10 Important Things You Should Know About Intensive Outpatient Programs

Most hospitals and medical professionals know that dealing with addiction and going through recovery are both difficult endeavors. They are made no easier by the complexity of the modern world. Does insurance cover addiction recovery? Can you even get insured if you’re an addict?

In a perfect world, neither you nor the hospital would have to worry about such convoluted nonsense. But fortunately for both groups, there have been infrastructures set up for helping addicts get to their recovery much more easily. One of these is “intensive outpatient programs”.

But what is an intensive outpatient program? If you have not spent much time in the medically assisted addiction recovery world, then that is probably a bunch of gibberish to you.

Intensive Outpatient Programs

What we intend to do today is go step by step, word by word, to explore what intensive outpatient programs are and what they can offer someone who is fighting their addiction.

1. If You Need Freedom, Get an IOP

Intensive outpatient programs are great for people who need frequent check-ins with their hospital, but still want the freedom to transport themselves, go to work, and hangout with friends and family outside the context of whatever facility is giving them their care.

That makes them a great option for people who have existing obligations, or just prefer their own place of living during their recovery and treatment.

2. You can Get Them at Any Time

The way most people shape their expectations is that they expect things to either completely conform to their needs or completely oppose them. For instance, a lot of addicts will get it into their head that a recovery program has to be built to help everyone but them.

As a result, they expect an IOP to cater to other people. If the addict is starting their recovery, they expect the IOP to be for people who are already partway through. If they are partway through, they expect it to be for people who are just starting. Neither is true; you can get started with an intensive outpatient program no matter where you are in your recovery.

3. They are Intensive in a Particular Way

One of the most common concerns regarding intensive outpatient programs is that because they are described as “intensive” then they must be difficult or intense.

They can be, but not in the way you might think. For a treatment to be intensive it just has to be frequent and involve medical intervention. And remember, medication is a form of medical intervention. Don’t be scared off just because it calls itself intensive.

4. They are for More Than Drug Addiction

Remember, you can get an intensive outpatient for more than just drug addiction. They are most commonly associated with drug addiction, but they can also be prescribed for eating disorders.

Technically speaking, they originate in ordinary medicine. A person with a chronic colon condition, for example, will usually take part in an intensive outpatient program.

5. They Will Get You Appointments Easier

Getting involved in an intensive outpatient program means making the effort to show up multiple times a week to talk about your ongoing condition. As a result, you will make use of a facility that is prepared to handle these frequent appointments.

This can help get rid of a lot of red tape surrounding frequent visits.

Read: Health and Wellness for Studying Nurses

6. They are More Cost Efficient

On a related note, you are basically using an intensive outpatient procedure to “buy in bulk”. Rather than paying for each check-in individually, your cost will be modified by the fact that you are getting them all at once. You just have to stay on top of them.

7. They Have Lots of Options

Due to the fact that you will be visiting a hospital multiple times a week, you are probably curios as to what you are doing there. There are a lot of possibilities, mostly dependent upon what your doctor thinks is best for you, as well as what your own personal preferences are.

For instance, it can be as simple as getting your medication filled (or checked, if they are worried you are overmedicating yourself). But it can include therapy sessions, physical exams, or even life guidance.

8. Therapy Comes in Various Sizes

Not everyone wants to go to therapy, but many IOPs will heavily recommend it. The main reason is that it universally helps people undergoing recovery.

But because they know that not everyone wants to do therapy, many facilities offer a variety of forms of therapy. These can include anonymous therapy that is done through a computer, solo therapy with an assigned therapist, and group therapy with other people in recovery.

9. Procedures can be Fast and Simple

As much as these programs offer, do not go thinking that they are meant to take up all your time. A lot of an intensive outpatient program is built around letting the patient live their life while still getting care. This means you can cancel appointments and resolve them fast if you need to.

10. IOPs are Built Through Evidence Based Research

Mistrusting the medical field has been a national past time for a while now. People’s standards have raised for what they consider a trustworthy source of medical care. Luckily, IOPs were developed through a series of extremely rigorous scientific trials.

There is no mystery or soft science in how IOPs operate. The treatment you get will be designed with knowledge gained through decades of dealing with drug addiction, mental health, and whatever other factors are relevant to combating the problems that bring you there.

Conclusion

It takes a lot more courage than you might think to commit to an intensive outpatient program. Even if you are outpatient, and living at home, rather than living at the hospital through an inpatient program, it can still feel like you are being heavily monitored and almost babied.

But that feeling is an illusion. People feel that way because these programs care in a way that much of modern society does not. Let us know if we can help you find an IOP for you: https://epiphanywellness.com/