Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Formative Research
Date Submitted: Jan 4, 2023
Date Accepted: Mar 30, 2023
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Telling Us How They Recover: Understanding Treatment Needs and Experiences of Youth in a Remote Intensive Outpatient Program Using Solicited Journaling
ABSTRACT
Background:
Youth experiencing high acuity mental health symptoms often require highly restrictive levels of care (i.e., inpatient) that removes them from the relationships and activities essential for healthy development. An alternative treatment modality gaining evidence in its ability to support this population is intensive outpatient programming (IOP). Understanding youths’ experiences during IOP may enhance clinical responsiveness to changing needs and protect against movement to inpatient care.
Objective:
The objective of this report is to present a summary of in vivo experiences of youth attending a remote IOP.
Methods:
Treatment experiences are collected weekly via electronic journals as part of ongoing quality improvement (QI) efforts. The journals are used proximally to help clinicians identify youth in crisis and distally to better understand and respond to the needs and experiences of program participants. A total of N=200 entries were analyzed by three coders using open-coding thematic analysis from an essentialist perspective.
Results:
Two themes, Peer Relations and Recovery provide novel insights into the experience of youth in IOP. The Peer Relations theme represents the central importance of peer relationships, both in and outside of the therapeutic setting, communicated by the youth. The Recovery theme represents descriptions of the recovery process, which were communicated in terms of increases in function and self-acceptance rather than primarily in reduced clinical symptoms.
Conclusions:
Along with providing insight into what is most important to youth in IOP, these themes reflect fundamental tasks of the adolescent and young adult periods, including peer centrality, increased autonomy, and identity consolidation. Supporting these tasks via targeted programing may help motivate youth to participate more fully in the therapeutic process and increase the ability of IOPs to address both the developmental and mental health needs of high acuity youth. Clinical Trial: N/A
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