Brigham and Women’s Psychiatric Partial Hospital Program (PHP) is a short-term stabilization and treatment program for individuals who are trying to cope with psychiatric issues, such as mood disorders, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder. The PHP also helps those with co-occurring substance use issues. Many individuals attend the PHP after an inpatient psychiatric hospital stay or to prevent further worsening of symptoms that would require hospitalization.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, to keep our community safe, we have converted our in-person PHP to a virtual PHP (vPHP). The vPHP offers the same confidential, evidenced-based successful programming and resources as the in-person PHP, although there are additional requirements for participation in the vPHP (please see below).
Schedule
The treatment day is from 9 AM to 2 PM, Monday through Friday (excluding holidays). Individuals attend four psychotherapy groups daily, each 45 minutes to one hour in length. The groups teach skills to improve coping, mood regulation, and interpersonal communication. Groups also review how psychiatric medications work and how they facilitate recovery, explore matters related to identity and self-esteem, provide psychological education, and address topics related to addiction (whether that be to substances, toxic relationships, habits, etc.). Therapeutic techniques used include Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), narrative therapy, and insight-oriented psychotherapy. The size of the group is generally six to twelve members. To view a sample program group schedule, click here. We make every attempt to tailor the group programming to the needs of the individuals participating in the vPHP. Individuals attend the vPHP for an average of 5-7 days, depending upon clinical presentation and needs.
Program Information
In addition to groups, the vPHP also offers daily individual therapy sessions with an assigned social worker. This clinician will meet with you each day to discuss your progress, plan your care, provide brief interventional psychotherapy and skills consolidation, and coordinate discharge planning. We will work with your current outpatient clinicians in planning your care. If you do not currently have a therapist or a prescribing clinician, vPHP staff can assist you in obtaining referrals.
vPHP patients also meet with the program psychiatrist for diagnostic assessment and treatment in both group and individual meetings.
In addition, with your permission, contact with family members or friends is offered as a regular part of partial hospital care.
Our program is designed to treat a full range of psychiatric disorders, including substance use disorders.
Eligibility Requirements
- Aged 18 years or older
- Be able to participate in a group-based program (be able to collaborate with others)
- Have access to Patient Gateway (the Mass General Brigham confidential emailing platform)
- Participants must be residing in Massachusetts while participating in the vPHP
- Participants must permit access to an emergency contact
- Participants cannot be in the process of withdrawing from substances during participation in the PHP, since we do not provide outpatient detox
- Participants must be able to maintain their safety, that is, they are not a danger to themselves or others, while participating in the program
