Partial Hospitalization Program

PHP program hours run from 9 a.m.–3 p.m., Monday through Friday. Families are required to drop their child at 9 a.m. each morning and participate in a brief morning check-in with a Milieu Therapist to review their child’s progress at home the previous evening. Families are required to pick up their child no later than 3 p.m. On Mondays and Wednesdays, we offer virtual parent groups on parenting topics and advocating for your child in academic settings. In addition, families are required to participate in two family sessions with their child’s primary clinician to address individualized treatment progress and goals.

Recreation Therapy (RT) is a group-based component of PHP that improves socialization, leisure functioning and community reintegration. Based on the specific needs of the patients, the following programs may be developed and implemented:

• Arts and crafts
• Physical fitness/education
• Team building
• Leisure education
• Yoga
• Relaxation group/techniques
• Problem solving (learning and use of coping skills/tools)
• Animal assisted therapy (two times/month)
• Nutrition
• Dance and music activities
• Family RT group (once/week in PHP)
• Wellness groups
• Games and socialization activities
• Other programs as deemed therapeutic to meet the needs of the patients

Milieu Therapists (MTs) provide in-group support for patients on the unit throughout all milieu activities. Their primary role is to help children work on achieving their goals and practicing to integrate coping tools into their everyday lives so they can better regulate their emotions. Each day, our MTs check-in with parents or guardians on how their child appears at home and communicate upcoming appointments.

They are also the primary contact and liaison between patients, other team members and the patient's family. The milieu therapist communicates with the treatment team on how the patient is functioning throughout the day.

PHP is a Monday-Friday program (unless a holiday is announced). If possible, do not plan your family outings and outpatient appointments on days when your child is expected to be in attendance. If you must miss a day for an important event, please let staff know ahead of time. If there are two missed days, your child will be discharged. If your child reports feeling ill prior to arrival in the morning, take their temperature. If it is at 100.5 or above, please call the Program office at 312.227.0840 to report absence for that day. You must receive a return slip from your child’s primary care physician to return to either program.

We require every staff member and patient to complete a daily symptom screening prior to arriving in the program each day. During the treatment, all patients and staff wear medical grade masks. Please arrive to programming in a mask from home and upon arrival your child will be provided with a medical grade mask to wear throughout the day except when eating or drinking. Patients are socially distanced in the group treatment room and each patient are provided with their own program supplies and table.

Please stay home and call our program line for further instructions if your child has any of the following symptoms sore throat, fever or chills, cough, extreme fatigue, headache, new loss of taste or smell,  shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, diarrhea, abdominal pain, vomiting, congestion or runny nose. If you, your child, or any member of the household have been diagnosed with or had a positive or pending result for COVID-19 or exposure to an individual with pending results or confirmed COVID-19, please stay home and call our program line for further instructions.

Report all medicines that your child is taking to staff every day at check-in, as well as any allergies to medicines.

The child’s medicine regimen will be discussed with the parent, psychiatrist and therapist. The nurse is available for additional assistance. Do not alter your child’s medicine dosage in any way, unless the plan has been discussed with your child’s doctor in PHP and approved by the parent. We do not administer any over-the-counter medicines in PHP, nor any medicines that the parent has not approved of administering to their child. Children who use inhalers for asthma should also plan to bring a pharmacy-labeled bottle or package to be kept in PHP during the child’s stay. Medicines kept in PHP will be returned to the parent at the end of the child’s stay.

PHP involves intense family involvement, including family therapy sessions twice a week with the therapist, multi-family group sessions on Mondays and Wednesdays from 10 a.m. – 11 a.m., treatment programs, and daily check-ins with staff. Failure to attend any of these required sessions may result in discharge. We are happy to provide help with work letters or FMLA documents.

We do not provide transportation to PHP.

Please click here for more location information. If you are parking your car at the Blackhawk-Halsted parking garage at Lurie Children’s, you qualify for a daily rate 0-2 hours; $3 or 2-3 hours; $6