Selecting the Right Mental Health Treatment Center for Your Loved One: Key Considerations

If possible, select a treatment center that offers a residential program. One of the most important reasons to choose residential care if you can is that it offers a much greater range of treatment strategies. Studies have found that simple counseling, one-on-one therapy most often administered in an outpatient setting, is not effective in managing mental illnesses over the long-term.

This doesn’t mean that therapy doesn’t work, but it does mean that only seeing a counselor a few times a week is not good enough for most patients. The evidence shows that it can help for a month or two, but for a lasting impact you need more intensive care and a greater variety of treatment and therapy types. For instance, in residential treatment your loved one will likely have access to different types of behavioral therapies, medical care, creative therapies, and group support.

Another good reason to go with inpatient care is that it provides your loved one with a safe place to live and learn while healing. Without distractions of home, family, or work, they can truly focus on treatment and getting well. Dedicated time spent on learning and practicing coping mechanisms and changing negative thoughts and behaviors is valuable over the long-term. It will provide your loved one with a better potential future managing their mental illness and symptoms.

Treatment for mental illnesses can be effective, but they have to be the right treatments. Look for treatment centers that tell you exactly what kind of therapies they use, how they benefit patients, and that these strategies are backed by rigorous scientific research.

For example, any good facility should offer behavioral therapies as a foundational type of therapy in the treatment plan. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a now-standard type of care, which has also been modified for different types of mental illness like personality disorders and trauma-based disorders.

CBT has proven to be effective in treating a number of mental health issues. It focuses on recognizing and changing negative patterns in thinking and behaviors. It is action oriented and includes goal-setting and responding better to stress and difficult situations. One study found that CBT proved to have long-term effectiveness in managing symptoms for patients with depression who did not respond to medications.

Never choose a treatment center that treats your loved one as just another patient. Everyone is different, and this is especially true when it comes to mental health. The best facilities have extensive, thorough intake practices that include a full assessment for all mental illnesses and substance use disorders. Your loved one should be able to get a complete differential diagnosis before any treatment plan is made.

And when it’s time to make the treatment plan, the best facilities will tailor it to each individual patient. There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all treatment for any mental illness, even when there are particular therapies that are usually most effective. Treatment programming should include the patient’s diagnoses, background, physical health, and preferences.
An important part of this initial assessment and treatment planning is ensuring that your loved one has all mental health issues addressed. Co-occurring conditions are common and the most effective treatment considers all of them at the same time. For instance, if your loved one struggles from depression but also has developed an alcohol use disorder, they will need treatment for both in order to avoid relapses in the future.

Check out the staff at any treatment center before committing to admitting your loved one. The best facilities have staff members that are expert in different areas of mental health and treatment. Just having several therapists on staff is not adequate. They should have experience and expert knowledge in different types of care and mental illness to best serve patients.

The facility should also be one in which the staff practices collaborative care. This means they actively work together in the patients’ best interests. They consult with each other and plan their treatments and therapy focus based on what they can learn from each other. Collaborative care includes not just therapists but also physicians and nurses, holistic practitioners, dieticians, and others.