Frequently Asked Questions

We receive referrals to the Partial Hospitalization Program from physicians, psychiatrists, outpatient child psychologists, school personnel, and other collateral agencies both in and outside of Monroe County.
The referral form can be completed by staff in school counseling office, the PCP, Therapist or Psychiatrist. Important Note: This referral form is for licensed clinicians only. Patients and families cannot self-refer.

Referral Form for Outpatient Providers

Referral Form for Outpatient Providers that are Outside of Monroe County

Call our front desk at (585) 273-1776. One of our staff members will direct your call to the appropriate provider based on the content of your question.

Our length of stay ranges from 1-4 weeks but depends completely on each patients care needs, their engagement in treatment and their ability to practice new coping techniques. Decisions about the length of stay will be made with your treatment team here at partial. Your specific treatment goals and your progress to date will be discussed frequently.  

Program runs from 7:30 a.m.– 2:30 p.m., Monday through Friday (7:30 a.m.–1 p.m during summer and school breaks). Family meetings are often held after program hours. There are some adjustments in program times, based upon holiday schedules. You will be alerted about this in advance.

Golisano Pediatric Behavioral Health and Wellness, Child and Adolescent Partial Hospitalization Service (CAPHS)

12-18-year-olds, with acute mental health concerns, who have not yet transitioned to adult life.

Child and Adolescent Partial Hospitalization is a voluntary service. In addition, the teen must be experiencing a mental health concern that would respond to a brief and acute intervention. For the safety of the patients in our milieu, and wellbeing of the patient being referred, patients who have a recent history or current violent behaviors, will be directed to alternative resources providing individual instead of group based services. 

Services are delivered both face-to-face and through telehealth. Please see the section: Full Onsite Partial Hospital Programming as well as Hybrid and Telehealth Services Available for more details.

We continue to track our outcomes very closely. We have found that according to patient self-report on standardized and self-adjusting scales, our patients make significant improvements in symptom relief as well as improvement in their safety during the full course of both our virtual and face to face partial hospitalization treatment. We are also able to reach patients that we otherwise would not be able to support due to proximity and/or severity of their symptoms prohibiting them from leaving their home. As with our face to face program CAPHS staff partners with the teen, parent(s)/guardian(s), CAPHS teachers, and home school to identify a plan to ease any school related distress. When this occurs, we have found great success in having the teem transition back to school from partial hospitalization.

Patients will be immersed in a milieu where they will be encouraged to consider new healthy ways of managing distress and new patterns of communication with their supports. Patients should be on the path of recovery by the end of treatment but will continue to require outpatient therapy and psychiatric follow-up, which we will partner with you to schedule.

During the intake you will meet with several clinicians. First, you will sign HIPAA consent forms which allows us to be able to speak to people like your primary care physician, therapist and school. Then, a nurse will obtain your vital signs (blood pressure, height, and weight) and complete a brief medical history. Lastly, you will meet with our intake evaluator who will go over the reasons why you were referred, information pertaining to any current and past struggles as well as information on what you are seeking help for. This all helps us to make sure that we are going to be able to meet your needs.

With your consent, a teacher at partial will contact your school counselor and will help you get your work. Our teachers are NYS Certified Teachers and will help you to understand and complete your work. 

You will work on school work assigned by your home school, with an effort to assist you in keeping up/catching up with that curriculum. Your attendance in CAPHS will be considered a legal (approved) absence and we will hand your school work in for grading for your report card at your home district.

Since school is your teen’s full-time job, we will want to understand how their illness is impacting their ability to manage academic work. We also find that academics are either impacting the mental health concern or impacted by the mental health concern. As we partner with you we will understand this relationship better. Challenging your teen with academic work while also practicing new coping strategies will help us to understand their recovery as well. In addition it will help us to see in real-time if they are returning to their baseline functioning. With your consent we will collaborate with school to suggest possible ways to support your teen best for a successful transition back to school.

HIPAA Laws protect your child’s Health Information and we cannot share any information without you and your teen’s consent. However, we strongly encourage you to consider allowing us to share enough information with your teen’s team at school. This will allow them to better understand what your teen is managing and partner with us to identify a supportive plan. We have enjoyed GREAT success in partnering with area schools.

With your consent we will be in touch with your school district/school counselor to advocate for you. In most cases, we will collaborate for a modification in the assignments and reduce your back work load.

We have teachers on staff who your child will be assigned to and two class periods built into our program day. The teacher's role is to communicate with the school about work that needs to be completed and make a plan for your child to complete work while here. As we near discharge, your child will be encouraged to complete transitions back into school to support your child's return. It is encouraged to complete around 30 minutes of school work outside of program to continue a schedule that will help the transition back to everyday school.

Planning for school re-entry or “transition” occurs towards the end of your time in program. You will partner with your primary therapist, parent/guardian, and school supports to develop a plan for the transition back to your school. This often includes planned limited exposures at school to practice new coping skills, and returning to Child Partial to discuss how the transition went and what adjustments need to be made. You will slowly re-enter school, while still having support from your CAPHS team to assist with coping through this transition. This exposure often occurs several times in order to identify a comfortable and supportive plan for each patient.

Inpatient psychiatric hospitalization is excellent at providing a very short term intervention, on a locked unit, that takes the person out of their natural environment and keeps them safe. Their main focus is on 24/7 supervision.

