Is IOP Mental Health Treatment Right for Me?

The terms “inpatient” and “outpatient” emerge often in healthcare. You may have heard them used in hospital settings, like inpatient surgery, outpatient physical rehab or inpatient speech therapy.  

How do they differ? Inpatient means staying onsite at a facility for a procedure and recovery, while outpatient allows you to go home right after treatment finishes. Inpatient/outpatient is also used for substance abuse and mental health treatment. 

Treatment exists on a continuum of care, and if you’ve considered pursuing mental or behavioral health treatment, it can be difficult to know if inpatient or outpatient treatment for mental health is better for your needs. Not everyone who needs mental health help requires hospitalization at a rehab facility, yet weekly sessions with your therapist may not be rigorous enough. So where does that leave you if you need more structure but don’t require 24/7 care?  

Another option is intensive outpatient care, or IOP, a middle ground meant to bridge the gap between inpatient and outpatient. Like its name suggests, IOP is a more intensive and structured type of care, a step up from outpatient. How does an IOP mental health program compare to other treatment options, and is it the right choice for you?   

What Is an Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) for Mental Health?  

An intensive outpatient program for mental health — sometimes called “structured outpatient” — is a treatment approach for people who can’t manage their symptoms with standard outpatient treatment for mental health but don’t require inpatient care.  

“Structured outpatient provides a more comprehensive treatment experience,” notes the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). “These programs have detailed schedules that use a variety of therapeutic techniques, such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), group process therapy and even holistic practices, like yoga or meditation.”  

Like outpatient treatment, an IOP enables you to engage fully with your therapy regimen and fulfill your other family, work or school responsibilities with enough bandwidth for all.  

This need to balance treatment and outside life without neglecting the other is one reason why IOP gained in popularity in the 1980s, when many working professionals coping with drug addiction and problems with cocaine abuse couldn’t afford to attend therapy and be absent from work. By the 1990s, IOP expanded to include both the substance abuse and mental health treatment common today.  

According to data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, there’s been a recent surge in the abundance of IOPs, with almost 3,000 additional treatment facilities offering IOP mental health services from 2010 to 2020, serving an uptick in guests from 1.2 million to 1.4 million people.  

What Can an IOP for Mental Health Treat? 

Look at inpatient and outpatient programming within the context of substance abuse treatment. Inpatient may best suit someone with a crippling addiction where full detox and a 24/7 focused recovery is necessary. Outpatient, on the other hand, may work best for someone with a more mild-to-moderate substance use disorder who can balance a treatment regimen with their own independence. 

Inpatient and outpatient function the same way for mental health disorders — the former for more severe conditions, the latter for those who can maintain their autonomy every day outside of treatment without the need for constant care. IOP mental health programs further this as a more concentrated version of outpatient therapy. Thankfully, that means mental health IOP can treat a range of disorders:   

IOP for Anxiety Disorders 

The most common mental health disorder in the U.S., anxiety affects more than 40 million people each year, more than 19% of the entire population, notes the Anxiety & Depression Association of America. Conditions like generalized anxiety disorder can manifest through numerous physical and emotional ways like persistent worry, panic attacks, impending fear and phobias, hyperventilation and insomnia. 

IOP for anxiety aims to treat these traits symptomatic with anxiety disorder using techniques like CBT, practicing mindfulness and ACT (acceptance and commitment) therapy — with the goal of confronting the triggers that cause your anxiety and managing them in the day to day.  

IOP for Depressive Disorders 

Lingering feelings of sadness, hollowness and a loss of interest in life, loved ones and the things you once enjoyed are part and parcel of a depressive disorder. Because depression can be so prevalent (21 million adults have experienced at least one depressive episode) and pervasive (depression often co-occurs with drug addiction or other disorders), IOP for depression can serve as a more targeted treatment. 

Whether it’s from one-on-one therapy or group sessions, an intensive outpatient program, mental health can help you to reframe your negative mindset, view the world through a more positive lens, manage mood fluctuations and reconnect with the people and things you value.

IOP for Trauma 

A trauma disorder’s origins can stem from just one traumatic experience, like a natural disaster, accident, war, rape or sexual assault or domestic violence, according to the American Psychiatric Association (APA). And about eight of every 100 women (8% of the population) and four of every 100 men (4%) will suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, in their lifetimes. 

IOP for trauma and IOP for PTSD are deliberately curated and structured to address the gripping effects and symptoms that come with trauma disorders — helping you to process difficult memories through therapies like EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) or trauma-focused CBT.  

IOP for Personality Disorders

“A personality disorder is a mental health condition that involves long-lasting, all-encompassing, disruptive patterns of thinking, behavior, mood and relating to others,” notes the Cleveland Clinic. There are 10 different types of personality disorders ranging from borderline to paranoid, narcissistic to avoidant, and obsessive-compulsive. Personality disorders — which affect 9.1% of the population — are dominated by a symptom called emotional dysregulation, or an inability to regulate and control one’s emotions and subsequent behaviors. 

An IOP treatment center like those with Aliya focuses on mindfulness-based modalities like dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) to help you recognize patterns that contribute to relationship challenges and emotional instability.