Mental Health IOP

Coping Skills Training

The Coping Skills Training aspects of the program consist of teaching rational behavior problem solving skills to reduce depression and anxiety symptoms. Cognitive behavioral therapy is one of the most well validated psychology based treatment approaches to therapy and is considered to be a main component of our IOP. Core Psycho-educational groups are organized around Cognitive Behavior Therapy; Assertiveness Training; Anxiety Management; Anger Management; Problem Solving; Crisis Management; Grief Work; Setting Boundaries; Identification of Feelings; Co-dependency; Pain Management; Coping with Depression and Coping with Anxiety. Crisis situations or conflictual relationships are anticipated, action plans developed, behavioral deficits identified, and adaptive coping behavioral strategies are rehearsed and strengthened while in treatment.

Physical Symptoms

The Physical aspects of the program are concerned with counseling about bodily processes that may be associated with depression or anxiety. Physical symptoms such as insomnia, panic, pain, and other medical illnesses may be exacerbated by, or result from untreated depression and / or anxiety. Treatment in the physical domain may consist of Relaxation training, stress management, living with chronic illness, and pain management, as examples of some typical subject areas addressed. Psychotropic medication may also be helpful in addressing biochemical treatment to your condition and may be prescribed by one of our psychiatrists.

The foci of various Core groups take on different content areas, depending on the individual needs of the group participants. For example, coping with depression, anxiety, loss, out of control teens, work place problems, conflict management, and self defeating behavioral patterns, are some of the topics that may be addressed. In receiving counseling about coping skills, identified problem areas are utilized to teach skills that provide new strategies or solutions. Cognitive behavior therapy, anger management, anxiety management, assertiveness training and skill generalization are used throughout the treatment program. Daily homework assignments, self-monitoring, diaries, etc. are frequently used to develop and maintain coping strategies.

Collaborative Care

We welcome the opportunity to collaborate with your other treating providers in the community. We may also supplement IOP with other treatment modalities available in the Memphis area, such as individual, couples or family therapy, support groups, church, Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), Al-Anon, Narcotics Anonymous, Smartrecovery etc.

Summary of Published Mental Health IOP Outcome Research Results

90% of the patients admitted to this IOP suffer from severe depression with co-morbid Axis I diagnoses (49%), usually anxiety.  80% had already been prescribed antidepressants, but these were not enough to return the individual to their baseline level of functioning and additional treatment was warranted.  71% have complicating personality characteristics, 55% have co-existing medical disorders and 70% of those were pain related.  32% had an average of 2 previous psychiatric inpatient admissions, usually for depression.

25% of those with previous inpatient admissions had more than 3 prior admissions prior to coming to our IOP.  74% of our IOP admissions were experiencing suicidal ideation at the time of Intake, but with careful planning, we were able to effectively and safely treat these patients while they remained at home. In our ongoing research, we have proven that this treatment program is effective in treating severe depression for the majority of patients.  Our IOP is comprised of evidence based psychological treatments and we have calculated a dose : response relationship between the average length of time in treatment and the average patient rating of depression symptoms in each week.  As you can see in the first dose : response graph, this treatment has proven to be very effective for reducing depression.

In fact, you can see the dose : response graph for patients diagnosed with anxiety disorders, in addition to a depressive disorder, in the second graph.  These patients started our intensive outpatient program with severe anxiety symptoms that often rise to the level of phobic anxiety.  This includes symptoms such as feeling fearful without apparent reason, heart palpitations, episodes of terror or panic, thoughts and images of a frightening nature and avoiding people, places or things because they are reminders of traumatic events.  Diagnostically, these symptoms represent those with generalized anxiety disorder, post traumatic stress disorder, social anxiety disorder and phobic levels of anxiety. Furthermore, our research shows that our typical patient experiences significant more anxiety than both local and national inpatients, but we are able to successfully treat these people in our intensive outpatient program while they live at home.  On average, 75% of patients of these patients who are diagnosed with both depression and an anxiety disorder significantly reduce their anxiety symptoms, in addition to their depression, if they complete our treatment program. We have produced similar results with our intensive outpatient treatment program for individuals suffering from substance abuse, stress and other psychiatric disorders.  Only 3-4% of all treated patients were referred to an inpatient psychiatric hospital and these were due to concerns for their safety.  Just like other forms of treatment, to receive the best results you must receive the proper dose of treatment for the recommended duration of time.

These findings are very remarkable when you consider that on average, MHR’s IOP patients start treatment with more severe symptoms than both Memphis and nationally hospitalized patients. 

Also, 79% of MHR’s depressed patients who complete treatment improve, and up to 90% of these started treatment feeling suicidal. Similar outcomes have been demonstrated for anxiety, general psychiatric distress and other psychiatric disorders as well.  Only 3-4% of all treated patients were referred to any higher level of care and these were due to concerns for their safety .

As you can see in the Table to the left, our consumers consistently report extremely high overall patient satisfaction ratings, averaging 3.7 on a scale of 1 to 4, where  1 = very unsatisfied and 4 = very satisfied. Our clients strongly recommend our program, based on the quality of service and helpfulness of treatment.

Our dual diagnosis treatment outcome and treatment satisfaction study was recently included in an international systematic review of client satisfaction in dual diagnosis treatment programs. This independent, international review found that our overall treatment satisfaction was among the highest in the world.