intensive outpatient in Illinois

[ilusa26]

I am looking for intensive outpatient facility for my daughter.  My 29 year old daughter is being released from a residential program out of state.  Her insurance wont pay for out of state program. 

I found two programs in chicago area.  Northshore and Insight behavioral health.  If anybody is familiar with these programs, I would love to hear from them.

Thanks

Our objective is to better understand the struggles our child faces and to learn the skills to improve our relationship and provide a supportive environment and also improve on our own emotional responses, attitudes and effectiveness as a family leaders

[Thursday]

Hi Ilusa,

I don't have any experience with the IOPs you mention in your area but do think that IOPs are a good alternative to Residential Treatment. I also think that any IOP is only as good as the person doing the facilitating.

I'm posting in hopes to bump your thread in case someone with info about programs in your area might see it in its revival.

If there is anything you would like to know about the IOP's success for my Step Daughter?

Good luck!

Thursday

[ilusa26]

Thursday,

My daughter is in a residential program right now.  I looking for when she comes out of it to continue as outpatient.  Actually it doesnt have to be intensive either.  It just has to be a good dbt program.

I would like to hear about your step daughter's experience.

Thank you

[Thursday]

Hi again Ilusa26,

I went back and read your other posts so now I know a bit more about what you are going through with your Dear Daughter. I'm so sorry things are so difficult right now. I imagine you are very worried about what is to come once she is released from RT.

My step-daughter was in the same IOP two separate times due to her drug and alcohol use. My husband and I went to several meetings during each IOP, all of the family meetings (once a week for six weeks) and to parent only meetings which were held several times for each IOP. It was all very much focused on addiction so I really don't know about an IOP geared specifically to help with mental illness issues. But I imagine they work in similar ways. Each session was focused on a certain issue or skill- sometimes focused on the problem and a solution (skill set) during a single meeting. Homework was given also.

Because an IOP is every day (usually five or six days a week for six to eight weeks) it keeps the person involved in the same intensive way for an extended period of time, keeps them in the therapeutic mindset but also, the person has to immerse themselves in REAL LIFE at the same time, which is a great continuance after RT.

MY SD's IOPs were facilitated by a really great guy who has a certain way of cutting through the patient's defenses and getting them to face their issues. He is also capable of figuring out a patient's Achilles heel and he did so during my SD's second go round with him. I asked him recently why he didn't confront her during her first go round and he told me he knew the first time she wasn't invested in the process.

So, really ilusa, if your daughter isn't wanting change and isn't committed to it, just like with this addiction driven IOP for my daughter, your daughter might not hear any of the wisdom if she isn't interested in it doing anything to help herself.

But, like my SD, if your daughter could be confronted on a daily basis, five or six days a week, by someone as charismatic as the man who ran the IOP my SD was in, your DD might benefit from it. And if not now then maybe the next time.

Once my SD bought into what was being offered in her IOP she got sober. It's tricky though. What she really bought into was AA, the 12 step program offered to her  through the IOP. AA gave her a place to fit in with the world that wasn't driven by the escape offered by drugs and alcohol. My SD is a very social person and her positive experience with AA has been largely due to the fellowship that AA includes as a part of the program.

I can't say my SD ever really worked on her personality issues in any sort of direct way. Maybe this will come to her someday. For now, after a really long period of being unemployed, she finally found a job and is earning her own way  (sort of... .she lives rent free with her grandmother, we still pay her car insurance and cell phone bill but she has money in savings for the first time!) But every time she has a therapeutic experience she takes a little something from it.

I think a 12 step program can be very helpful to borderlines. A 12 step program focuses on sobriety first but eventually the "demons inside" are addressed and they have a methodical way of dealing with them. Relationships are attempted to be mended with apologies and personal accountabily.

I'm sure your daughter needs some sort of program once she is out of RT. An IOP might be a very good fit to get her out of the house everyday, some structure, interactions with the facilitator. Maybe the facilitator will be one of the good ones who will be able to work with your daughter and maybe she will learn something.

In one of your posts I read your statement that without your support your daughter would never make it. That is true, she needs your love and your emotional support but I do want to say to you... .if you and your husband are enabling her to stay dependant, you are right, she will never make it on her own.

One of the best things my husband and I ever did for ourselves was to attend Alanon meetings. We did this before SD ever went to AA and it wasn't about her drug use because when we started going we had no idea she was in trouble with drugs. We went to get help with how miserable we were because of her personality disorder. We just translated all of the information to our own situation. There were plenty of people there whose kids didn't have addiction problems- there were other's there with borderline kids, a few there with kids who were doing video games to the exclusion of working or going to school, kids with eating disorders, etc. It's free and if you find a good meeting you can learn so much. They are very accepting just like the people here.

My husband, who sounds a lot like your husband, had such a hard time with enabling his DD, and his enabling was the thing that was keeping my SD from realizing that she needed to and could grow up and get by as her own person. We are still in the beginning stages of this. Hopefully soon SD will be out of her Grandmother's home and on her own, maybe sharing rent with a friend.

I encourage you to give al-anon a try. They say you should try three different meetings or the same meeting three times before you decide it isn't for you. I learned so much about how to get myself in a better place in dealing with my Step-daughter and it has been of benefit to my relationship with her.

Keep posting here. I'm sure someone else will chime in besides just me!

thursday