Outpatient Versus Residential Mental Treatment Discussed On Health Insight Treatment Hour

On the Insight Treatment Hour, a discussion about trauma and teens requiring mental health treatment in an outpatient versus residential treatment program.

Outpatient versus residential mental health treatments were discussed on this week’s Insight Treatment Hour on KHTS, with Ascend Healthcare’s Seamus McKeon and Brittany Cohen featured as guests.

“I think for the kids, it’s obviously a combination of things,” Cohen said. “Living with six kids who have similar situations or similar emotions or are struggling in the same way, is obviously impactful.”

Cohen, who is the executive director of Ascend, described the benefits of teens joining a residential program such as Ascend’s as opposed to an Intensive Outpatient (IOP) program like the Insight Treatment Center.

Cohen went into the benefits of teens finding peers who share similar struggles and life circumstances, leading them to feel a sense of community.

“Let’s say your child is in a full-day program and yet there are still some behaviors that are going on at home that are contributing to a lot of ‘un-safety’,” Cohen said. “Then, I would say, most of the time the provider would make a recommendation for a higher level of care.”

McKeon, Ascend’s business development director, also described different cases when parents do not have the fortitude to be able to face their teens, in which case a residential program may be an ideal situation.

Both options may be useful, with IOP being considered first and a healthcare provider potentially recommending residential should it become apparent that it is needed.

“There’s so many different stressors that our kids had to endure,” Cohen said. “I think that trauma is something that is just really impacting all of our kids.”

For further information about the Insight Treatment Center and its services, click here.

To watch the episode and hear more about Ascend Healthcare, click here.