The PrairieCare Medical Group Rochester site will be home to a new intensive outpatient program (IOP) for adolescents of school age (5-18) who suffer from all types of mental illness. It will be a daytime program with school, and therapy aimed at increasing functioning through management of symptoms. Currently there is inpatient and outpatient care offered for children and adolescents in Rochester, with extremes of 24 hour locked inpatient vs. outpatient, where intensive is often defined as two 1-hour sessions with a therapist or psychiatrist. Our aim is to fill this gap. It can be used as a step-down from a more intense environment (Inpatient) or as another step for someone who requires a higher level of care than outpatient can provide, but doesn’t yet meet requirements for an inpatient hospital stay. We hope to provide care to 16-24 patients at a time in different tracks (areas of focus). We will also provide free needs assessments for families, to help find and offer our advice on appropriate care needed for their child.
As the site supervisor, I have worked on both the inpatient side (almost 8 years), and on the outpatient side (over 3 years), and trust me when I say there is a high level of skill with Rochester mental health providers. Our goal is to provide each individual patient the psychiatric care they truly need in a genuine, caring, and effective way. PrairieCare sites in the Metro area have provided a wonderful blueprint of care that has helped thousands of children and families.
We have hired 3 therapists, 2 psychiatric technicians, 2 medical receptionists/administrative assistants, 1 nurse, and our medical director.
So, “Like” us on Facebook (Prairie-Care Medical Group, Rochester) to stay tuned to program updates, to meet our new staff, and to hear about free CEU opportunities. Hopefully this blog has helped you understand what we are doing here in Rochester, and why we think it is important. We look forward to collaborating with the mental health community in Rochester to meet the needs of our youth.
Feel free to ask questions or post comments. Thank you!