Outpatient Care for Mental Health Disorders
The Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at UH Rainbow Babies & Children's now offers a new level of mental healthcare for children and adolescents who are exhibiting symptoms of anxiety, depression or other mental health disorders.
Call 440-769-0950 for more information.
Innovative Treatment Programs for Anxiety and Depression
In collaboration with Highland Springs Changes®, UH now offers partial hospitalization and intensive outpatient programs, both of which are valuable for children and adolescents not responding to traditional outpatient care or those who have completed an inpatient course of treatment and are ready to step down to intermediate level care in an outpatient setting. All child and adolescent mental health services are provided in a kid-friendly environment that includes rooms, furniture and open spaces designed to meet the needs of children and adolescents.
Partial Hospitalization Program (PHP)
PHP is the most intensive level of outpatient care offered, providing five hours of therapy per day, five days a week for three weeks. One and a half hours of school time overseen by a certified K-12 teacher, is incorporated into each day. This allows children to get the treatment they need for their mental health while keeping up with their schoolwork. At the end of treatment, they are more easily able to make the transition back to their normal school routine.
Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP)
IOP provides three hours of therapy per day, four days a week for five weeks. There is no school time incorporated into these shorter therapy days.
Symptoms of depression in youth include sadness, irritable mood, sleep and appetite changes, loss of interest in activities, low energy, concentration changes, feeling hopeless, experiencing suicidal thoughts and engaging in self-harming behavior up to and including suicide attempts.
Suicide is the second leading cause of death among youth in our country behind unintentional injury. Nationwide suicide rates, emergency room visits in pediatric hospital emergency rooms, and prevalence of depression have increased over the last decade. While the exact cause of those increases have yet to be identified, bullying and the impact of social media are recognized as contributing risk factors.
A number of youth suicides occur in individuals who have not had an identifiable mental health condition. Therefore, raising awareness remains a high priority. UH and Highland Springs both partner with LifeAct, an organization that provides educational programs to high school and middle school students throughout our region helping youth identify signs of depression in themselves and their peers, and strives to achieve a larger mission of suicide prevention.
What kind of mental health treatments are offered?
Both programs offer evidence-based treatments by master’s level professionals. These services and treatment approaches include:
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy: A counseling approach designed to help patients acquire new skills and change their behaviors.
- Cognitive Behavior Therapy: A type of talk therapy that helps patients become more aware of negative or inaccurate thoughts and feelings, view challenging situations more clearly and respond to them more effectively.
- Group Therapy: A form of psychotherapy that involves one or more therapists working with several patients at the same time.
- Art, music and recreation therapies.
- Yoga, meditation and mindfulness training.
Patients entering both programs meet with a UH mental health provider at admission, during treatment, and at discharge to monitor symptoms, assess safety and manage medications if they are prescribed. The treatment team is constantly assessing the patient’s progress to ensure the current level of care is appropriate and make adjustments when necessary. In addition, family sessions and interventions occur weekly to identify additional goals, review progress, and to encourage the child’s use of the newly acquired coping skills in the home, school, and community setting.
The treatment center is conveniently located at:
Highland Springs Changes
34125 Solon Rd.
Solon, Ohio 44139
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Free transportation is available for patients living up to 25 miles away from the treatment center.
When this level of care is determined to be medically necessary, it is covered by most insurance plans.