*not medical advice, just my opinion*

Every state is different, but I will tell you about the ER for psych referrals. It is good and it should be used if someone is in immediate, life-threatening danger. For someone who is in control enough to wait until tomorrow, I would wait til tomorrow. The ER is limited in that the docs are not psych docs and have only minimal psych training, same with the nurses (though we have a behavioral health nurse liaison on staff because we see so many psych patients in my ER). There is usually only one MSW (medical social worker) on staff in the ER, maybe two if it's a huge hospital, none (they'd be on-call) if it's a itty bitty rural hospital. The MSW is who makes the referrals, not the docs. The process through the ER can take hours since the MSW is usually seeing several patients, all with different needs, and beds in outlying facilities can be hard to come by. The process works, it's just slow sometimes, and it's hard to wait in that tiny exam room for hours and hours and hours when you're already anxious and depressed.

I feel like, again, my opinion, not advice, if your son is able to sleep in his own bed tonight, that is so much better than spending the night in the ER...which is probably what would happen. The logistics and paperwork can be dealt with when you've both had at least a little sleep.