The Intensive Outpatient Programme is a specially designed intensive day programme tailored to the needs of adolescents struggling with mental health problems to the extent that their daily functioning has been significantly impacted. The programme, one of the numerous services offered by the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Centre of Excellence runs for six weeks during which the adolescents are expected to attend 4 days per week from 10am to 3pm. Parents are expected to attend two weekly parent sessions held late in the afternoon.

The programme is aimed at adolescents aged 13 to 18 with moderate to severe mental health difficulties and whose functioning is impacted as a result. Designed for adolescents with problems such as depression, anxiety and emotional dysregulation, our pre-group multidisciplinary intake assessment will help ensure that the young person referred is a good fit for the group. Our multidisciplinary team includes psychiatry, psychology, nursing, dietitians, recreational therapy, educational specialist, and other specialities as needed.

Services Provided:

• Education focused sessions – exploring the teen’s relationship to school and aiming to increase motivation to learn and develop goals for the future
• Group psychotherapy – examining interpersonal relationships and processes to promote learning and insight into thoughts, feelings and behaviours
• Recreational Therapy – becoming behaviorally activated as a crucial part of returning to engagement with meaningful activities
• Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills – teaching interpersonal effectiveness, emotional regulation, distress tolerance and mindfulness
• Psychoeducation sessions – increasing their knowledge about mental health and therefore empowering them to become active agents in their recovery

Additionally, two parent sessions per week have been built in:

• Group psychotherapy for parents of adolescents attending the group
• Parent Skills sessions – presenting evidence based strategies and information that can aid any parent in tackling the challenges of parenthood and fostering their child’s wellbeing.