Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP)
Intensive Outpatient Programs offer a number of benefits to patients who need behavioral healthcare but do not need a residential program. Our IOP gives patients that freedom to come and go to each session, and to return home every evening.
TMC Behavioral Health offers an Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) that provides weekday treatment to adults who are experiencing:
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Emotional problems
- An inability to carry out daily activities
- A significant decrease in their ability to function and interact at home or work with family, friends or co-workers
- Substance abuse
The Intensive Outpatient Program at TMC Behavioral Health includes:
- Group therapy sessions
- Development of interpersonal skills, coping skills, and relaxation skills
- Management of symptoms
- Mood stabilization
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) emphasizes the important role of thinking in how we feel and what we do. CBT says that when our brains are healthy, it is our thinking that causes us to feel and act the way we do, and we can control that to some degree.
- Relapse management
Program Philosophy
We provide a holistic approach to the entire treatment process. This holistic approach simply means that we attempt to bring about positive changes in each patient’s life by addressing the following areas:
- Physical
- Emotional
- Cognitive
- Functional
- Psychological
- Social
- Spiritual
Our approach involves the utilization of trained counseling staff. The counselor will engage the patient in an assessment process designed to evaluate all of the areas above. After the assessment process, a specific treatment plan is developed and reviewed by the staff and the patient.
The program is group-focused, with the belief that the group process is very effective in bringing about change by sharing common experiences with others who have experienced similar life difficulties. In our program, group therapy is the main strategy of treatment.
Outpatient Treatment Team and Process
Clinical Social Worker/Licensed Professional Counselor
The Clinical Social Worker/Licensed Professional Counselor is responsible for completing the psychosocial assessment, assisting the team in the development of treatment plans and conducting group therapy, and assists in the development and implementation of discharge plans. This also includes helping the patient or family contact resources outside the hospital, which may be used to carry on the recovery process after outpatient discharge has taken place.
Group Therapy
Group therapy is the backbone of our treatment program. It affords each patient an opportunity to develop a support base by sharing common experiences with other patients who
have had similar difficulties in their lives. Often, the simple knowledge that we are not alone in our difficulties can provide a healing experience.
Education Groups
Gaining a better understanding of the factors that lead to a need for treatment and being exposed to some tried and true courses of action can aide in a speedier recovery. Opportunities are presented in education groups to learn new coping skills, what pitfalls to avoid after leaving the hospital, and vital information such as the need for and effects of medications. Education groups are geared to let each individual gain better insight into themselves as people.
Advantages to Group Programming
- Through the interpersonal interactions, the group gives a sense of belonging
- Receiving and imparting information
- Increases hopefulness of members
- A realization that others experience similar thoughts, feelings and actions
- In sharing part of ourselves with others, we start healing
- A good place to interact with others and learn social skills
- A place to imitate healthy behaviors demonstrated by others in the group
- A good place to learn of distortions in perceptions by having exchanges with peers
- A chance to help each other deal with the meaning of our existence
- A safe place to express feelings we have hidden or suppressed
- Therapeutic collective identity with the members of the group
- A place to learn to see the world through the perceptions of others
- The group can be a corrective family to alter our experiences obtained in our biological families
Hours of Operation
The Intensive Outpatient Program at TMC Behavioral Health Center operates Monday, Wednesday and Friday, from 8:45 a.m. to noon. Lunch is provided.