Inpatient Treatment: What Is It and How Does It Work?

What is Inpatient Treatment?

During inpatient treatment, you’ll stay in hospital on a residential basis to receive in-depth support for your mental health challenges. Inpatient treatment is especially important if:

• Your symptoms are severe, and are having a significantly negative impact on your ability to function in your daily life
• Your safety is at risk if you don’t come to hospital, for example, if you’re experiencing suicidal thoughts
• You need to be stabilised physically, for example, if you need to go through a detox from alcohol and/or drugs

Inpatient treatment is the most intensive form of support you can receive. It can be hugely beneficial in your recovery from a variety of mental health conditions, eating disorders and addictions. It gives you the chance to spend some time away from your usual living situation, which means you can leave behind any triggers or negative influences, and take the time to focus on your recovery and wellbeing. 

It’s normal to find the thought of residential treatment daunting, at least at first. However, this form of treatment provides you with the time, care and attention that you need to fully address your concerns, tackle any underlying problems or triggers, improve your quality of life, and make a strong and lasting recovery.

Here, we’ll outline what you can expect from a mental health treatment programme at Priory, explore the many benefits of inpatient treatment, and look at the differences between inpatient and outpatient services.

What can I Expect from an Inpatient Treatment Programme?

Intensive treatment and therapy

As an inpatient, the type of care you’ll receive will be tailored to your individual needs and structured within National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines. Our expert teams of pyschologists, therapists and counsellors, plus many more, will be able to ensure you receive the correct treatment depending on your individual needs. 

At Priory, we offer a number of different therapy formats to our inpatients, such as one-to-one, group therapy and family support. A mixture of therapy types might also be right for you, depending on your treatment programme and the condition you’re struggling with.

We’re also able to offer a wide range of tried and tested therapy techniques during inpatient mental health treatment. These include cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) and mindfulness.

We also offer a number of specific therapeutic approaches for our addictions inpatients. These include:

• Medically assisted detoxification (detox) – this allows you to safely withdraw from alcohol and/or drugs in a controlled way, whilst managing your withdrawal symptoms. This means that you’re physically stable and ready to start intensive inpatient therapy
• Equine assisted therapy – this is a holistic approach that involves you working with a horse, your therapist and an expert horse handler. At Priory, we primarily use equine therapy as part of our inpatient Addiction Treatment Programmes, and offer this specialised form of therapy at Priory Hospital Woking, Priory Hospital Roehampton and Priory Hospital North London

For our eating disorder patients, we can also include the following techniques in our inpatient treatment programmes, which are specific to these disorders:

• Maudsley Model of Anorexia Nervosa Treatment for Adults (MANTRA)
• Dietary input
• Food exposure interventions
• Body image workshops
• Supported feeding if required

A Range of Wellbeing Activities

As well as specialist therapy, we also offer access to a range of wellbeing activities as part of our inpatient treatment programmes. These may include:

• Yoga, Tai Chi and Shiatsu classes
• Meditation and relaxation classes
• Acupuncture
• Exercise classes and groups
• Community-based trips and activities

With the help of these wellbeing activities, you’ll have the chance to focus on your mind, body and spirit as part of your mental health recovery journey.

Family Involvement

We recognise that mental health conditions, addictions and eating disorders can also have a significant impact on your family and loved ones. That’s why we encourage your family to be involved in your inpatient treatment journey as much as possible. We welcome visitors at our hospital sites and also invite family members to join family therapy and support groups.

Beautiful Hospital Environments

We firmly believe that the environment in which treatment takes place is just as important as the treatment programme itself for helping you to get better.

Our hospitals are set within beautiful buildings, and many have extensive, private grounds where you can relax and unwind. During inpatient treatment, you’ll stay in a modern, en-suite bedroom, and will also have access to our peaceful and welcoming living areas, providing a tranquil space for you to enjoy your leisure time.

Diet and nutrition are also an important part of our treatment philosophy at Priory. Each of our hospitals provide on-site catering, with dishes that are healthy, nutritious, and catered to your dietary needs. 

Find a Priory location near you to learn more about our inpatient treatment programmes and what each of our hospitals has to offer.

Benefits of Inpatient Treatment

Inpatient treatment has a number of benefits. These include:

• Round-the-clock care from a multidisciplinary team, including consultants, therapists, nurses, healthcare assistants and other specialist mental health professionals. This means you’ll have emotional and medical support 24 hours a day
• Much-needed structure. We’ll make sure that your days are filled with therapeutic activities and a reliable structure, all of which will help you in your recovery
• A safe environment and a chance to spend time away from your usual living situation, which may be full of triggers and negative influences. If you are living with an addiction, you’ll be able to remain abstinent as you won’t be exposed to temptations
• The time and space to focus on your wellbeing
• The chance to spend time with other people who are in the same boat as you, so you can help and encourage each other

Inpatient vs Outpatient Treatment

As well as inpatient treatment, we’re also able to offer outpatient treatment and day care services. These options may be suitable when you don’t need round-the-clock support for your mental health difficulties, but would still benefit from some ongoing therapy.

Outpatient treatment is when you attend one of our hospitals or wellbeing centres for weekly therapy sessions. Day care is when you attend one of our sites for a full or half day each week, to receive therapy, but return home each evening. As well as offering face-to-face outpatient treatment, we are also able to offer this remotely.

You can step down to outpatient or day care treatment following an inpatient stay, or you can start off by having outpatient or day care treatment and progress to inpatient treatment if it turns out that you need some more comprehensive support.