What to Expect When Seeking Behavioral Health Care Services

If you’re seeking behavioral health services, it can be confusing and stressful navigating your options, but we are here to help.

The type of behavioral health care service you choose typically depends on your condition. The main categories of care generally include emergency care, outpatient care, hospitalization, partial hospitalization, residential treatment centers, and integrated services.

Behavioral Health Care in an Emergency

If you are experiencing acute mental distress, please call 911. Emergency mental health services are available in emergency rooms for patients in extreme psychiatric distress, such as those who may be suicidal or psychotic.

Outpatient Behavioral Health Care Services

Outpatient behavioral health care is a broad category that incorporates most behavioral health services. It includes any services that are offered to patients living outside the hospital, such as group therapy, individual counseling, and education programs. Community health service programs often include medication management as well as behavioral health care.

While in outpatient treatment, you may continue working and living your life as normal outside of treatment. Care involves regularly attending various treatments. Some outpatient programs are more intensive than others: they may require daily or weekly participation.

Hospital Inpatient Services

People who experience acute illness sometimes require care at a hospital. This might be a psychiatric hospital or a more general hospital which treats behavioral and mental health issues.

Hospitals often offer substance use services that are not provided elsewhere. If you seek help with drug detoxification, you may need to check into a hospital.

Partial Hospitalization

Patients who are very ill but do not require hospital-specific services often choose partial hospitalization. This care option requires attending a behavioral health care program for more than six hours per day most days but does not involve full hospitalization.

Many mental health professionals see partial hospitalization as a stepping stone from full hospitalization to outpatient care. Partial hospitalization may also allow some patients to avoid full hospitalization or shorten their stay.

Residential Behavioral Health Treatment Centers

Residential behavioral health treatment centers are live-in facilities where patients can stay to receive treatment. They are typically privately owned and may involve stays of several weeks or longer.

Some centers are dedicated to substance use disorder treatment while others specialize in severe mental illness.

Integrated Behavioral Health Care

Integrated behavioral health care includes a range of services to treat the whole person. With integrated care, you will receive a wide range of services to address your needs, whether they include care for substance use, depression, dementia, or acute mental illness.

Sunrise delivers confidential, compassionate care to individuals through the integrated care model. Through our services, patients have access to highly trained behavioral health professionals, chemical dependency, treatments, and community-wide support services. Our goal is to help you live the full life you deserve.

If you think you may need behavioral health care but are unsure where to go from here, contact your local Sunrise center. We can connect you to the resources you need.

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