Partial Hospitalization Program

Partial hospitalization programs (PHP)s are essential components in many people’s clinical recovery journey. PHPs often come after residential treatment stays in clinical recovery programs. These programs offer a greater structure for the patient’s day than an intensive outpatient program (IOP) but they are less intensive than residential treatment. Here at Silver Linings Recovery Center we are dedicated to you and your newfound road to recovery.

About Partial Hospitalization Programs

Someone who is going through a PHP will generally be at the treatment facility for around 8 hours a day, 5-6 days a week. One of the biggest differences in residential treatment and a PHP is the patient lives at home throughout the PHP instead of at the clinic.

This can be very beneficial to the patient as it frees up some of their time in the evening. The individual can use this time to be with their family and take care of things that might need to be done around the house that they might not be able to take care of in residential treatment. 

A person who has just left residential treatment might have a hard time taking care of bills, providing some domestic care for children and other dependent relatives, and getting some other smaller responsibilities taken care of to prevent them from piling up further. If the person who is starting their road to recovery does not have significant help, they are in danger of relapsing. 

PHPs are structured to be both clinically helpful and supportive. This way the recovering individual is not immediately thrown into any stressful situations they might have been dealing with outside the clinic. Instead they are given the opportunity to start to readjust to life outside the clinic in a more structured and supportive way.

This also puts the program in a better position to be helpful as you learn to accept the things you cannot change and change the things you can. This change is accomplished through therapy as you take a look at what started you down the road to addiction and how you can stop yourself from repeating that pattern.

Therapy in a Partial Hospitalization Program

Before coming to therapy substances such as alcohol, opioids, and other harmful substances were the most important thing to you and nothing else mattered enough to get between you and these substances. Instead of trying to get your next dose we help our clients constructively and enjoyably spend their newfound free time with new hobbies. These hobbies can even become family interests and help bring you closer to your loved ones.

Therapy is also a very major part of the treatment process. Some of the possible components of PHPs are:

Individual Therapy

During individual therapy you will have the opportunity to further work on the issues and build on the progress you made in residential treatment. It is important to avoid holding back information or problems that might be affecting you and/or might have led you down the path of addiction. 

Some things might feel embarrassing or even very painful to talk about. But therapy works to help you address these issues in a healthy and productive way. Exploring your challenges is an important part of the healing process. You don’t need to feel ashamed of what happened or what you did while under the power of the substances that once controlled your life. You need to use the tools in clinical programs to start to heal.

Group Therapy

During group therapy sessions, you and your groupmates will have the opportunity to help each other with issues that you might all face. You can also discuss issues that you might not have thought of that might have helped lead you down to the road to addiction. You might also be inspired to talk about issues that you still need to work on in individual therapy as well.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

CBT is a well-known and well-respected form of therapy. Unlike traditional talk therapy CBT seeks to change harmful behavior patterns instead of working with past trauma. 

Family Support Therapy

Addiction is a powerful, negative, state and it often pulls families apart. As you begin your road to recovery, family therapy is a powerful tool to help you connect with your family in a positive way. Your sessions will be moderated by a professional who will help keep the dialog productive and mediate when powerful issues arise during the therapy.  

Life Skills Development

This program might teach you how to reclaim your independence by relearning crucial life lessons and healthy patters such as health management and time management. The development of life skills also helps people to learn more about self-care.

Self-care involves actions like saying goodbye to harmful friends and/or family members. It also involves learning basic hygiene practices that might have been ignored during your active addiction. Finally, self-care involves learning to take responsibility for paying bills, and other domestic necessities. 

Art Therapy and Other Alternative Therapies

Sometimes patients have difficulty expressing themselves verbally. Art therapy allows patients to express themselves in a way they may feel more comfortable with. Alternative therapies like art therapy might also break up the day between more verbally based therapies. 

Music therapy and pet therapy are all possible therapeutic options you might encounter during your PHP. You will not be forced to participate in all therapies, especially pet therapy. While pets can do a lot of good for people in a therapeutic setting, we understand that patients might not be responsive to all therapies, including pet therapy. 

Medication Management

Learning how to properly manage your medication and learning strategies to avoid the temptation to abuse your prescribed medication it is a central part of our PHP. Not only will you learn how to properly use your medication you will be shown strategies to help you know what to do if you miss a dose, unexpectedly run out of your medication, if you are going somewhere you cannot take your medication, or fall into a variety of other situations in which taking your medication may be difficult.  

Many PHP programs also provide education on nutrition and physical activity. When people start to go into a downward spiral it is often nutrition and physical activity that are among the first self-care factors to go. Some people slide into addiction because they are too busy taking care of others and drinking, pain pills, methamphetamine, etc. are used in the place of self-care. Self-medication is self-care turned toxic. 

The Benefits of PHPs

Although they are not as time-consuming as a residential treatment in which you live on the medical campus all day, PHPs are still very intense. They are in no way an optional step for people who are coming out of a residential treatment program. It might seem like the bulk of your work was done during residential treatment, but there is still much to explore.

Suddenly coming from such a controlled environment to having no structure and often no therapeutic help is overwhelmingly a bad choice for most people with addiction disorders. This is why PHPs are so important. They are a bridge from complete structure to more freedom and individual choices.

One of the problems that stem from going straight from a residential treatment program to everyday life is the possible presence of a dual diagnosis, or co-occurring disorders. “Co-occurring disorders” is a term for when one or more mental health disorders are present in the same person who has an addiction disorder at the same time.

Some people might not be aware they have co-occurring disorders until they get an assessment at a clinic. Not only must your co-occurring disorders be treated in order for you to start to heal, but treatment for these disorders can also take some time. While many medications take a few days to start showing benefits, other medications might take weeks. Just because the medication takes a while does not mean it is not the one for you. Treating co-occurring disorders is a delicate, but necessary, process if you have a dual diagnosis. 

A PHP is one of the most essential programs for people who are struggling with addiction. These programs take time because there is no magic solution to an addiction disorder. Recovering from a serious condition such as an addiction disorder is a life long journey. We at Silver Linings Recovery Center are here for you every step of the way. 

Contact Silver Lining Recovery Center Today!

With locations in Langhorne, Pennsylvania and East Windsor, New Jersey we are near many locations such as Philadelphia, Doylestown, Yardley, Quakertown, Princeton, Hamilton, Trenton, Pennington and many more. This places patients within a convenient driving distance from their homes to our center.

For more information about our treatment center and how we can help you, please contact us today! Our professional treatment staff is here to help you through our comprehensive programs. Just reach out to us to find out how our programs can assist you on your journey to complete and total freedom!