Happy Monday and welcome to your Mental Health Mini. This week's guest is Doctor Justin Mohat and we are talking about pursuing intensive mental health treatment. So for parents that have received the recommendation that their teen might benefit from an intensive mental health care program, what things do you look for in a treatment program to make sure that it's a great fit for a patient? I have a couple big things that I really wish families would
hear. 1 is just because a place is the most expensive place doesn't mean it's the best place, and just because it's in the most beautiful setting doesn't. Mean it has horses, doesn't mean it'll be the best. As horses has an ocean view, I think families can easily get romanced by some of that because it's so scary to have your child go away somewhere. So to say, OK, well the place is really expensive, it looks really nice. That doesn't necessarily mean high quality care.
The other thing I would say is be wary of programs that promise everything. If you look at their materials and they say they basically treat everything under the spectrum with evidence based treatments, it's highly unlikely that they really are that specialized in all of those different things. I much prefer to have a program that says we do this and this very well and this is our modality. You want to ask them what modalities of treatment they use and they should be able to
answer that clearly. And so you want to educate yourself ahead of these conversations about your kids diagnosis and what the best treatments are for that and then ask very pointed questions. Honestly, I think the most important things from my perspective are that they involve family, and that's for a couple reasons.
One is if you are a program that doesn't communicate with parents, that doesn't involve parents and family in treatment and you're doing this sort of bubble of something with a kid and then you say, OK, we're done and you send them home and you've never done anything to change the environment, then you're setting everyone up for failure. I think that again, evidence based treatments, but not every evidence based treatment under the sun.
And they should be able to talk to you about what that actually looks like and how they deploy that. And I think the other thing is you, you want transparency. So if you're getting any sense that they're sort of skirting around questions and then they're not giving you very clear answers, I would be really wary.
Yeah, I think that this may be hard and you may not get a satisfactory answer, but it's worth at least asking what their internal quality kind of process is and if they have any data or statistics on the success. Of their. Program, absolutely. The biggest thing is just ask questions. Lots and lots and lots and lots of questions. And if anything doesn't feel right, ask more questions until it either feels right or until you say you know what this is a no go I don't like.
Them. For teens, I think one of the biggest things that I remember is just how daunting of an experience this is. It's so anxiety provoking because a lot of the times you don't know what to expect. So if you could give just some basic pointers of what to expect, whether it's like you can probably expect to on the first day, kind of go through why you're here and and what's happened this far. So a lot of teens are thinking that if they go to residential treatment, it's going to a
locked hospital. And that's not what residential treatment is and it's not what intensive outpatient treatment is. And there is a place for inpatient treatment. But if your family is trying to get you help in a voluntary way at a specialized program, it's going to be an unlocked unit. Everyone's there voluntarily. It's going to be, again, if it's the right program, it's going to be kids your age, right? You know, they are going to want to understand what's bringing you in.
They're going to want to understand if there are safety concerns, depending on why you're going into treatment. But even if you're going in for something that's not about self harm or suicidality, they're going to be asking you those questions. They're going to want to know, they genuinely are going to want to try and understand what the path has been to get you to that place and to come up with goals
and targets for treatment. And if safety is a primary concern, they're going to spend a lot of time on that first day assessing safety, coming up with safety plans and trying to sort of identify in the program what are the resources that you can use when you're feeling unsafe. I think their parents are really important partners and really important people in their lives. We're going to want to involve them, but I'm not here to do the
bidding of your parents. I'm here to help you and figure out what's causing you suffering and struggling and trying to affect change so that you can lead your best life. And I often say to kids, if I think they have a sense of humor, that in the first visit that my real main goal is that I never see them again. Yeah, yeah. Like, I'm not here to take your money. I'm not here to sort of see you forever. I'm not here just to put you on medication.
In fact, I'm only going to put you on medication if it is really indicated and necessary and that your best interests are sort of like the guiding light, the true north of. I think it's really hard to understand that and feel that when you're in a dark. Place. And therapy may be uncomfortable at times, but you you need an objective outside person who can tell you what it is, when it's happening and that you can develop a rapport with. That is a true back and forth and trust.
If you enjoyed this week's mental Health Mini, you can listen to the full episode. It is episode 136 featuring Doctor Justin Mohat. A link to the full episode is in the show notes. And as always, make sure to leave a review. Subscribe, share with the friend or.