In our ongoing mission to provide excellent mental health and substance use treatment across the lifespan, Gosnold is proud to announce that we are expanding our Partial Hospitalization Programs (PHPs) to underserved regions of the state.
While PHPs are highly effective in helping individuals through an important and vulnerable time in their recovery journey, people are often neither aware of this level of care nor its function.
Our PHPs serve individuals with a dual diagnosis in a group setting. Many of these individuals enrolled in a partial hospitalization program have just completed an inpatient and/or detoxification stay. While some are experiencing mental health symptoms that do not require inpatient hospitalization, but still necessitates significant care.
PHP recognizes that in order to effectively maintain the progress made during an inpatient stay and/or to decrease mental health symptom intensity, such patients would benefit from a highly supportive bridge setting that provides daily care. By doing so, PHP fills an important gap between inpatient hospitalization and engaging in outpatient treatment, e.g., individual psychotherapy and recovery meetings.
In this “intentional community” setting, patients are “partially hospitalized.” They attend clinician-led group sessions for 5 hours a day for 2-4 weeks with peers who are experiencing similar situations. While in the program they have access to both a medication provider and individual counselor but return to their homes and communities each evening.
Our groups focus on skill development and psychoeducation, with group topics ranging from coping skills, to cognitive-behavioral techniques, to relapse prevention planning and more. While in a PHP, patients are given time to incubate their wellness and to solidify tools for recovery while they make connections with supportive peers and professionals.
This combination of factors has been shown to result in significant outcomes for patients. In a study of a PHP over a 15-month period Lieberman et al. (2020) found that 92% of patients experienced symptom improvement and only 5% were readmitted within 30 days. However, they also found that many patients still had significant behavioral problems at discharge.
PHPs also have a keen focus on aftercare planning. By providing the patient with an appropriate care and support plan upon discharge, this gives the patient the opportunity and support they need to continue to successfully navigate their recovery journey. Typically, aftercare consists of a referral to an individual therapist, a medication provider, or a vocational program.
PHPs provide a vital bridge and arena of support for patients at a time where their recovery may be most delicate. They foster connections with peers and professionals in a supportive group setting while allowing the patient to remain in their community.
Gosnold currently provides Partial Hospitalization Programs in Stoughton and Centerville, as well as a virtual program serving the entire state of Massachusetts. Please also look for our new programs opening soon! Gosnold has immediate availability for both mental health and co-occurring tracks, to make a referral please reach out to (508) 274-4477 or krosario@gosnold.org.
References
Lieberman P.B., Gentes E., Russell S.A. (2020). Predictors of Outcome of Acute Partial Hospitalization: An
Exploratory Study. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 208(3), 194-200.
