Intensive Outpatient Program     

The Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) is a highly structured, intensive program for individuals who are high utilizers of mental health services.  Services are provided to assist the consumer in gaining the skills needed to reduce and manage their symptoms and reduce their risk of hospitalization.  IOP offers a modified dialectic behavioral therapy approach to the consumer who needs a structured and supportive environment in which they learn alternative ways to manage crisis and symptoms of their mental illness.

The consumer in IOP typically has experienced problems in vocational and educational settings and in his/her relationships with others due to maladaptive coping skills.  IOP utilizes an educational skills training format in which consumers are viewed as students.  They participate in a variety of classes and groups usually spending between nine and twenty hours per week.  The average length of stay is between twelve and eighteen months and consumers are expected to attend five to nine sessions of treatment per week.  The skill building classes and groups are specifically designed to help consumers maintain relationship, manage crisis, and enhance emotional regulation.

A team of professionals that includes a psychiatrist, a supervisor, therapists, case managers and a nurse provide this intensive and time-limited treatment.