Residential Treatment Center for Intensive Patient Care
A residential treatment center is an in-person, therapeutic setting where patients stay overnight to receive an intensive level of care for an extended period of time. This extended treatment program allows individuals to deeply immerse in trauma recovery and learn skills that set the foundation for a journey to a more well-balanced and self-fulfilled life.
The Value of Residential Level of Care
Addiction, trauma, eating disorders, and related co-occurring mental health disorders tend to be family system diseases. An individual receiving care may not be the “sickest” in their family system, but they are the identified patient looking to improve their mental well-being.
In day treatment programs, such as Intensive Outpatient Programs (IOP) or Partial Hospitalization Programs (PHP), clients go home after programming. The home environment needs to be safe, stable, and conducive to supporting all of the progress we make during the day. For those who need extra support, particularly in the evening, residential treatment is considered.
Residential treatment provides the space needed to get out of an unhealthy and/or toxic home environment and optimize the work we do in treatment. Having 24/7 access to you in residential allows our team to help you identify roles taken on in family life that may carry over into treatment, such as the caretaker, or unhealthy behaviors, including codependency and gossiping. We then work on those behavioral issues and develop a treatment plan that addresses individual needs.
Why Residential Treatment vs Outpatient Treatment Options?
The treatment of a physical malady is typically predicated on the severity of the problem. Consider a leg injury: a sprained ankle needs only an Ace bandage; a fractured tibia requires a cast; a completely torn MCL necessitates surgery to heal.
Issues of a psychiatric nature such as disorders or addictions are similar: one size does not fit all. Mild anxiety in an adolescent could be cured with outpatient therapy. This is one-on-one treatment provided by a trained counselor. Substance abuse in a college student may respond well to an intensive outpatient program, in which the person receives individual counseling and participates in groups. An eating disorder in a new mother could be effectively dealt with in a partial hospitalization program. This is much like intensive outpatient but demands more time each week.
However, when a psychiatric illness becomes very complicated or when two or more addictions or disorders are in play, a higher level of care at a residential treatment program is often indicated.
WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES OF RESIDENTIAL TREATMENT CENTERS?
Melissa Rocchi, ATR, LCPC, Executive Director, Northbrook, Naperville and Lincoln Park Chicago on the addition of the SCH Residential Treatment Center in Chicago, IL.
SunCloud Health is not a destination treatment center. Our facility is safe, new, clean, spacious, warm, and inviting.
