Suicidal Ideation Treatment & Rehab Center in Fort Smith, Arkansas

Learn More About Treatment for Suicidal Ideation at Valley Behavioral Health

You can stop suicide before it happens by detecting early warning signs. If you or a loved one are experiencing any signs of suicidal feelings, call Valley Behavioral Health for a free assessment.

If you’ve been living with thoughts of ending your life, you are not alone. At one point or another, a lot of people have considered dying by suicide as a means to end the tremendous emotional pain. Sometimes life circumstances can leave you feeling overwhelmed, and unable to cope with the stress, loss or grief you’ve experienced. Other people may have suicidal ideation – a preoccupation with ending one’s own life – as a feature of an untreated or undiagnosed mental health issue, such as bipolar disorder. Whatever the reason, suicide is a permanent way to end a temporary problem. You don’t have to live like this. Help is just a phone call away.

At Valley Behavioral Health in Fort Smith, Arkansas, we will not judge you for suicidal ideation. We are going to work with you to make certain you recover from having thoughts of ending your life. Throughout our assessment process, we’ll diagnose and begin rehab for any mental health disorders that may have caused you to feel suicidal. We’ll offer you compassionate care, support, and guidance as your coping skills begin to improve and the desire to harm yourself goes away. At our behavioral health hospital, you can be confident in the path to your recovery.

Helping a Loved One or Family Member Get Treatment for Suicidal Ideation

If your loved one is feeling suicidal or has attempted suicide, you’re probably facing a wide range of emotions. You may feel helpless and hopeless; as though you can do nothing to help your loved one. You may feel angry that he or she thought suicide was the only way to solve his or her problems; you may be angry at yourself for not picking up on the signs of suicidal ideation. The best way to understand suicide and prevent it is to know the signs a loved one or friend is contemplating suicide. If you believe that your loved one or family member is actively suicidal, do not hesitate to call 911 immediately – this is a medical emergency.

Common warning of suicidal thoughts or behaviors:

• Obtaining means necessary to complete suicide – such as stockpiling pills, or getting a gun
• Making statements such as, “I’m going to kill myself,” or “I wish I was dead”
• Major mood change from depressed to suddenly calm and peaceful
• Feelings of hopelessness
• Major preoccupation with dying, violence, or death
• Getting affairs in order – drawing up a will, giving away prized possessions, saying goodbye to loved ones
• Increasingly self-destructive behaviors

If a family member or friend expresses their wish to die by suicide, here are some steps you can take to help:

• If the threat of suicide is eminent, call 911 immediately. While waiting for the ambulance, remove all potentially lethal objects from the person, but whatever you do – do not leave the person alone.
• Talk about it – the more suicide is left in the dark, the more people are going to hide their shame and plans from others
• Listen openly and honestly – without judgment – to the person
• Don’t offer platitudes and niceties, understand that their emotional pain is very real and causing much distress in his or her life
• Take the initiative to research rehab centers that help those who are feeling suicidal. Offer to go to appointments with your loved one
• Let them know they are loved unconditionally – no matter what

Why Consider Treatment for Suicidal Ideation at Valley Behavioral Health System in Fort Smith, Arkansas

If you’ve been living with suicidal thoughts, you’re probably noticing the effects it has on your life. Your friends may try to help, but you may push them away, preferring to be alone. Living under the burden of such intense emotional pain may lead you to abuse drugs or alcohol as a means to escape the torment. You may know it’s time to seek rehab for your suicidal thoughts but may not know what inpatient treatment looks like.

An inpatient treatment program for people experiencing suicidal thoughts has been shown to be one of the most effective ways to help those in need. An inpatient center will provide you with a sense of safety and security as you begin to touch upon the feelings that made you feel suicide was the only way out. You’ll be surrounded by others who have experienced similar challenges so that you can all work together to begin your journey to healing. Through a combination of group, individual, family therapies and medication management, an inpatient center can help you become stable and develop coping strategies that will last a lifetime.

Our Treatment Program’s Philosophy and Benefits

Located on 57 acres nestled into the Arkansas River Valley, our beautiful and picturesque landscape has helped countless children, teens, adults, and older adults learn the skills needed to live the life they deserve. Our mental health rehab center offers a spectrum of mental health services designed to help people in variety of serene, comforting settings. At our behavioral health rehab center, we believe that a patient-centered approach to treatment using a multidisciplinary team of mental healthcare professionals is the way to manage care for suicidal ideation and other challenges. We aim to do right by each person who comes to us for help – our holistic rehab center offers a number of programs tailored to each individual and lasts far past the time our clients leave our doors.

Types of Treatment for Suicidal Ideation Offered at Valley Behavioral Health System

When you come to us for help, you’ll undergo a number of assessments that are designed to help us best understand the ways in which we can help you. We want to fully understand all that you’re struggling with in order to create a plan of care designed entirely around your needs. The medical exam will help us diagnose and begin treatment on any medical problems you’re facing while the psychiatric evaluation will help us determine what types of mental illnesses you may be living with. We’ll take the results of these assessments and sit down with you and your loved ones to create a plan of care that addresses all of your challenges.

Medication may be a part of your treatment plan based upon the challenges and struggles you are facing. You may only need short-term medication management, or you may benefit from longer-term medication rehab depending upon your diagnosis. All medication will be carefully monitored by our treatment team and adjusted as needed.

Individual therapy is held at least once a week – more if you’d like – and can help you work through some of the situations that have gotten you to this point. We’ll use a technique called cognitive-behavioral therapy that helps you to understand the ways in which negative thoughts have impacted your behaviors.

Group therapy is held each day and will give you the chance to work with others struggling with similar challenges. Your groups may cover topics such as depression, self-esteem, self-control, anxiety, behavior choices, and impulsivity.

Family therapy is held at least once per week and will help you and your loved ones begin to heal any chasms caused by suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Family sessions will focus upon ways in which your loved ones can be helpful to you, available community resources, and education about mental illness and the recovery process. We have family visitation twice per week and around-the-clock access to call for your loved ones to call and check in on you.

As we are a holistic behavioral health rehab center, Valley Behavioral Health is proud to offer experiential therapies designed to complement traditional approaches. These may include:

• Arts and crafts
• Sports
• Games
• Relaxation techniques

Continuing Care and Levels of Treatment for Suicidal Ideation

At our mental health rehab center, we begin the discharge process the moment you are admitted into our inpatient program to ensure a smooth transition from one level of care to the next. Our discharge planners and care coordinators will work to make sure that aftercare options are already in place when you leave our doors. We offer several options for continuing care: a partial hospitalization program (PHP) and an intensive outpatient program (IOP). These programs offer you the chance to work on your healing during the day while slowly reintegrating back into your community in the evenings. Clients who are ready to discharge to home may find that referrals to our traditional outpatient therapy program and connections to available community resources is the best option for step-down care.