Many teens who are struggling academically due to mental health issues are pushed into overdrive, causing stress and hate towards their own mental well being. For some, this means psychiatric hospitalization. However, many who have gone through psychiatric hospitalization are then put under a label of being “a troubled teen” when entering back into school.
After being held in a sterile environment for a period of time, entering back into the public, especially school, is daunting, and a huge roadblock, often leading to drop outs. Missoula has a unique program for students facing this situation. Providence provides a service called Adolescent Partial Hospitalization Program (APHP). This program is similar to that of a typical adolescent psychiatric unit: your schoolwork is brought over to the unit with additional academic support, while also providing group therapy, meals, psychiatric evaluation, occupational therapy and medication management and then patients go home for the night. When a parent is deciding if their child should be signed over to a full hospitalization program they face the fear of them sleeping/living in this environment for a period of time. Most of these adolescent units in Montana require the parent to sign over 50% of their parental custody. Via APHP the child is still coming home to the parent every day after receiving the same treatment that is provided in an in-patient psychiatric unit.
In this environment there is no pressure to be your academic best, because mental health is still a priority but doing your work is required. Your work is sent back to your school and grades are still put in. This program is appealing to most because work is given in small doses, giving you extra time.
One of the most important parts of this program is medication management. Being in a psychiatric unit provides a constant stable environment for your brain to tolerate new medications therefore providing a better understanding of what works best for you.
There is a fine line between when someone needs to be on a locked unit where they don’t leave for their entire stay and when someone just needs that extra support, but it is still a line. The down side of this program is that this support goes away as soon as you turn 18, even though academic and mental struggles will still go on.
APHP is not spoken of often because of stereotypes that often come with mental health, but this program adds extra motivation, steering kids away from Montana’s 3.8% drop out rate according to KTVH.com . Bringing light and normalization of mental health in teens’ educational lives saves teens from dropping out of high school or their mental health declining even more.
