The numerous ways to engage in addiction rehab can be confusing at first. There are residential, outpatient, and intensive outpatient programs. In an outpatient program, you live at home and engage in treatment when you visit the rehab center during set times during the week. The differences between a low-intensity and an intensive outpatient program (IOP) have to do with your weekly time commitment.
Connect with us today to learn about your intensive outpatient program options at Pennsylvania Adult and Teen Challenge (PAATC). All our rehab options offer evidence-based therapies that are proven effective in supporting your recovery. Call 888.546.2579 or submit our online form to speak to a knowledgeable professional.
What Is an IOP?
As you might expect from the name, an intensive outpatient program is a step up from regular outpatient treatment. Unlike inpatient rehab, which has the highest level of intensity and requires the most significant time commitment, an IOP allows you to live at home and maintain ties to family, work, and other commitments.
You might consider IOP options based on your response to the following:
- Would it be challenging to commit to an inpatient program based on your responsibilities?
- Do you have a reliable support system at home?
- Do you not qualify for residential rehab but want a higher level of care?
- Do you have a co-occurring disorder?
- Have you relapsed in the past?
If the answer to many or all of the above is yes, an IOP may be ideal for you. You can determine more about how IOP can help by speaking with the clinicians who would create your treatment plan. At PAATC, it is important to all of us that you can receive the right treatment protocol for you.
Intensive Outpatient Program Options
If you enroll in an IOP, your time commitment options range from 10 to 30 hours per week. The goals of an IOP program are for you to:
- Participate in support groups such as SMART recovery or a 12-step program
- Actively develop your support system
- Remain abstinent
- Develop or improve problem-solving skills
- Work on and achieve behavioral change through therapy
- Work on skills of daily living, including the navigation of housing, employment, the legal system, and relationships
How Can an IOP Help?
The benefits of an intensive outpatient program are many. For example:
- They have a higher retention rate than a low-intensity outpatient program which directly affects recovery outcomes.
- You will develop a strong support network. Because you will spend time with your home network and your peer network in your IOP, you double your access to both loving supporters and peers with lived experience. Both groups can be instrumental in your recovery.
- There is greater accountability required of you in an outpatient program. Living at home means you have to navigate a world that is not trigger-free and that may contain reminders of your substance use. But you also regularly return to your IOP to process the realities of navigating the outside world responsibly.
- You can remain connected to family and routines. Often people feel that an IOP helps them maintain a feeling of normalcy. They may also feel a sense of accomplishment for balancing some work, school, and family responsibilities with their responsibility to the program and their burgeoning sobriety.
- Your family and you both benefit because you will begin incorporating new communication and relationship skills from day one when you return home from your IOP. Your family can also engage with you in family therapy while in rehab.
Learn About Your Treatment Options at PAATC
You have options for your substance use disorder treatment when you come to PAATC. There are numerous lines of service offered in outpatient, inpatient, and intensive outpatient programs. Our evidence-based therapies are provided by experienced, skilled professionals. Our team has devoted their careers to supporting people just like you, seeking recovery and health. Reach out today. Call 888.546.2579 or fill out our online form. Either way, we’ll be answering all your questions before you know it.
