Around the turn of the century, the drug rehab industry started putting more emphasis on offering patients a wider range of treatment options. In a lot of cases, inpatient treatment is still preferred and necessary. However, not every patient requires that level of care. That’s when an outpatient treatment programs becomes a viable option.
What a lot of people don’t know is there are two primary types of outpatient care. There’s the regular primary care option and there’s an intensive outpatient care option. As one might suspect, these two options are vastly different, mostly in how they are applied. Let’s take a look at the relevant differences.
The Differences Between Outpatient Treatment and Intensive Outpatient Treatment
At a base level, outpatient programs are made available for patients with certain circumstances, including:
- Inability to cover the cost of inpatient care
- Follow up treatment after inpatient care
- Personal responsibilities that make inpatient care impractical
- Mild to moderate addiction issues
By the way, some outpatient programs get combined with a partial hospitalization option. This allows the patient to participate in a medically monitored detox program and begin therapy until the counselors feels the patient is ready to work through an outpatient program. As for which outpatient program makes the most sense, here’s a few differences to consider between outpatient and intensive outpatient treatment:
Time Commitment
Most outpatient programs allow patients to carry on with normal, everyday responsibilities, reporting to the rehab facility for 3-4 therapy sessions a week. Intensive outpatient programs require a patient to report to rehab every day where they will spend as many as eight hours participating in group and individual group therapy sessions.
Level of Treatment
Obviously, a program that requires more time is going to provide a higher level of care. Outpatient programs tend to focus on the basics of addition treatment. That might include therapy to discover causation and the building of coping skills. Intensive outpatient programs deal with serious addictions and possible psychological issues. Many of these patients belong in inpatient programs, but need a different alternative for a variety of reasons.
If you would like more information about our outpatient treatment programs, we encourage you to call one of our counselors at 833-846-5669. If you need help fighting an addiction, this is a call you can’t afford to not make.