Types of Mental Health Treatment: Treatment and care for mental health-related issues is provided in a variety of settings and typically involves a multidisciplinary team of providers such as counselors, psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses and peer support professionals. There is no one-size-fits all approach to mental health treatment. Treatment should be tailored to the individual.
Outpatient Treatment: Outpatient mental health treatment is not one specific type of treatment. Instead, it is a general term for treatment that takes place in an office, hospital, or clinical setting, but involves no overnight stay. Outpatient treatment helps individuals learn to cope with stressors and manage their mental health. Treatment options in outpatient settings can include:
ACT Teams provide mobile intensive treatment and support to people with psychiatric disabilities. The focus is on the improvement of an individual's quality of life in the community and reducing the need for inpatient care, by providing intense community-based treatment services by an interdisciplinary team of mental health professionals. The ACT program has low staff-outpatient ratios; 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-per-week availability; enrollment of consumers, and flexible service dollars. Treatment is focused on individuals who have been unsuccessful in traditional forms of treatment. For more information on ACT services or to access the application for ACT services, please click on the link below:
A clinic treatment program provides treatment designed to minimize the symptoms and adverse effects of illness, maximize wellness, and promote recovery. A clinic treatment program for adults shall provide the following services: outreach, initial assessment (including health screening), psychiatric assessment, crisis intervention, injectable psychotropic medication administration (for clinics serving adults), psychotropic medication treatment, psychotherapy services, family/collateral psychotherapy, group psychotherapy, and complex care management. The following optional services may also be provided: developmental testing, psychological testing, health physicals, health monitoring, and psychiatric consultation. A clinic treatment program for children shall provide the following services: outreach, initial assessment (including health screening), psychiatric assessment, crisis intervention, psychotropic medication treatment, psychotherapy services, family/collateral psychotherapy, group psychotherapy, and complex care management. The following optional services may also be provided: developmental testing, psychological testing, health physicals, health monitoring, psychiatric consultation, and injectable psychotropic medication administration. For a full list of agency providers offering some or all of the above services, please click on the links below:
A continuing day treatment program provides active treatment and rehabilitation designed to maintain or enhance current levels of functioning and skills, to maintain community living and to develop self-awareness and self-esteem through the exploration and development of the individual’s strengths and interests. A continuing day treatment program shall provide the following services: assessment and treatment planning, discharge planning, medication therapy, medication education, case management, health screening and referral, psychiatric rehabilitation readiness development, psychiatric rehabilitation readiness determination and referral and symptom management. The following additional services may also be provided: supportive skills training, activity therapy, verbal therapy, crisis intervention services and clinical support services. For a full list of agency providers offering some or all of the above services, please click on the links below:
Day treatment services for children and adolescents provide intensive, non-residential services. The programs are characterized by a blend of mental health and education services provided in a fully integrated program. Typically, these programs include education in small classes with an emphasis on individualized instruction, individual and group counseling, family services such as family counseling, crisis intervention, interpersonal skill development and behavior modification. Children and adolescents receiving day treatment services live at home or in the community but are identified by their school district as seriously emotionally disturbed and cannot be maintained in regular classrooms. For a full list of agency providers offering some or all of the above services, please click on the links below:
A partial hospitalization program provides active treatment designed to stabilize and ameliorate acute symptoms, to serve as an alternative to inpatient hospitalization, or to reduce the length of a hospital stay within a medically supervised program. A partial hospitalization program provides the following services: assessment and treatment planning, health screening and referral, symptom management, medication therapy, medication education, verbal therapy, case management, psychiatric rehabilitation readiness determination and referral, crisis intervention services, activity therapy, discharge planning and clinical support services. For a full list of agency providers offering some or all of the above services, please click on the links below:
A licensed, comprehensive recovery-oriented program for adults with severe and persistent mental illness that integrates treatment, support and rehabilitation.
- Comprehensive PROS with Clinic Treatment: Personalized Recovery Oriented Services (PROS) is a comprehensive recovery oriented program for individuals with severe and persistent mental illness. The goal of the program is to integrate treatment, support and rehabilitation in a manner that facilitates the individual's recovery. Goals for individuals in the program are to: improve functioning, reduce inpatient utilization, reduce emergency services, reduce contact with the criminal justice system, increase employment, attain higher levels of education and secure preferred housing. There are four "service components" in the program: Community Rehabilitation and Support (CRS), Intensive Rehabilitation (IR), Ongoing Rehabilitation and Support (ORS) and Clinical Treatment.
- Comprehensive PROS without Clinic Treatment: Personalized Recovery Oriented Services (PROS) is a comprehensive recovery oriented program for individuals with severe and persistent mental illness. The goal of the program is to integrate treatment, support and rehabilitation in a manner that facilitates the individual's recovery. Goals for individuals in the program are to: improve functioning, reduce inpatient utilization, reduce emergency services, reduce contact with the criminal justice system, increase employment, attain higher levels of education and secure preferred housing. There are four "service components" in the program: Community Rehabilitation and Support (CRS), Intensive Rehabilitation (IR), Ongoing Rehabilitation and Support (ORS) and Clinical Treatment. This program does not include the optional Clinic Treatment component.
For a full list of agency providers offering some or all of the above services, please click on the links below:
Inpatient Mental Health Treatment: Inpatient services provide stabilization and intensive treatment and rehabilitation with 24-hour care in a controlled environment. They are the programs of choice only when the required services and supports cannot be delivered in community settings.
A licensed, 24 hour inpatient treatment program, that is licensed by both the New York State Office of Mental Health and the New York State Department of Health and operated in a medical hospital. Includes full-time medical, psychiatric and social services and around-the-clock nursing services for individuals with mental illness. For more information and a list of inpatient psychiatric units of general hospitals, please click on the links below:
24-hour inpatient treatment program that is licensed by the New York State Office of Mental Health and operates in private hospitals that provide only behavioral health services. For more information and a list of private psychiatric hospitals, please click on the links below:
Residential Treatment Facilities (RTF's) provide fully-integrated mental health treatment services to seriously emotionally disturbed children and youth between the ages of five and 21 years of age. These services are provided in facilities certified by both the Office of Mental Health (OMH) and the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Health Care Organizations (JCAHO) or Council on Accreditation (COA). RTF's have less staff than inpatient units, but provide a much higher level of services and staffing than community residences, Office of Children and Family Services (formerly the Department of Social Services) group homes, and/or child care institutions. For more information and a list of programs, please click:
24-hour psychiatric inpatient treatment program that is operated by the New York State Office of Mental Health. For more information please click on: