Partial Hospital Program??

I've never worked in a partial program, but I've worked in larger psychiatric programs that included a partial program in the range of services we offered, and have taught psych clinical in settings that included a partial program and my students were able to rotate through the partial program, so I've been "up close and personal" with some PH programs. :)

In my experience/observation, partial programs are not "daycare," they are very focused, active psychiatric treatment programs. It's basically the equivalent of inpatient psychiatric hospitalization (the therapy groups and therapeutic activities), but without the "free time" and staying overnight -- all the actual "treatment" stuff packed into a few busy, intense hours instead of being spread out over a full morning/afternoon/evening. Again, just in my own, limited experience, the clients who are candidates for partial programs are motivated and active participants, and they do make substantial progress in the programs.

I'm sure that there are good and bad, strong and weak, partial programs out there, just like anything else. However, insurance companies love partial programs (because they're a lot less expensive than inpatient hospitalization), and I assure you that insurance companies would not be willing to pay for partial programs if they were like "daycare" and providers were not satisfying the insurance companies that they were providing active treatment.

You're welcome. I'm hoping maybe you'll get some additional responses beside just mine -- I hate to think of myself speaking for the entire world of PH programs! :chuckle