Camp Courage: PHP and IOP for Children and Adolescents Suffering from OCD, Anxiety, or Related Disorders

Thrive’s child and adolescent OCD programs are highly specialized intensive programs that provide an immersive treatment experience for individuals and their families. The purpose of the program is to provide patients and their support systems with the tools and support necessary to create a path to recovery. This treatment model provides evidence-based care that was previously only offered at distant academic centers. Thrive Wellness is bringing this highly effective and much-needed treatment choice to Northern Nevada to increase long-term treatment success for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and related disorders and significantly improve the quality of life for children, adolescents, and their families.

These intensive child and adolescent programs are a natural transition in OCD treatment for those who are trying to prevent the need for hospitalization, stepping down from a higher level of care, or bridging the gap from residential or inpatient treatment for OCD as they are beginning the transition to longer-term outpatient care. Our goal is to heal the psychological, educational, and relational destructive impact that OCD and related disorders have on the patient and their family through:

Several hours of supervised Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) therapy throughout the day 5 days per week
Building family and individual skills and education through psychoeducation to block and combat any ongoing rituals or avoidance at home
Behavioral support that extends outside of the therapy office into the community for in-vivo ERP exposures with PhD and Masters level clinicians
Assessment and specialized treatment for physical and psychiatric co-morbidities

Individual, family, and multifamily group ERP-based therapy sessions as needed with the intent to provide families with a deeper understanding of OCD and related rituals and to provide support with cessation of family involvement in rituals and avoidance
Developing exposure-based behavioral tools to help overcome OCD avoidance and rituals that interfere with the client’s educational, relational, health, and other types of functioning
Multiple hours of supported work each day on the client’s individualized exposure hierarchy in an ERP context

Child and Adolescent OCD - PHP Program Structure:

Our Child and Adolescent PHP program for OCD begins with a thorough family and individual orientation where patients and families learn about the components of treatment at Thrive Wellness and the specific providers on their treatment team. Each family/individual is assigned the following treatment team:

Care Coordinator
Psychotherapist trained in Exposure and Response Prevention
Psychiatrist
Internal Medicine Provider (if/as medical necessity indicates)
Licensed Registered Dietitian (if/as medical necessity indicates)
Occupational Therapist (if/as medical necessity indicates)

PHP provides 6 hours per day of treatment, 5 days per week, and includes 3.5 hours per day of individualized exposure work. All therapeutic activities are led and supervised by a multidisciplinary staff of OCD specialists ranging from master’s level therapists to Medical Doctors.

Discharge planning and care coordination development begin on day one through the care coordination team and include offering families and individuals a step-down plan for OCD child and adolescent IOP, then ongoing weekly therapeutic outpatient ERP-based therapy support, psychiatric support, and when necessary, dietetics and medical support. Ongoing follow-up care post OCD child and adolescent PHP may be through Thrive Wellness’ integrated outpatient programs or a local treatment team of the family’s choice.

Both McLean Hospital in Boston and Rogers Behavioral Health Hospital offer an ERP and ACT-based treatment model and demonstrate an extremely high rate of efficacy. Until now, children and adolescents in the Northern Nevada area would have to travel out of state to access a facility that could provide this type of specialized program. Our goal is to create greater access to care for those who need these unique services. We aim to increase accessibility to child and adolescent OCD treatment with a family/caregiver-intensive component. We are proud to be able to provide this unique program locally.

Individual and family ERP based therapy sessions as needed with the intent to provide families a deeper understanding of OCD and related rituals and to provide support with cessation of family involvement in rituals and avoidance
Developing exposure-based behavioral tools to help overcome OCD avoidance and rituals that interfere with the client’s educational, relational, health, and other types of functioning
Multiple hours of supported work each day on the client’s individualized exposure hierarchy in an ERP context

Sessions for caregivers and families based on ERP - a highly effective modality of treatment for OCD and related disorders
Providing personalized coping strategies for the entire family system based on the client’s specific OCD features and exposure hierarchy, as well as daily tools necessary to navigate the recovery process - both short and long-term
Sessions addressing specific individual family dynamics and barriers that interfere with the caregiver’s guiding and monitoring the recovery process
Providing personalized coping strategies for the child/adolescent, as well as daily tools necessary to navigate and tolerate the emotional discomfort inherent to the recovery process through ERP and ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy), and others (individual adjunct modality depends on co-morbid psychiatric struggles)

Child and Adolescent OCD - IOP Program Structure:

Our IOP program begins with a thorough family and individual orientation where patients and families learn about the components of treatment at Thrive Wellness and the specific providers on their treatment team. Each family/individual is assigned the following treatment team:

Care Coordinator
Psychotherapist trained in Exposure and Response Prevention
Psychiatrist
Internal Medicine Provider (if/as medical necessity indicates)
Licensed Registered Dietitian (if/as medical necessity indicates)
Occupational Therapist (if/as medical necessity indicates)

Our OCD IOP for children and adolescents provides 3 hours per day of treatment, 3-5 days per week including 1.5 hours of exposure therapy each day. All therapeutic activities are led and supervised by a multidisciplinary staff of OCD specialists ranging from master’s level therapists to medical doctors.