Outpatient/Residential Treatment for 21yo with Depression/OCD
Hi BPN Community - My 22 year old kind, sensitive niece has been dealing with depression, OCD, anxiety and childhood traumas (really bad parent divorce, unreliable parents) for most of her life. Since graduating from college during the pandemic, she has become extremely depressed, especially as the people she's close to start to move on with new jobs in new cities or college/grad school. She says she doesn't want to commit suicide, but she also can't find anything in life to get her out of bed each day. She feels untethered and no hope for any positive progress. Her therapist (with my niece's permission) told me that her once/week therapy sessions are not enough and that she needs an intensive outpatient program, a partial hospitalization program or a residential program. She recommended the Rogers Behaviorial Health Center. Does anyone have experience with this program? I would love to hear from others who themselves or have teens/adult children who have faced similar mental health issues. What programs, therapists, etc. did you find helpful to you? Residential programs scare me, because I don't know how to find a really reputable and helpful one, but there must be some good ones out there. Thanks for any advice.
Parent Replies
What a challenging situation. How fortunate you are there to provide a safe support for your niece.
I cannot speak to Rogers directly. Consider reaching out to the folks at Willows in the Wind. They have deep knowledge of various programs and can lend you support while you support your niece.
Take care and I wish you both calm, safety, and relief.
My daughter has the same diagnoses, as well as ADHD. She's done a Partial Hospitalization Program through Seneca (specifically Priya STEP in Petaluma but they have programs through out the Bay Area.) It's a good program and they have a psychiatrist that will also review medications, etc. https://senecafoa.org/seneca-northern-california/ We were referred to the program by Kaiser.
A program like this alone will not be enough. You don't mention if she's on medication but if not I can't recommend enough going that route as well. While not a "fix," medication for depression, anxiety, OCD, etc. has definitely alleviated symptoms. One part of my daughter's issues was insufficient sleep, which made everything worse and is common part of ADHD as the an ADHD brain has a hard time turning off to rest. Within a week of starting a sleep medication (Trazadone) we saw improvements, or at least more stamina to cope with therapy, life, etc.
Also, per the recommendation of her Kaiser therapist and psychiatrist we've switched from the CBT therapy that Kaiser offers to a private DBT therapist which is supposed to be better for her conditions. Apparently DBT is most effective in a group setting, so we hope to start that soon. Lastly, if the trauma isn't addressed recovery will be difficult. My daughter has started doing EMDR therapy with her DBT therapist who also specializes in that type of trauma work. My daughter also tried OCD therapy but it was right before the pandemic so doing exposure therapy over the phone was not effective. We plan to do that again at some point when she's improved from the depression and anxiety. It's only about 10 sessions so not a long term treatment.
Good luck and best wishes
My adult son with OCD went to Rogers Hospital in WI for residential Tx 7 years ago. It was not scary for him or me. They do understand OCD which many providers claim they do, but don’t. He was there for 6 weeks when private insurance pulled the plug despite filing appeals. I would recommend it though it wasn’t perfect. I don’t know about their programs in the Bay Area but they are an experienced, reputable provider.
I'm sorry to hear that your niece is dealing with all of this, it's hard for her and for the whole family. My daughter tried Rogers residential and their PHP and had a terrible experience there though most people do well. There are also IOPs, which stand for Intensive Outpatient Programs. It's based on ERP treatment, which works for many people - however my daughter was not one of them. There are also IOPs, which stand for Intensive Outpatient Programs. There are multiple paths to try ERP, ACT, DBT, TMS, medication management, so it takes some exploring to figure out which is the best next step for your family member. There are wonderful family support groups out there for OCD and you may get some info there. I wish you the best.