If you struggle with mental health issues, whether your troubles are with depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or another mental health problem, you may receive a recommendation from a psychiatrist to try partial hospitalization treatment. This is one of the many mental health treatment options available to people with such disorders and can have many different benefits to the patients who go through the program. Should you be facing such a recommendation from your doctor, it is important to get to know some of the facts about partial hospitalization and how it could help you with your struggles.
Partial Hospitalization Is an Intensive Outpatient Program
When most people hear "hospitalization" for mental health, they get nervous about being confined to a psych ward. However, this is not what partial hospitalization entails. Another term for partial hospitalization is intensive outpatient treatment. This means that you are free to come and go as you please and that the program involves a significant time commitment.
Generally, a partial hospitalization treatment is like a day program. The treatment will begin in the morning and go until mid to late afternoon. The rest of your time is your own and you are able to miss part of the day or entire days if you are sick, have appointments, or have other issues. You will just pick up with the treatment the next day. You also have weekends to yourself, which can be very helpful and pleasant.
Partial Hospitalization Involves Both Individual and Group Therapy
In a partial hospitalization setting, you will be involved in both group and individual therapy programs. You will see an individual counselor or social worker at least once a week (usually more) as well as do group therapy sessions daily. Psychiatric care is also provided through daily individual and private check-ins with a psychiatrist or resident.
This combination of individual and group therapies and psychiatric care helps to provide the most comprehensive treatment program possible and also allows patients in the program to find their unique comfort zone within the program.
Partial Hospitalization Combines Therapeutic Techniques
The great thing about partial hospitalization treatment is the variety of therapeutic techniques used in the program. Many general outpatient programs and even individual therapists work one program, like cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) or dialectical behavior therapy (DBT). However, in partial you get a variety.
You may have art therapy, recreational therapy, and DBT one day and then healthy living, CBT, and music therapy another day. The rotation of different techniques can better help you to find strategies that best work for you in managing your mental health issues.
Knowing these facts about partial hospitalization, you can feel better prepared to start your program and get the most you can out of it in the process.
To learn more about group therapy, contact a center such as Andrea Brandt Therapy.
