Levels Of Care For Child And Adolescent Mental Health
As parents, we most often hope, pray for and seek the best options and treatment for our children’s lives, such as academics, medical care, relationships and their future. However, navigating through a mental health crisis is not something a parent expects or is prepared for, and it can be scary and overwhelming to say the least. We hope to give some insight and clear up confusion about the levels of care available for healing.
The following are the most common treatment options for children and adolescents:
Inpatient Care
This is for the immediate safety and stabilization of emotions, actions and behaviors. Inpatient facilities can be attached to a general hospital or be free-standing specializing only in mental health treatment. This level of treatment can range from seven to 10 days, except for certain situations or factors that can increase the length of stay.
Residential Care
This level of care is for long-term treatment while providing 24-hour on-site care and supervision. During this treatment time, individuals can learn how to best regulate adverse behaviors, progressively improve coping skills for mood and emotional distress, extensively work through trauma and restore relationships with others. This level of treatment can range from 30 to 90-plus days.
Partial Hospitalization Programs (PHP)
This level of care can be the typical step-down treatment from inpatient care, or the highest level of care in the outpatient setting as a proactive and preventative step to help an individual from needing inpatient treatment. The individuals will receive therapeutic support for struggles such as depression, anxiety, suicidal ideations, self-harm, behavioral concerns and medication management if needed. Therapeutic support includes a minimum of four hours of therapy five days a week, individual sessions with a psychiatrist, general medical health oversight and in some cases, academic support. This level of treatment can range from four-to-six weeks.
Intensive Outpatient Programs (IOP)
This level of care provides the same therapeutic support as a PHP with only three hours of daily therapy. An individual can either step down from the PHP level of care or begin at this level when they are not experiencing symptoms that would put their safety at risk, such as general anxiety, school refusal, or non-injurious thoughts or behaviors. This level of treatment can range from two to four weeks.
Outpatient/Individual Therapy
This level of care may be considered the lowest level of care, but it can be the most important in preventative treatment, or for the progress and success of healing, for anyone struggling with mental health concerns. Outpatient therapy can be with a variety of professionals, including a psychiatrist, psychologist, licensed therapist, licensed counselor, licensed social worker and life coaching. This level of treatment can be for any length of time or frequency determined by the individual and the therapeutic professional.
(It is important to note the information above is centered around mental health treatment and not on primary substance abuse or addiction treatment. However, individuals struggling with substance abuse or addictions can benefit from the same care options for co-occurring mental illness after completing treatment for withdrawal or rehabilitation.)
At Charis Behavioral Health in Southlake, we focus our services and treatment on children and adolescents ages 10-17 needing PHP and IOP levels of care. We offer enhanced care that extends beyond the industry standards of care (group therapy, psychoeducation therapy, psychiatry and medication management) with daily yoga, mindfulness and mediation, equine therapy, family therapy, individual therapy, in-home family consultations, sleep evaluations, in-house psychological testing and educational support. Our approach helps our patient experience healing through grace and kindness that allows each patient to feel seen, heard and known.
Note: If a child, adolescent, or adult is experiencing a mental health crisis, such as ideation for hurting themselves or someone else, self-harming behaviors or aggressive behaviors resulting in an unsafe situation, the appropriate step is to call 9-1-1 or get the person to the closest emergency room for an evaluation and safety. In doing this, you are supporting them by being a voice to reason during their mental health instability.
If you are concerned about your child, please call us at 817.997.4525 or visit our website today!
