At Palmetto, our intensive outpatient treatment is based on the disease model of addiction. In the disease model, addiction is seen as a chronic, progressive disease, meaning it will continue to get worse without the appropriate treatment. Addiction affects your life physically, mentally, and spiritually and it affects the lives of your friends and family too. Our IOP is an intensive treatment program for clients with serious substance use issues or substance use issues along with a co-occurring mental health issue. Our IOP clients learn about the disease model of addiction, the stages of addiction and how to identify where they are, how to identify and cope with the stressors that can lead to substance use, how to use the 12-step model in recovering from addiction, and how to prevent relapse.
There is a continuum of treatment options ranging from early intervention to medically managed intensive inpatient treatment. IOP is right in the middle of the spectrum, providing a high level of care while still allowing clients to live at home and take care of their regular responsibilities. An IOP might be appropriate for a given client for several reasons. First, someone might need an IOP to address a serious substance use issue, which may also be paired with co-occurring mental health issue. However, the client may not need the kind of 24-hour care that would be necessary for someone with unstable medical or psychological conditions. Someone considering an IOP should also have a stable home environment that is safe, clean, and doesn’t create any additional pressure to use drugs or alcohol.
Clients sometimes choose an IOP for practical reasons. While some may benefit from the higher level of care they would get from an inpatient program, they may not have the luxury of being able to take so much time out of their lives for treatment. This is often the case for people who have children–especially young children–or people who have to work to meet their financial obligations. An IOP allows you the freedom to meet these obligations while getting a high level of care for substance use.
An IOP may also be a good idea for clients stepping down from a higher level of care. Inpatient treatment programs provide a supportive environment free from drugs and alcohol and free from the stress of daily life. This helps clients break out of destructive patterns and start to build more positive habits but making the transition back to regular life can be quite a shock. Many people relapse in the early weeks after leaving an inpatient program because they have trouble applying their new recovery skills to regular life. An IOP can provide a supportive environment while clients adapt to the freedom and pressures of their normal lives.
Most people will spend about three or four months in an IOP but there is no set length of time. Everyone progresses at a different rate and how long they spend in an IOP depends on many variables including length and severity of addiction, relapse history, family support, co-occurring mental health issues, and commitment to the program. Clients can stay in the program as long as they need to. The length of stay is determined based on assessments from the counselor and the patient’s physician.
At Palmetto, the IOP program meets three days a week, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. This schedule allows most clients to maintain a normal work or school schedule while attending treatment.
We work with most forms of insurance to make IOP treatment as accessible and affordable as possible. We’d be happy to discuss payment options with you.
The opioid crisis in the US has only gotten worse in recent years and Louisiana has been no exception. In 2017, more than 70,000 Americans died of a drug overdose and nearly 48,000 of those deaths were opioid-related. The rate of overdose deaths in Louisiana was higher than the national average in 2017. In that year, 21.7 of every 100,000 Americans died of an overdose while 24.5 of every 100,000 people in Louisiana died of an overdose. That was more than a 12 percent increase over the previous year. As the most populated area in Louisiana, the New Orleans-Metairie area has been hardest hit by the opioid crisis. In 2017, more than 1100 people in Louisiana died from overdoses. Of those 1100 deaths, 153 were in Orleans Parish and 176 were in Jefferson Parish. If you’re struggling with substance use and you live in the New Orleans-Metairie area, Palmetto’s New Orleans-Metairie IOP can help you recover from addiction while still giving you the freedom to go to work, school, or take care of your family. We offer no-cost assessments. To make an appointment or learn more about the program, call us at 318-728-2970 or use the contact form below to request more information.
