Types Of Programs
The following overview will give you a sense of the types of treatment programs that exist and whom these programs serve. Understanding the types of treatment services available can be a helpful first step to making a good treatment choice for your child. For additional help understanding your options, please visit our pages describing educational consultants and read our informative papers, written by Fulshear and InnerChange clinical staff and describing a variety of adolescent emotional and behavioral issues.
While there are numerous types of programs for young people struggling with emotional and behavioral problems, they can be broadly grouped in three main categories: Intervention and Assessment, Treatment, and Transition.
Stabilization and Assessment
Hospitals
What: Short-term, hospital-based psychiatric programs
Who: Patients who are psychotic or at immediate risk of harm to self or others
When: During a psychiatric emergency
Why: To stabilize, typically for referral to longer-term treatment
Wilderness Therapy
What: Short to medium term program utilizing a wilderness setting for therapeutic purposes
Who: Adolescents struggling with a wide range of behavioral or emotional problems
When: Behavioral or emotional issues are threatening the well-being of the young person and/or others
Why: To interrupt or end a pattern of poor choices and to assess the need for further treatment
Detoxification Program
What: A medical treatment center for chemical addiction
Who: Patients who need medical supervision in order to safely detoxify
When: Prior to placement in a long-term addictions treatment program
Why: To safely clear the system of chemicals that would impede treatment
Treatment
Residential Treatment Program
What: A program that combines therapy, psychiatric support, and schooling
Who: Adolescents who are stable enough to engage a long-term program of personal growth
and therapy, but who need the structure of residential care
When: Entrenched psychological or psychiatric issues need to be resolved for long-term well being
Why: To gain insights, tools, and habits necessary for lifelong mental health
Out-Patient Treatment
What: A program that allows the young person to live at home and attend school or work during
the treatment process
Who: Clients who are fully compliant with treatment and whose behaviors do not seriously
interfere with functioning at home, school, or work
When: When the adolescent voluntarily seeks help with emotional issues
Why: To allow a least-restrictive treatment option for compliant, engaged patients
Psychiatric Hospital
What: A hospital for long-term psychiatric treatment
Who: Severely mentally or emotionally disturbed patients requiring long-term psychiatric care
When: When the patient requires long-term supervision, containment, and medical treatment
Why: To have a long-term option for severely mentally ill patients
Transition
Young Adult Program
What: Program with the features of long-term treatment, but designed to prepare young adults
for independence
Who: Young adults (17+) who need a combination of treatment and life skills
When: When a young adult needs therapeutic and life-skills preparation for independent living or college
Why: To prepare young people to cope with life on their own
Step Down Programs
What: A lighter version of a treatment program - typically in the form of a highly structured
boarding school with therapy
Who: Young people who are compliant with the treatment process and do not require intensive treatment
When: Typically following a successful wilderness or residential treatment experience
Why: To keep the young person in an environment that supports gains made in treatment
Community-Based Programs
What: Day programs that allow the client or patient to live at home and attend school or work
Who: Adolescents who need support, but possess adequate coping skills to remain at home
When: Typically following successful treatment
Why: To provide support for a successful transition home or to independence
Halfway Houses
What: A residential program that provides sobriety support along with access to work
opportunities and normalized community involvement
Who: Chemically addicted clients who have had a successful treatment experience but require
moderate to intensive support
When: Following a residential chemical dependency treatment program
Why: To increase probability of long-term sobriety
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