Who Can Join PHP?
Typically, PHP is reserved for children and teens, who:
- Are age 10–17 (12–17 at the Norwood location)
- Show high-moderate to severe mental health symptoms
- Struggle with emotional problems at home or school
- Need a higher level of care but not 24-hour psychiatric management
PHP provides intervention that can help prevent inpatient hospitalization. It also can be helpful right after a recent inpatient admission.
Neurobehavioral Partial Hospital Program (NB PHP)
The Neurobehavioral Partial Hospital Program (NB PHP) is a group-based therapeutic day program focused on learning emotion regulation skills. Patients in the program receive six hours of daily (Monday through Friday) intensive behavioral and other treatments. You work with a team of dedicated experts from different specialty areas, including psychiatry, psychology, occupational therapy, speech language therapy, social work and school services.
Before starting the program, all patients admitted to NB PHP must attend an intake appointment to determine their readiness for the program. Most children spend 4–6 weeks (or 20–30 program days) in the NB PHP. It’s important that caregivers are involved. Caregivers participate in several team meetings and information sessions throughout the program.
NB PHP is for patients:
- Ages 9–17
- With a neurodevelopmental diagnosis and mild intellectual disability
- With emotion regulation challenges that make it difficult to function at home or at school
- Who can safely join a program with peers in a small group setting without needing one-on-one support
- Who need more intense psychiatric treatment but do not require inpatient admission
The goal of treatment in the NB PHP is for your child to successfully transition back to the school and community setting. Another goal is to keep your child and others safe to prevent having to go to the emergency department or inpatient unit.
What to Expect
A child must be referred to PHP before they can start the program. The referral can come from a therapist, school counselor, guidance counselor, psychiatrist or any other medical provider.
After we receive a referral, we reach out to your family for more details, if needed. Then, we schedule the intake and admission visit. At least one parent or guardian must come with the patient to this visit.
Treatment Team
You become part of a full PHP treatment team, which includes:
- Advanced practice registered nurse (APRN)
- Behavioral health specialist (BHS)
- Board-certified child and adolescent psychiatrist
- Licensed social worker
- Psychiatric primary nurse
Treatment Focus
As part of PHP, we create a healing environment and make positive, healthy, trusting relationships. This foundation is key to the success of your child’s mental health treatment.
During the day, we help children and teens, who have been struggling with emotional problems at home or school. The goal of treatment is to support children in reaching a healthier level of functioning.
Treatments may include:
- Educational services
- Family meetings with a licensed psychiatric social worker
- Psychiatric consultation
- Recreation
- Regular meetings with a psychiatrist or APRN
- Skill-building groups
- Team-based group therapy
Your child also may need separate services, such as psychological testing and speech-language pathology. Speech-language pathologists help with communication and social skills.
Daily Schedule
PHP participants attend the program every day (unless they’ve planned absences with the treatment team). The daily schedule for PHP includes:
- Arrival: An authorized adult (over age 18) or insurance-based transport must drop off your child no earlier than 8:15 am. Your child cannot travel to and from the program by themselves unless their parent or guardian approves. We require participants to arrive on time and to notify us in advance if they’ll be more than 15 minutes late.
- Meals: Your child receives breakfast, lunch and an afternoon snack.
- Treatment: Your child receives a variety of treatments based on their needs.
- Education group time: Your child has two hours of education group time each day, so it’s important to bring their schoolwork. They may have access to a computer during this time. We strongly recommend regular communication with your child’s school. Often, we’ll ask parents or guardians to complete a Release of Information (ROI) consent form. That way, we can contact your child’s school to understand their educational needs.
- Pick-up: An authorized adult must pick up your child between 3:15–3:30 pm.
