Partial Hospitalization Program
While Akron Children’s Hospital continues to make every effort to ensure the safety of our patients, families, and staff during the COVID-19 pandemic, please be aware we will be phone screening all patients with upcoming appointments for COVID-19. The legal guardian of those patients will receive a phone screening. Screening questions are tools designed to prevent the spread of infection and keep people safe. Parents and guardians should accompany patients to the front entrance screening area.
Overview
We offer intensive psychiatric services to teens ages 12 to 18 in an outpatient setting. We designed the program to keep teens in the community, out of psychiatric inpatient treatment, and/or transition them from our inpatient unit back home. Our goals are to help teens improve their functioning, develop healthy coping skills, and stabilize their mental status.
Benefits of partial hospitalization.
Our evidence-based programming provides skills training to increase awareness of thoughts, feelings and behaviors to enable teens to make healthier commitments and choices. Family therapy and education is a core component of our program. Parents and teens learn important skills to help them change problem behaviors, improve interpersonal relationships, and cope with stressful situations.
We also provide psychiatric assessment, medication management and case management. Eligible teens include those experiencing psychiatric symptoms and behavioral problems that cause significant impairment in everyday educational, social, vocational and/or interpersonal functioning.
Program details.
Our program is 8 a.m.-3:30 p.m., Monday-Friday, during the school year. During summer break, school vacations and school holidays, our program runs from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. We follow the academic calendar of Akron Public Schools. Family therapy appointments are scheduled with your child's clinician throughout the day or immediately following the program as needed.
We offer several groups throughout the day:
- School - An instructor from Akron Public Schools is on-site to help students with their schoolwork and to serve as a liaison between the program and school. Your teen will have 1 hour to complete any homework from his school or assignments given by the PHP instructor.
- Check-in/Goals group - Participants check-in about their current emotional and mental health status and discuss the progress they made toward the goals they've set for the week.
- Dialectical behavior therapy skills group - This group teaches a skill from the DBT model, which will be reflected in all the other groups throughout the day.
- Psychotherapy group - This open-ended group is designed to have teens focus on the issues leading to their admission into the program and the work they need to accomplish to better function with their family, peers and in the community.
- Art therapy - This group uses the medium of art to reduce anxiety, to prompt the release of emotions, and to explore issues related to your teen's admission.
- Spiritual wellness - This group invites participants to reflect on their spirituality and how this influences their overall health in body, mind and spirit.
- SIGNALS - Participants use this group to identify signs of wellness and relapse. They create a plan to continue skills learned after discharge from our program.
- Yoga - This group uses the principles of yoga practice to promote physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health issues.
- Check-out/Goals setting - In this final group, participants set achievable and measurable goals to work on at home and in their communities throughout the week. We also evaluate their level of safety to return home.
To make an appointment
A physician referral is not required. Parents/guardians may call 330-543-5015 (option #1) to make an appointment or for more information.
Locations/Contact Us
Contact Partial Hospitalization Program
330-543-5015
Lois and John Orr Family Behavioral Health Center
Considine Professional Building
215 West Bowery Street
Level 2
Akron, Ohio 44308
Fax: 330-543-3856
More about this location...
Map & directions
Akron Children's Hospital Partial Hospitalization Program, Boardman
6614 Southern Boulevard
Building E
Boardman, Ohio 44512
More about this location...
Map & directions
Our Doctors/Providers
Rihab Mohamed, MD
Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist; Medical Director, Partial Hospitalization Program
Jeffrey Smith, MD
Child & Adolescent Psychiatrist
Kathy Royer, MSN, APRN-CNS
Psychiatric Clinical Nurse Specialist
Brooks Collins-Gaines, LPC, ECMHC, CTP-C
Mental Health Therapist
Molly Daugherty, LPCC-S
Mental Health Therapist
Courtney Hout, LPCC, MFT
Mental Health Therapist
Karla Mellott, LISW
Mental Health Case Manager
Christine Morehead, LPCC
Mental Health Therapist
Megan Ott, LPCC-S
Clinical Operations Supervisor, Mental Health Therapist
Nathan Sole, LPCC
Mental Health Therapist
Amanda Wallace, MEd, LPCC
Mental Health Therapist
Holly Wanchick
Mental Health Therapist
What Should Families Expect When They Come for an Appointment?
At Akron Children’s, your child’s health and safety is our priority. Please continue to bring your child for wellness visits, vaccinations or sick care appointments that keep children healthy. We want to assure you that we have taken additional precautions to ensure a safe environment for your child and family. The following are additional safety efforts, in addition to our normal cleaning protocols, that we are taking to help you be comfortable bringing your child to an appointment.
Limiting the Number of Caregivers and Face Covering
The number of caregivers permitted to accompany a child to an appointment is dependent on the department you are visiting. Everyone visiting an Akron Children's facility is asked to wear masks or face coverings, except for kids under 2 or those with sensory issues. Masks will be provided for visitors who do not bring their own.
Checking In and Screening of Visitors
Akron Children's now offers Mobile Check-in to limit your exposure to others. You'll receive a text an hour before your child's appointment arrival time. Click the link in the text when you reach the Akron Children's facility for your child's appointment. You will receive a confirmation text that reminds you to wait in your car. Once we determine appropriate spacing is available inside the building, you'll receive a third text to let you know it's OK to come in for your appointment.
Immediately upon entering the building, your temperature will be taken, either by a thermal scanner or a greeter who will also ask you a few questions.
If you are in a waiting room, you’ll notice signs and a limited number of chairs. This is to remind our patients to keep 6 feet of physical distance between your family and others.
Precautions If You Suspect Your Child Has COVID-19
Call your child’s healthcare professional if your child is sick with fever, cough, or difficulty breathing and has been in close contact with a person known to have COVID-19, or if you live in or have recently traveled from an area with ongoing spread of COVID-19. Your health care professional will work with Ohio’s public health department and the CDC to determine if your child needs to be tested for COVID-19.
View all the safety precautions Akron Children's is taking.
