Another category of patients who go to residential treatment following an inpatient hospitalization includes those whose psychosocial recoveries from an acute exacerbation of mental illness are complicated by physical disabilities like paraplegia or cerebral palsy. a great deal more common than these ‘stepdown’ referrals to residential treatment, however, are referrals originating from outpatients and outpatient clinicians. Residential facilities vary widely in their goals, their theoretical orientation and treatment paradigms, and the specific features of their treatment settings, like therapists. Quite a few facilities recommend minimum lengths of stay of between one and three months. Essentially, residential treatment centers also vary widely in their geographic distribution, cost, emphasis on amenities, emphasis on group cohesiveness within the milieu, and length of stay.
Actually the expected or typical length of stay also varies widely among residential treatment facilities.
Typical patients for whom this kind of a step down strategy is used include, as an example, patients recovering from a first episode of psychosis or mania who require additional supervised time for psychosocial adjustment and treatment planning.
Nevertheless remain is going to begin soon after admission, in should be delayed by the need for diagnostic clarification. Outpatient therapists should always be included in the aftercare planning process, and usually this inclusion can be accomplished by phone or ’email’ without the need for therapists to attend meetings personally. This is the case. I am sure that the residential stay will preclude the need for inpatient hospitalization, and the patient might be ready to return to outpatient treatment following discharge, I’d say in case all goes well. Most of us are aware that there are three major treatment modalities that fall within the middle ground between pure outpatient and pure inpatient treatment.
More ambiguous and less apparent are the indications that a patient may benefit from a treatment setting that is more intensive than multiple outpatient sessions per week yet less intensive and restrictive than inpatient hospitalization.
There are no standardized or nationwide ratings of residential programs, and the process of evaluating programs is complicated by the fact that many facilities compete for identical pool of patients.
Social workers and clients seeking markers of quality are urged to ask many questions before committing to a particular program. On rare occasions, communication with outpatient therapists can be delayed by patients who are ambivalent about authorizing the release of information to outside parties. Outpatient therapists should clarify at an early stage which member of the residential treatment team may be the primary contact person. With the work of primary therapists and psychiatrists supervised by a clinical director and a medical director, residential facilities tend to have a fairly flat administrative hierarchy. Make sure you write a mark seasoned psychotherapist is the ability to discern when a higher extent of care is essential in order to help keep clients safe, ease them through an acute cr, or manage worsening psychiatric symptoms or dysfunction.