I'm going to an intake (evaluation/show-and-tell) session at a psychiatric partial hospitalization program, due to severe social anxiety, ADHD and most importantly my current acute bipolar depressive episode. What kinds of questions should I be asking? How should I prepare?
The session is supposed to take around two hours. The
program is a general one that helps people with all kinds of serious mental illnesses and also substance abuse problems. This intake session is supposed to be me plus a social worker and maybe a brief conversation with a psychiatrist - I was really super nervous on the phone (they won't tell me anything via email) so I didn't do well on getting the exact details.
I already plan to bring a list of my current medications, the notes I made for therapy since January, a prioritized list of the things that are making it hard for me to function, fourteen years' worth of blood tests, and contact information for my entire support team. I'll also have insurance paperwork (certification numbers, contact info, etc.)
The only questions I've been able to come up with are:
- what are the rules that they have for conduct within the program,
- how am I supposed to know if it's helping,
- will they be helping to optimize my medications,
- what will determine when I stop,
- do they know a lot about how to deal with comorbid anxiety/bipolar/ADHD/etc.,
- why should I go here instead of the
other hospital in the area,
- is this really the right level of care for me, and
- are they really going to make me do group therapy when I'm terrified of strangers and groups.
I have no idea what else to prepare, and I feel like I must be missing something because my gosh this is
partial hospitalization we're talking about here (they also have an evening program, so they could suggest anything from 7 hours a day, 5 days a week, to 3 hours a day 3 days a week.)
I'll also be asking my therapist about this, and I've posted on the
DBSA forums as well, but I've seen other questions here about partial hospitalization and I thought MetaFilter might have more advice.
For what it's worth, the main reason I'm looking into this is that the last two years of biweekly therapy and monthly psychiatric appointments have not brought me to a level of functioning that any of us are happy with, and my medication needs are apparently a lot trickier than normal psychiatrists are equipped to deal with. I woke up at 1pm today and took a two-hour nap at 4pm and am ready for bed again at 10pm, and that's barely the tip of my iceberg. My psychiatrist suggested it at my last session with her, right before upping my antidepressant and telling me to come back in 7 to 14 days. My counselor at work agrees it's probably a good idea.
TLDR:
How can I make the most out of this two-hour intake session for partial hospitalization?
Bonus question:
I am very, very socially isolated, but someone I don't know well from church has reminded me that they are "there to help." What kinds of general social support are likely to be helpful, bearing in mind that for me it's a real accomplishment to have worked up the strength to tell anyone I was doing this?
To try to allay your fears about groups a bit: it's like being in a class. A small class, with no more than eight or nine people. (Ask about group size!) And sometimes the teacher -- or in this case, therapist/facilitator -- calls on you. But a lot of the work is done between you and a piece of paper. Goal-setting, for instance, is you sitting there and thinking about what you'd like to achieve in the next few days, and how to set reasonable expectations for yourself. You might go around in a circle and everyone says that no, they didn't get to their laundry this week. And so you all start talking about what is involved in doing laundry and how to find a way to get it done. But it's meant to be a non-judgy, hopefully not-too-stressful atmosphere. Some people will actually have goals of being more talkative or putting themselves in more social situations. Sometimes, just being at the group session, sitting at a table, is an accomplishment.
Questions to ask at your intake: Do they have case management services? Can they help you access whatever social services you need and be sure you're hooked up with those before leaving the program? What sort of information-sharing is done between the program and your regular doctors? Will you be able to see your regular doctors while you're in the program? (Sometimes this is not allowed.) Would your case manager or social worker at the program be able to hook you up with new docs if you don't like your current ones? How long does a typical patient stay in the program? (The one I'm familiar with, it's about a month on average. Some people stay around for as little as two weeks, others for as long as three months. Sometimes insurance can be a problem.) Further, you'll want to know how they transition patients. Many hospitals that do partial hospitalization also do something called intensive outpatient, or IOP. This is like a step down from a full-day, five-day a week commitment to a half-day, three-day a week commitment. B the time you're doing IOP, you should be able to get out and about and do stuff on your own during the time you're not at hospital school.
Congratulations on taking this step. And hugs. And if you want to talk more about this with someone who's been down that road, feel free to MeFiMail me.
posted by brina at 7:15 PM on August 28, 2011 [3 favorites]