Akron Children’s brings pediatric behavioral health IOP program to Mahoning Valley
09-10-2024 (Ohio)
Akron Children’s now offers the Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) on its Boardman campus, completing the continuum of behavioral health care for children and adolescents in the Mahoning Valley.
When it is in full swing in January, the IOP is an after-school program for adolescents 12 to 18 with a primary concern of depression and/or anxiety. It focuses on short-term stabilization to help at-risk youth improve functioning and develop healthy coping skills.
“Good candidates for this program are adolescents who are stepping down from our inpatient behavioral health unit or Partial Hospitalization Program (PHP) or those who need a higher level of care than outpatient therapy,” said Christine Curry¸ clinical operations supervisor for Intensive Services and Outpatient Therapy – Eastern Region. “They could be stepping down from having safety concerns – suicide ideation – or really working to integrate back into their daily functioning. Depression or anxiety might be so overpowering that it is impacting their daily functioning.”
The program is currently offered 1:15 to 4:30 pm but in January it will settle into its permanent time slot of Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 3:15 to 6:30 pm – designed to be an “after-school” program.
“IOP uses evidence-based interventions like dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT),” said Curry. “Each day, participants work on a different set of skills that may focus on anything from interpersonal communication to regulating emotions or improving distress tolerance. Sessions include yoga to focus on mindfulness and physical wellness and art and other expressive therapies to give participants various outlets for self-expression.”
Participants usually complete IOP in 4 to 6 weeks.
The addition of IOP completes the planned roll-out of behavioral health programming on Akron Children’s Mahoning Valley campus.
The hospital has the Psychiatric Intake Response Center (PIRC) in its Emergency Room for children and teens in a behavioral health crisis and in need of evaluation.
In addition, the campus offers outpatient therapy, medication management and PHP, which is a full-day, intensive program designed to keep teens out of the behavioral health inpatient unit or transition them back to home after discharge from the unit. Like IOP, the goal is to help participants develop lifelong skills.
In addition to these programs, Akron Children’s has mental health therapists located within nearly all of its 44 pediatric primary care offices to offer a “warm hand-off” to those patients in need of a referral and remove barriers and stigma to behavioral health services.
The Mahoning Valley IOP program is located in Building E, 6614 S. Southern Blvd.
Parents can request an assessment/self referral by calling the intake line at 330-543-5015. Select option 1 and say you are calling for “Mahoning Valley IOP.”
