Intensive Outpatient Programs

These programs are designed to serve:

• Patients who no longer need hospitalization
• Patients who do not require more than 11 hours of therapy per week, but would likely require inpatient if receiving a lower level of care

Providing Psychiatric Services in Long-Term Care Facilities

There is a need to provide elderly residents in long-term care facilities both Intensive Outpatient Programs (IOP) and regular individual and group mental health counseling services. Loss of independence, death of loved ones, lack of privacy, cognitive changes, declining mobility and/or physical health often warrants mental health services, but many times residents do not get the services they need.

Scheduling mental health appointments for residents outside of the facility can be a challenge:

• Coordination of transportation and assignment of an employee to attend to them while away
  from the facility
• It is often painful and difficult to move frail patients, many of whom are wheelchair bound
• Risk of exposure to contagious illnesses outside of the facility for someone with compromised health issues

There are many advantages to providing mental health services to residents within the long term care facility in which they live:

• Convenience for patient and the caregivers
• Direct observation of symptoms and behaviors exhibited by patients in their daily environment (time of day, location, setting, others involved, antecedents, etc.) for more effective treatment planning
• Treatment includes information and education for routine caregivers in order to provide patient with additional support
• PIE (Person In Environment) treatment model of working within patient’s own routine support system is highly effective and proven to meet treatment goals with sustained outcomes.
• Nursing Home residents can be provided with services within their home.

Benefits of Serenity Psychiatric IOP:

• Participants can receive intensive mental health counseling and medication management in their community under the care of a psychiatrist with monthly medication monitoring.
• Patients can use everything they learn in their sessions immediately in the real world.
• Flexible and easily accessible IOP services allow for the patient to maintain his or her everyday routine.
• Provides a greater sense of privacy than other types of treatment.
• Enhanced ability to develop long-term support relations with other patients.

Services Include:

• Confidential prescreening
• Quality treatment for adults with mental, emotional, or behavioral problems
• On-site licensed multidisciplinary team lead by a board-certified psychiatrist
• Group sessions for a minimum of 2-3 hours per day lead by a licensed master’s level therapist
• Individualized Treatment Planning
• Individual and Family Therapy
• Coping and Life Skills Training
• Psychiatric Evaluation
• Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner
• Medication Management

The Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) is designed as an alternative to inpatient treatment or a step down from inpatient hospitalization. It primary goal is to assist adults and their families in understanding and learning to cope with mental, emotional and behavioral problems.