...and! then, you'll get a mess of links to these private pay places that are not mentioned in any of the 'legitimate' news reporting sites. basically they are advertisements for the private pay facilities. some of these places are $20k+ a month. come on. yes, massage, yoga, a lot of holistic stuff again in amazing surroundings. sounds great. but, again i read some of the reviews of these places and money is the priority here. i was actually thinking of draining my 401(k) plan to go to some. i'm glad i didn't.

5. it is a real bummer that the days of 'girl interrupted' (late 60's?) in some ways does not exist anymore. before the 80's, though not great maybe, people could stay longer in facilities generally. again, this could be good or bad. i wasn't there.

6. is there a major university near you with a well rated psych facility? mayo has a mystic about it. i even called them. i was desperate. but, i may be wrong, it's not rated in the top ten anymore for psychiatric. again, i may be wrong on that. i have been in-patient 3 times at 3 different places. ucla-resnick is by far the best of the 3 i went in. it is rated i believe #3 in the country for psych. the last place i stayed was where 'celebrity rehab' dr drew pinsky is. what a joke that was. i went in thinking i would stay a long time in a beautiful setting. well, the place was old, nasty and the care sucked.

long post! whew!

i will finish by just repeating; in my experience look for a major university that has a highly regarded/rated psych facility/program. i did meet some people while i was inpatient at ucla that were staying for over a month by the time i got there and still had not left when i left. so, i think it's possible.

i hope you get the help you are seeking.

john

ps i'll look for a link listing the top-rated psych facilities and be right back...