Different Types of Outpatient Treatment
After being accepted into an outpatient treatment program, you’ll likely experience one or more types of care. This typically includes partial hospitalization (PHP), intensive outpatient (IOP) and outpatient (OP). One important caveat to know is that every program, participant and situation is different. While most programs will follow a similar flow, it helps to ask some of the key questions described below.
When you leave a detox facility or residential treatment center, you’ll likely go to another level of care. Essentially, this is the spectrum of treatment one will experience during their road to recovery. The highest form of outpatient treatment is called partial hospitalization programming (PHP). PHP typically lasts 2-4 weeks and includes roughly 5 hours of group therapy, 5 days per week, weekly individual therapy sessions, medication and case management. After successfully completing PHP, participants will go down a level of care to intensive outpatient programming (IOP).
IOP is usually 3-6 months of group therapy for 3 hours, 3-5 days per week. These hours are usually designed for people who are employed or attending school. It includes meetings with an individual therapist, case management/recovery coaching and medication management. After completing IOP, participants will usually step down to the last level of care, outpatient programming (OP). OP typically provides an additional 3-6 months of group therapy for 3 hours, 1-2 times per week. It also predominantly includes case management. The key difference here is the amount of time per week and continued medication management.
What To Expect In Addiction Treatment
Now that we know the typical structure of different types of outpatient treatment programs, the question is really, “what am I doing for all that time spent in treatment?”
The answer: therapy!
A lot of us come into recovery in emotional turmoil. Some of us experience continued neurochemical imbalance, we struggle to implement and maintain new behaviors, we experience financial or legal obstacles, and may have wrecked our family dynamics. The idea is that for the following year after leaving a 30-90 day rehab, we’re dedicating ourselves to doing something different. Outpatient programs incorporate therapeutic techniques that will help us maintain long term sobriety and begin to work on ourselves and relationships.
A vast majority of treatment programs utilize evidenced based therapies because they have been proven to work, time and time again! After you’ve gone through enough treatment programs, you’ll come to learn that many of them will include one, if not more, of the following types of therapy:
- Dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT)
- Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)
- Experiential therapy (ET)
- Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR)
- Acceptance commitment therapy (ACT)
- And possibly more!
In addition to experiencing some of these therapeutic modalities, you’ll likely encounter family programming. When appropriate, a family program can be instrumental in helping you and your loved ones overcome some of the difficulties encountered during your addiction. Like a hurricane, addiction causes a ton of destruction in its path. It takes awhile to clean up but with dedication and professional support, many have found their family systems healed.
Questions To Ask Before Entering Treatment
For people who aren’t familiar with addiction treatment, it can be incredibly difficult to know what exactly you’re looking at. Even if you’ve gone through treatment, it’s hard to understand exactly how good a treatment program you’re receiving. To help you or your loved one receive a clear picture about the strength of a specific treatment program, we’ve outlined some important questions to consider when calling different facilities.
- What are the hours of your program?
- Do you provide adolescent addiction treatment?
- Can I receive medication management for all levels of care?
- Can your facility provide sober living?
- What additional amenities does your program offer (i.e. community events, access to gym, AA meetings)
- Will I have access to all services you provide regardless of what level of care I’m in?
- How many weekly therapy sessions will I receive?
- What do I need to bring to my first treatment session?
- Does your program offer trauma therapy?