The partial hospitalization program at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell offers specialized, intensive treatment to adolescents and young adults with severe and debilitating anxiety. The goal is to achieve rapid stabilization of acute symptoms with an emphasis on restoring the patient’s health and preventing future setbacks while the patient continues to reside at home. These short-term, full-day treatments are unavailable elsewhere on an outpatient basis and serve as an alternative to, or a step-down from, an inpatient hospitalization program. Treatments include individual therapy, group therapy, parent and family meetings, and medication management. Aspects of the program include education about psychiatric illness and its treatment, behavior modifications, and coping skills that generate solutions to problems at home, at work, or during life transitions.
The multi-disciplinary treatment team in the partial hospitalization program will coordinate with any existing outside providers to ensure a smooth transition back to regular outpatient care. When a patient leaves the partial hospitalization program, a follow-up treatment plan is provided to enhance continued symptom relief and improved function.
Funding provided by the Center for Youth Mental Health to the partial hospitalization program has enabled additional psychologists to join the multidisciplinary treatment team. These doctors are experts in treatments for anxiety, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy, dialectical behavior therapy, and exposure and response prevention for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
In addition to providing specific treatment services to older adolescents and young adults with anxiety in the partial hospitalization program, the clinicians train psychiatry residents and social workers in these treatment modalities.