Though there is effort placed on teaching new coping skills, the focus cannot be on learning how to apply the new skills, since you are completely outside of your natural environment and away from most distress triggers (that occur at home, school and in the community). This element, although great for giving your brain a break, does not allow for real life practice. Teens will be admitted to Partial Hospitalization when we feel that they are a good therapy candidate, engaged in their recovery and might benefit from “on the job training” to integrate new coping strategies. They will also need supports to reinforce the skills at home.

Your child will be learning how to manage their emotions using Dialectical Behavior Therapy strategies that we know are effective in treating intense emotions. DBT includes many specific skills that help all of us in our daily lives.  It has been shown in research to be particularly helpful for people with intense moods as well as those with safety concerns. We will provide a handbook for the patients and another for parents that summarizes the skills that we will teach.

In addition to learning new tools to utilize in coping, we will partner in meeting academic needs. School work from your home school district will be obtained to work on while in program.

Your child's health is very important to us! Oftentimes emotional distress is tied to physical stress, our staff can work with you to sort this out and understand this connection. We will work with you and your family to ensure the teen’s health and safety and to determine if it's appropriate for them to attend program. Please call the main line or your primary therapist to speak with them.

If you have other scheduled appointments, we ask that these be scheduled outside of the Partial hours (after 2:00) when possible. This will help you to focus your attention on your mental health and learning skills during your time in our program. If appointments cannot be rescheduled, please collaborate with your primary therapist to discuss a plan. We do ask you to cancel any appointments with your outpatient therapist, nurse practitioner, or psychiatrist, as you will be engaging with your CAPHS providers surrounding your therapy and medication management over your course of treatment. Don’t worry, we will collaborate with them to be sure that we are on the same page, and we will provide them with updates on your date of discharge so that they do not miss anything!

In order to support you effectively, understand how you are doing, and ensure your safety, we do ask you to keep your camera on throughout the day and be visible. If this is difficult, we will partner with you to manage any stress this may bring on. Like other distress triggers we will support you in learning ways to manage/cope with the distress and ultimately reduce it. We do not support using avoidance of distress triggers as it results in immediate relief but anxiety increasing in the long run. We will prioritize partnering with you, your parents and/or guardians to develop a plan to help you through this obstacle.

While in program your child will pause seeing their therapist/psychiatrist/NP until they have discharged. They will be working with our team for continuity of care and then will be set up with appointments with outpatient provider afterwards. Don’t worry, we will be sure that the outpatient team has up to date information BEFORE your follow-up appointments. We will also be sure that you have a copy of your discharge summary, via MyChart, on the day of discharge.

Absolutely! We encourage daily practicing of coping skills even when difficult emotions are not intense. The more practice that occurs, the easier these skills will be to utilize in moments of distress. You wouldn’t show up to a game, a concert, etc., without having practiced prior. So we also encourage you to practice these skills in calm moments to help them be more effective in moments of stress. Learning what coping skills work for you can be some trial and error. We also ask parents/guardians to partner and encourage coping skill use outside of program time and in moments of distress. 

A safety plan is a helpful tool for both the adolescent and parent(s)/guardian(s) to use when distress in any form (anxiety, depression, anger, safety concerns, etc.) are present. When you begin to see warning signs of distress, we encourage you to reference your safety plan for guidance as to healthy coping skills to use in that moment. The goal is that you will be able to address those warning signs so that they don’t escalate to an unsafe level. We ask that there be at least 2 copies available in the home. One in an easy location for the adolescent to access (maybe their bedroom) and one in an easy location for the parent/guardian to access. The safety plan can guide you with healthy skills to use and also includes crisis contacts should you need additional support to stay safe. During program hours, please contact the Primary Therapist should there be concerns. Otherwise, please utilize the crisis contact as needed outside of program hours.

It is unlikely that your teen will be “all better” after partial, since recovery from a significant mental health concern is a long process. We do anticipate if your teen participates in a full course of partial hospitalization with us, are active in participation, and continue to practice coping skills, that they will be feeling considerably better. What we hope to accomplish with you is to shine the light on the path of recovery so that you and your teen, together with community supports, feel confident that there is a plan and that you are able to work together on the journey from outside of the hospital.

No, you will be connected or re-connected to outpatient providers in the community prior to discharge from CAPHS.

Your child will be connected to an outpatient provider to manage medications upon discharge. It can be your existing provider if you have one, or we can connect you to a provider in the community if you don't already have one. We will provide you with a 30-day supply of any medication and an appointment will be set up within 30 days of discharge. To be sure that your child sees an outpatient clinician of your choice, check the back of your insurance card to get started in looking for providers (to see your child after DC) that are covered by your insurance. You can also ask your child’s primary care doctor for suggestions. There can often be a waiting period to see a provider. Do not hesitate to get onto a wait list.

Check the back of your insurance card to find the customer service number. Customer service should be able to provide you with a list of Therapists, Psychiatrists and or Nurse Practitioners who accept your insurance and who are accepting new patients.

We will work with you to accommodate your preferences and safety concerns.

• Diagnostic Evaluation
• Nursing assessment 
• Psychiatric evaluation
• Psychopharm follow-up
• Interdisciplinary Risk Assessment
• Crisis intervention/Safety Planning
• Individual Therapy
• Family Therapy
• Group Therapy