API Substance Use Disorder Program

PARTIAL HOSPITALIZATION & INTENSIVE OUTPATIENT PROGRAMS

DISORDER PROGRAM SUBSTANCE USE

The Substance Use Disorder (SUD) Program

at the La Mesa Outpatient Services Program consists of both Partial Hospitalization (PHP) and Intensive Outpatient (IOP) levels of care. Clients are admitted to the level of care appropriate to their needs. Treatment is based on the severity of the client’s presenting problems. Partial Hospitalization Program services are highly structured and are offered between 9am-3 pm daily. Intensive Outpatient Program services are offered in half-day segments – morning or afternoon – and offer skills building, symptom monitoring, and support in a caring and compassionate environment.

OUR MISSION

To improve mental health and quality of life by helping people maximize their potential.

ABSTINENCE-BASED PROGRAM

The program is abstinence based and recovery focused. A 12-step approach is utilized in engaging and connecting clients with a sober lifestyle. We ask that every client admitting to the program, whether at the PHP or IOP level of care, abstain from all drugs and alcohol including marijuana for the duration of the program. Clients may take prescribed medications authorized by the treating psychiatrist for valid existing conditions on a caseby-case basis.

The program regularly performs random drug testing using a breathalyzer and urine drug screen to provide early identification of problems related to maintaining sobriety. Urine samples may be sent out for more accurate or definitive results including alcohol and marijuana metabolite levels. This confirmation testing provides the treatment team with a clearer picture about a client’s actual use. For example, a client may be randomly tested using the breathalyzer and show results of .000. The

same client may have a very high metabolite level of alcohol indicating that the client is drinking in the evenings or on weekends.

LEVELS OF CARE

The treatment team at API believes that both PHP and IOP are vital components of the treatment process. The level of care a client enters may vary but the order in which they are treated is important. Clients typically come to us for inpatient detoxification or inpatient treatment, and are at times referred for an extended stay in a residential treatment facility before continuing treatment at the PHP or IOP level of care.

PROGRAM STRUCTURE

Regular attendance at community support meetings, family treatment, and a gradual re-integration to family, community, and work create opportunities for success.

Clients needing a higher level of support upon admission may start at a Partial Hospitalization level of care, which consists of five 45-minute groups daily starting with two psycho-

educational groups and ending with three additional groups that provide opportunities to learn valuable coping skills and process feelings. In collaboration with the psychiatrist the treatment team will titrate the client to the IOP level of care when appropriate.

The Intensive Outpatient Program consists of three 45-minute groups up to three days a week, starting with two psychoeducational groups, and ending with a process group before the lunch break. During the first two groups the client will be educated about the disease of addiction and taught coping skills to deal with cravings associated with discontinuing drug and or alcohol use. The third group is process oriented and provides a space for clients to process the challenges of daily life including family, intimate relationships, and work issues.

The structure of Alvarado Parkway Institute’s PHP/IOP program is similar at both levels of care. The first interaction is a ‘check in’ with the client on Monday morning (or whatever day is the client’s first treatment day of the week). Questions are asked about sobriety since the last program contact as well as what community meetings were attended.

On Friday (or the client’s last treatment day of the week), clients are asked to share about their plan to remain clean/sober over the weekend.

RECOVERY MEETINGS

The program encourages clients to develop community recovery support and requires a minimum of three recovery meetings a week. Clients are educated that the most common and available meetings are 12-step meetings including AA, NA, SMART, Refuge, Celebrate Recovery, and Most Excellent Way. Clients are required to obtain signatures on a meeting slip, provided by the program, as proof of meeting attendance. The API treatment team believes that some flexibility in recovery meeting choice is necessary due to personal philosophical or religious differences.

TREATMENT TEAM

The PHP/IOP treatment team is a dedicated group of professionals consisting of a program manager, clinical

supervisor, utilization review expert, two nurses, five treatment coordinators, an office manager, and a mental health worker. Staff qualifications include two RNs, a post doc, five LMFTs, one LAADC, two MFTAs, and one PCCA.

The team meets twice daily to discuss client cases; once in the morning during treatment team and again in the afternoon for a clinical wrap-up meeting. Each client is assigned an attending psychiatrist to monitor the client’s condition and coordinate treatment with other members of the team.

EIGHT-WEEK CURRICULUM

The SUD track is based on an eightweek curriculum which repeats after each eight-week cycle.

The 10 psychoeducational group titles are:

u Stages of Change

u Negative Effects of Using

u CBT

u Healthy Relationships

u Experiential Exercise Part 1

u Experiential Exercise Part 2

u ACT Skills

u Recovery Maintenance

u Coping Skills

u Relapse Prevention

There are eight different classes for each of the 10 topics for a total of 80 different group topics during each eight-week cycle. There are five process groups each week –three focus on recovery and two focus on thoughts and feelings.

Teachings from Terrence Gorski, Hazelton, Jellinek, Dr. Kevin McCauly, and Bob Tyler are some of the resources used in the addiction curriculum as well as other behavioral experts like Dr. Aaron Beck, Steven Hayes, and Marsha Linehan.