“By combining our programs, we’re able to offer patients more specialized options together with a broader range of therapies.”
This story was originally published in Rhode Island Current, a publication partner of Ocean State Stories.
NEWPORT — Brown University Health has merged its virtual outpatient adult mental health treatment programs offered by Newport and Rhode Island hospitals, the health system announced Tuesday.
The newly-combined programs — known as partial hospitalizations — exceed the level of support received during a typical therapist or psychiatrist visit, but aren’t as intensive as an inpatient stay in a psychiatric facility.
“By combining our programs, we’re able to offer patients more specialized options together with a broader range of therapies, without sacrificing the personal, team-based care they have come to count on,” Sarah Schmidhofer, MD, the director of the adult partial hospital programs at Brown University Health, said in a statement. “Having all these services under one roof makes it easier for patients to get the right help at the right time.”
The partial hospitalizations consist of individual and group therapy, medication planning, and care coordination after discharge, all delivered online within a day program that runs Monday through Friday. The idea is to allow patients to live their lives while still receiving the support they need.
There are multiple treatment “tracks” available, including a general treatment track, a program tailored for young adults, and one heavily grounded in dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), a cognitive behavioral method used to treat people who have trouble regulating emotions. The new consolidation streamlines operations across both hospitals and allows patients more flexibility in treatment options.
There are also two specialty tracks, which focus on adults with trauma, and people with comorbid mental health diagnoses, respectively.
“The best of both the Newport Hospital and Rhode Island Hospital programs were combined to create one merged, expanded program, featuring self referral,” Elena M. Falcone-Relvas, a Brown Health spokesperson, said via email Tuesday.
Hannah Herc, division director of the adult partial hospital program, in a statement that the merger “allows ease of access to care and the ability to more efficiently connect individuals with specialty care options to best suit their needs.”
The length of program participation depends on the track pursued. A patient on the trauma track, for example, might stay four to six weeks, while a young adult could stay two to three weeks. A daily schedule is also dependent on the program but might run from around 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The partial hospitalizations are available to patients living in Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
More information can be found on Brown Health’s website.
