Family Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP)
Manna instituted the Family IOP (typically for families of clients with eating disorders, but trauma recovery client families would benefit as well) in Summer 2021 in order to help manage the national and local health care crisis.
This program consists of nine hours of groups specifically designed to help family members to cope with their loved one's eating disorder or trauma issues. These groups are designed to help support parents, spouses, children, and others of clients who struggle with pain resulting in eating disorders and other acting-out behaviors.
Our preliminary research on this program has shown that the eating disordered clients in our PHP and IOP programs drastically reduced their time in both PHP and IOP. The typical length of stay of eating disordered individuals prior to the Family IOP was 4 months; the typical length of stay when family members joined this program dropped by one month in each program.
We have also had individuals (typically parents) who have gone through this program report that their family is much stronger since going through the program. They report that their family cohesiveness improved and continued to improve after they completed both programs.
This is a unique and intensive program for family members. There is a charge for this program (we take most major insurances) and the cost benefit is immeasurable.
Testimonials
When our daughter began treatment at Manna and I was told about Family IOP, my first thought was “How in the world can we give up this much time?” Now, three months later, I marvel at the return reward of investing that time for our daughter and for our family in general. Family IOP helped educate us on the ins and outs of our daughter’s eating disorder. It helped us to set boundaries—not only with our daughter but with other people and situations in order to help our family stay healthy. In Family DBT, we worked on family communication, expressing emotions in healthy ways, and so many other skills that strengthened our family. Most importantly, Family IOP allowed us to talk with other parents on the same path and learn from one another and develop trust with the staff. There is no doubt that the time invested helped our daughter recover more quickly and strengthened our family as a whole. Try it out—it will be the very best investment of your time.
~Mom of an adolescent daughter with an eating disorder