You said she said that her experience there has been enough to make her not want to attempt suicide again. It's too bad she feels that she is suffering there but it's good that she is getting better! Another reason she will want to avoid the psych ward if possible though are those dosages as you said. I'm sure the reason they are going so high is because they are just used to doing things that way in the hospital. When you are doing triage on people who may be highly suicidal you probably start at the max dose just to be safe, better to be zombied out and not suicidal than still hyper depressed and in danger of hurting yourself but on a lower dose. At least that's the thinking they probably work with. I agree those are really high doses. I'm on respiridone now instead of Abilify but like you I was taking in the 1 to 2 mg per day range when I was on it a few weeks back. And I'm only on 0.25 mg of respiridone now. I believe it's helping me quite a bit which is very nice. I was a bit reticent to take it at first because it's an antipsychotic and I thought to myself I don't suffer from psychoses! But they use them now to fight regular depression and anxiety at lower doses and not just schizophrenia, which is what they are used for at higher doses.
Hugs and best wishes to you and your cousin. I'm glad to hear she is doing better! 
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