Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) Services


Our premier Intensive Outpatient Program offers clinicians and providers an alternative to patient hospitalization, while delivering a more structured level of care as patients de-escalate to outpatient mental health care.




IMMERSIVE TREATMENT

Personalized Programming

Hightop Health’s Intensive Outpatient Program offers critical tools for providers to offer more comprehensive mental health care in a less restrictive, community-based setting and suits those transitioning from more intensive care. Tailored to prevent hospitalization, it features individual, group, and family therapies, along with medication management, allowing patients to maintain their daily commitments while receiving critical support.

Find a Clinic

WHAT TO EXPECT

Intensive Outpatient Program Services Process

Hightop Health offers an IOP option for patients with severe anxiety and depression in need of structured care in a community-based setting.

 

1

INTAKE & EVALUATION

Patients meet with a medical provider for an intake evaluation to determine whether intensive outpatient care is appropriate and to what level of intensity.

 

 

2

PROGRAM OPTIONS

Clinicians and providers will collaborate to determine whether intensive outpatient or partial hospitalization best meets the patient’s needs and develop an individualized care plan.

 

 

3

DE-ESCALATION

Our IOP is centered around preventing traumatic hospitalization and helping patients reintegrate into their normal environments after treatment in a hospital or residential facility.

 

 

HOW IT WORKS

Understanding IOP Services

Hightop Health’s Intensive Outpatient Program represents a significant advancement in mental health care, providing comprehensive and personalized treatment options for individuals with complex conditions, especially major depressive disorder (MDD) and anxiety disorders. Unlike inpatient programs that require patients to reside at a facility, the IOP allows patients to maintain their daily routines while receiving intensive treatment. This flexibility is essential for those who need structured support but cannot commit to full-time hospitalization. The model also encourages patients to practice the new skills they learn in IOP treatment within the “real world,” and then receive feedback from peers and professionals on how to continue to improve.

Led by Raymond Kotwicki, MD, MPH, who is a thought leader and renowned expert in IOP treatment, and backed by evidence-based research, Hightop Health’s IOP includes a robust group therapy curriculum designed to address various mental health issues. The program offers a range of psychotherapy groups, individual and family therapies, and lifestyle medicine interventions, such as physical exercise, nutrition counseling, and mindfulness meditation. Each day is structured to ensure that patients receive holistic care that addresses both their mental and physical health needs.

 

One of the key features of Hightop Health’s IOP is the integration of normed measurements and assessments into each curriculum module. This approach allows for continuous tracking of patient progress and adjustment of treatment plans as needed, ensuring that each patient receives the most effective care possible.

Furthermore, every therapy group is linked to evidence-based resources, such as textbooks, worksheets, or journal articles, making the program highly replicable for clinicians and providers throughout our community of clinics, ensuring that all care provided is grounded in the latest research.

 

 

GET ANSWERS

Frequently Asked Questions

Find answers to commonly asked questions about Hightop Health’s Intensive Outpatient Program.

 

 

IOPs and PHPs are immersive treatment options for patients with major depressive disorder and anxiety disorders. They provide intermediate levels of care via full-day and half-day programming, allowing for a predictable, safe environment and peer groups to assist with acceptance, normalization, and strategies to generalize skills at an accelerated pace.

 

 

Hightop Health’s IOP features a half-day program that can be three to five days a week, with onsite psychiatric and care coordination services. Programming days can last three to four hours, and the average length of stay can reach 12 weeks.

 

 

Patients possibly needing hospitalization or more structured treatment than intensive outpatient care can provide may be a better fit for our Partial Hospitalization Program. This program is a full-day program, five days a week, that incorporates psychiatry and medication management, as well as after-hours coaching and safety planning for enrolled patients. Programming days can last four to six hours, and the average length of stay is around four weeks.

 

At the time patients are well enough to return to work, school, or some other regular daytime commitment in addition to continuing psychiatric treatment, they may be ready to engage in an IOP. Many IOPs are connected with PHPs and actually include the same curricula and patients in a “step-down” model in which these patients progress from the PHP to the IOP based on improvements in their symptoms and functionality.

 

 

Patients who may benefit from the IOP include those experiencing a recent acute mental health event, persistent mental health struggles that have led to significant impairment in multiple realms of functioning, have a history of psychiatric hospitalization or emergency room visits due to mental health escalation, have a possible need for psychiatric evaluation for medication evaluation, are discharging from a psychiatric hospital or residential treatment center, have experienced previous outpatient attempts that have not been successful, or who benefits from highly structured treatment environments.

 

 

Related Blog Posts

Explore topics related to the various mental health care treatments and areas of specialty offered by our top-tier clinicians and support staff.

 

 

  • Mental Health Champions: Why & How Brent Turnipseed Of Roots Behavioral Health Is Helping To Champion Mental Wellness

    Asa part of our series about Mental Health Champions helping to promote mental wellness, I had the pleasure to interview Brent Turnipseed….

    Read More

  • Is There a Safe Sleeping Medication I Can Take?

    If you’ve tried all the non-medication suggestions to help you sleep and you’re still having issues, sleeping medications can be…

    Read More

  • Antidepressant Pills Don’t Help Me! What Do I Do Next?

    For the last several decades, treatment of depression consisted of either anti-depressant medications or psychotherapy or some combination of the…

    Read More

  • Wellness Reimagined

    5 Things That Should Be Done To Improve and Reform The Health & Wellness Industry In our world of constant…

    Read More

  • Can’t Sleep? What You Can Do Before Getting on Sleeping Pills.

    There are many reasons why you may not be able to sleep. The number one reason is poor sleep habits….

    Read More

  • Should You Believe in Science?

    Strange question but more people are asking it in the last few years especially with confusion, misinformation, and politicization around…

    Read More
Load More
Blog Post Image

Mental Health Champions: Why & How Brent Turnipseed Of Roots Behavioral Health Is Helping To Champion Mental Wellness

Asa part of our series about Mental Health Champions helping to promote mental wellness, I had the pleasure to interview Brent Turnipseed….

Learn More
Blog Post Image

Is There a Safe Sleeping Medication I Can Take?

If you’ve tried all the non-medication suggestions to help you sleep and you’re still having issues, sleeping medications can be…

Learn More
Blog Post Image

Antidepressant Pills Don’t Help Me! What Do I Do Next?

For the last several decades, treatment of depression consisted of either anti-depressant medications or psychotherapy or some combination of the…

Learn More
Blog Post Image

Wellness Reimagined

5 Things That Should Be Done To Improve and Reform The Health & Wellness Industry In our world of constant…

Learn More
Blog Post Image

Can’t Sleep? What You Can Do Before Getting on Sleeping Pills.

There are many reasons why you may not be able to sleep. The number one reason is poor sleep habits….

Learn More
Blog Post Image

Should You Believe in Science?

Strange question but more people are asking it in the last few years especially with confusion, misinformation, and politicization around…

Learn More
quotes

“In the psychiatric treatment landscape, residential treatment, PHPs, and IOPs fill an extremely important piece of the care continuum. These options often prevent inpatient hospitalization for patients with acute symptoms and may offer more intensive treatment for patients whose needs cannot be met by outpatient care.”

– Raymond Kotwicki, MD, MPH

 

Medical Director, Hightop Health IOP

 




Learn More About Our Intensive Outpatient Program Today

Get In Touch