The Impact of Pathway of Care on Treatment Outcomes in Adolescent Partial Hospitalization Programs

Abstract

This naturalistic study evaluated the treatment effectiveness of a U.S. New England region adolescent partial hospital program (PHP) for individuals referred from higher versus lower levels of care (LOC). Participants were adolescents ages 12 to 18 admitted to the in-person (n = 161) and virtual (n = 78) day programming. Chart review determined the referral source, and the Youth Outcomes Questionnaire (YOQ) assessed interpersonal relations (IR), intrapersonal distress (ID), suicidal ideation (SI), and self-injurious behavior (SIB) at the time of admission and discharge. Independent samples t-tests demonstrated the similarity of symptom severity at the time of admission for both higher and lower LOC, except for higher reports of SIB for higher LOC referrals to the virtual program. Repeated measures analyses of variance (ANOVAs) revealed improvement in all outcome measures and no significant difference in treatment effects or length of stay between higher versus lower LOC referrals. Study findings demonstrate the promise of PHPs to function effectively as both a step-up and step-down in the mental health continuum of care, reflect appropriate utilization of referrals to this LOC, and support the promise of telehealth as an alternative to in-person therapies.