For people who are taken hostage by the grips of the disease, such as addiction, it is a fight every day to stay on the path to sobriety. Asking for help, let alone finding the right rehab center and treatment program to address one’s unique needs, is just as challenging.
Addiction treatment is not a one-size-fits-all approach. While people may be going through similar hardships on their journey to recovery, needs and circumstances are unique. That is why comprehensive treatment plans are customized for every individual at Northern Illinois Recovery Center in Crystal Lake, Illinois.
Regardless of which type of treatment program is most suitable, we offer various types of outpatient programs, such as a teen and adolescent intensive outpatient program (IOP) and partial hospitalization program (PHP), to help teens and young adults have access to the care they need to recover.
These methods are designed to fit the schedule of your teenager or young adult, allowing for recovery without the need for the continuous supervision that residential treatment programs demand. Individuals can obtain care and support from the comfort of their home while attending work, school, and fulfilling other responsibilities. Here are some ways to distinguish the differences between IOP vs PHP.
IOP vs PHP: What are the Differences?
Choosing between IOP vs PHP depends on the level of care and monitoring your teen’s condition requires. Our team can help you assess the most ideal approach. NIRC’s elaborate assessment process will pinpoint specific conditions and assess condition severity, therefore determining the right treatment plan for you.
Intensive outpatient programs and partial hospitalization programs serve different purposes for people with varying condition severities. Every program is tailored to support your mental health in various ways, featuring distinct time commitments and specific requirements. Here are some of the key discrepancies between the two.
All of the differences to be mentioned later have the same common ground of providing different levels of care. Put simply, PHP has a much higher level of care in every aspect. This higher plane of therapy consists of greater patient attentiveness, supervision, in-depth training, and full-time access to treatment tools. While IOP offers many of the same elements, these options are provided to a lesser degree.
Partial hospitalization programs are conducted at our treatment facility, while IOPs are typically done off-site, typically at the patient’s residence. Some people thrive in offsite sessions the same way others may respond better to on-site treatment. It’s all dependent on your needs, personality, and your preferences. We ensure all of these factors are considered when determining the right treatment option for you.
While we try to revolve both programs around a schedule that works for you, PHP involves stricter monitoring procedures than IOP. IOP on the other hand affords more flexibility attuned to your schedule. Your disorder severity is the determining factor of whether IOPs strict monitoring tactics or IOPs flexibility is best for you.
Because PHP involves longer and more frequent sessions, it will require steeper costs than intensive outpatient treatment. Nonetheless, don’t let the steep cost discourage you from getting PHP if it fits the level of care you need. There is a wide array of affordable treatment options mitigated through our insurance verification portal. Many insurance programs provide optimal cost coverage for your medical history and treatment needs.
IOP vs PHP can be summed up as shorter sessions for fewer days vs longer sessions on a daily or near-daily basis. That’s how IOP accommodates more schedule flexibility in contrast to PHP’s more rigorous schedule. This also falls in line with PHP’s higher monitoring standards to accommodate your therapeutic essentials.
While intensive outpatient programs supply medically-equipped first-class therapists, it doesn’t provide access to PHP’s additional medical expertise. These additional features are there because of the on-site specificity required by partial hospitalization programs. Anytime treatment is done at a medical facility, you have complete access to their arsenal of psychiatric and medical tools.
What is a Partial Hospitalization Program (PHP)?
We’ve discussed the differences between IOP vs PHP. But now it’s time to specify the details of PHP. As mentioned, partial hospitalization programs are much more in-depth, level of care. These care elevations consist of full-time access to treatment tools, practical application training, and other personalized therapy treatments. All sessions are conducted at approved treatment facilities, enabling physicians to monitor progress and reactions to treatment and modify therapy accordingly. These sessions can last up to a couple of months, with a minimum of 3 days per week. However, treatment can be shorter or longer than the two-month mark. It is also not uncommon for PHP to be a 7-day-per-week program, depending on necessity.
What is an Intensive Outpatient Program?
Intensive outpatient treatment is the most flexible of the two options, providing schedule accommodations revolving around your social, school, and lifestyle schedules. Unlike PHP, these sessions take place in a more comfortable setting of your choice, usually within the comfort of your home. IOP meetings typically have a longer care period, often lasting two months or longer, but individual sessions are shorter. Individual sessions usually last at least two hours, but usually no longer than five unless individual needs dictate necessity.
Requirements for Outpatient Treatment
IOP therapy requires a faithful commitment on your part before receiving therapeutic support. An IOP may be the right fit for someone if they meet the following criteria:
- Treatment schedule adherence: We design a personalized therapy schedule that requires faithful attendance. If you can commit to these parameters, reach out to a therapeutic specialist to learn more.
- Environmental stability: To have sessions conducted off-site, you must have suitable surroundings to accommodate therapy sessions. This means having a quiet place to help limit distractions and focus on the teachings of your treatment specialist.
- Willingness to accept change: the whole point of IOP is to implement behavioral changes from the practical techniques you learned in treatment. This requires you to keep an open mind to make the changes necessary to maintain sobriety or mental well-being.
- An official medical diagnosis: you can only be enrolled in intensive outpatient care if you have an official medical diagnosis. If you have not received a professional diagnosis, see your primary care physician to get the required assessment to enroll in teen IOP.
- High teachability Index: These programs only work if a child is willing to listen. Yet, even if they aren’t initially open to these programs, meeting them enables us to help them warm up to the idea. We can help open up their teachability index en route to achieving a better quality of life.
- Ability to go to school or work: Your studies and work responsibilities are nearly as important as your mental well-being and addiction battles. That’s why our intensive outpatient programs give you the schedule leniency to maintain those priorities.
How are IOP and PHP Treatments Beneficial for Teens and Adolescents?
The reason we offer teen-specific programs is that they provide additional mental and physical benefits for these age groups. Here are just a few ways IOP and PHP specifically benefit teens and adolescents.
Many teens, at no fault of their parents, lack the necessary structure to overcome the challenges they face mentally and physically. These sessions provide the therapeutic stability they need to say no to drugs and personally manage mental health condition symptoms. Reach out to us to discover our foundational approach to treatment that helps teens reinforce their mental fortitude.
In each IOP or PHP session, our dedicated experts provide superior support, ensuring your child doesn’t feel alone in their addiction or mental health battles. This includes providing detailed training for family members and friends who are a vital asset to their support structure. Learn how you can be a greater support to your child by enrolling in one of our IOP-based family-oriented treatment programs today.
A child’s teen years are the most difficult transitional stage of their lives, requiring practical life skill implementation. Our therapy experts approach this from a scientifically proven medical standpoint that ensures the highest efficacy rate possible. Our thorough teachings are more than just acquired mental knowledge. They’re action-based teachings that we engrain into their natural tendencies.
While we ensure parents are fully informed of their child’s progress, struggles, and needs, our sessions are otherwise strictly confidential. This means aside from the parents, your child’s session remains completely confidential at their request. This makes your teen feel comfortable opening up the way they need to during sessions to maximize treatment efficacy. They are independently free to share with anybody they see fit for their support group.
Teens often don’t feel comfortable opening up in front of their parents. While we encourage parental venting, speaking to an IOP therapist can be a great temporary outlet. We encourage them to open up to us, but most importantly we stress the importance of opening up to their parents. Being their temporary vent provides therapeutic burden alleviation, while simultaneously making them feel comfortable to open up to you.
How Do I Know Which Program Suits My Child’s Needs?
The first, most important step toward understanding which program suits your teen is to seek guidance from your primary physician. Their extensive knowledge of your child’s mental health and medical history gives them the best insight to provide therapeutic direction. From here, you can coordinate with Northern Illinois Recovery, which can pinpoint an accurate IOP vs PHP therapeutic assessment. We’ll do all the work for you so you don’t have to stress over the complicated details.
Learn More About Our Adolescent Outpatient Treatment Programs
There is so much more to our adolescent treatment programs that only experience can describe. To learn the depth of IOP vs PHP benefits and details, you need to experience these life-changing results firsthand. One simple call will lift the burden of addiction and mental health conditions from your shoulders immediately. Reach out to us to reap the full benefits of our comprehensive outpatient treatment programs.
