A question about waiting lists for good residential programs

[Dadof2kids3cats]

A further questuion about possible treatment down the road for our 24 YO daughter. After her very disappointing 9 days in a residential program, we are not in a hurry to try another one, and there are several medical interventions and several therapy options that I think we would try first if necessary. But if “nothing works” (one of her secondary fears at this point, although not to an obsessive level), we might well look to place her in a higher-quality place residential setting with an OCD-specific program.

However, I have read here that the waiting list for the best of these—e.g. MacLean Hospital in Boston—may be six months long. Is it possible to get on those waiting lists as a precaution at a point where one still has a couple of other options to try first, so one doesn’t run out of other choices and THEN have to wait six months?

[ATLAfan786]

Yes it is possible. I’m the waiting list for a program called Rogers Behavioral Health. They actually had a spot for me for as soon as next week but I couldn’t attend at this time. Even though I can’t attend at this moment, I’m still on their waiting list. Their waiting list for Rogers is not long in my experience. For McLean, you have to fill out a form, then wait about 2 weeks for a clinitian to call you for an assessment over the phone, then if you are accepted into the program, you are put on the waitlist. So if you want to get on the waiting list for McLean, I suggest you start that process now. That way, you can be on the McLean waiting list while you try other treatments.