If you’re looking for the top inpatient mental health center in Florida, there’s a good chance you or someone you love is struggling with a mental health condition. While you might feel alone right now, mental health professionals’ understanding of psychiatric conditions is more advanced than ever, and effective mental health services and treatments are already available.
If you or a loved one need help now please call 772-774-3872 or click here to use your insurance benefits to start treatment.
For many people with mental health problems, residential treatment is the best course of action. It offers a similar level of care to hospitalization but in a homey, day-to-day life-like, community-based setting. The best inpatient mental health treatment facilities offer a wide range of therapy options and complementary health approaches, provided by a treatment team of mental health experts, with luxury amenities.
Continue reading to find out more about what inpatient mental health care and treatment involve and who should consider seeking it.
What Is Mental Illness?
Mental illness refers to any condition that impacts the mind, including how you think, behave, relate to others and self-regulate. While physical illness is relatively easy to diagnose because you can see or feel physical symptoms, mental health disorders can be harder to detect because it’s often based on self-reporting and isn’t visible to the naked eye.
In general, mental conditions are diagnosed when your psychological functioning is impaired to the extent you feel significant distress or struggle to function in daily life. A mental disorder might impact the way you:
There are plenty of gray areas. For example, most people experience fear before speaking in front of an audience, so when does a case of nerves become anxiety? Other people might be introverted, so they don’t require as much contact with the outside world and prefer their own company or online activities. Some people cry a lot or experience stronger emotions than the average person.
The thing to watch for is whether actions, thoughts or lack of self-regulation cause distress and differ from the norm for that individual. Significant changes in behavior, inability to function in society and feeling continuous emotional pain as a result of one’s mental state are signs that mental health treatment might be necessary.
What Does a Treatment Plan for Mental Health Disorders Involve?
Treatment for psychiatric conditions is different for everyone. Each person’s brain chemistry is unique, and even people with the same diagnosis require specialized treatment depending on their background, medical history and recovery goals. In some cases, psychiatric medications are required, and therapy is recommended in almost all cases. The specific type of therapy and medication you receive depends on your individual requirements.
For some mental health disorders, such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, hospitalization may be required for diagnosis and stabilization. Other mental disorders such as generalized anxiety disorder, personality disorders and depression might require residential care if efforts from your primary care provider haven’t worked or they recommend comprehensive treatment.
Types of Mental Health Disorders
According to the National Alliance of Mental Health, one in five people in America experiences a mental issue. Below is a breakdown of common mental health problems we can treat here at Behavioral Health Centers, including mental health disorders symptoms for each one.
Anxiety is among the most common mental health difficulties, affecting more than 18% of people in the U.S. The most common anxiety disorder is generalized anxiety disorder, which causes:
There are many different types of anxiety disorders, some of which are included separately below. Social anxiety, agoraphobia, separation anxiety and selective mutism also fall under this umbrella of mental health issues.
Depression and anxiety may be addressed by your primary care provider initially. They might prescribe antidepressants, anti-anxiety medications or talk therapy. If this doesn’t help you overcome your symptoms, they might recommend you attend a residential mental health treatment program.
Some people belittled depression as a minor condition in the past, but it comes with a high risk of suicide and should be treated seriously by a team of medical professionals. Everyone reacts to negative stimuli with sadness, and it’s normal to experience a certain amount of depression in response to stress or grief.
However, if the following feelings are overwhelming or persist to the extent they prevent you from enjoying life or pursuing goals, it’s time to seek help:
PTSD is classified as an anxiety disorder and notoriously impacts victims of traumatic events, including abuse, active military service and involvement in a serious accident. Symptoms usually set in within a month or so of experiencing trauma, although delays or long periods without any symptoms are also common. Signs of PTSD include:
OCD is manifested as a series of unwanted, uncontrollable thoughts and fears (obsessions) that you use repetitive behaviors (compulsions) to try to cope with. They cause significant distress and impact your ability to function in daily life. Trying to avoid your obsessions or limit your compulsive behavior without treatment often makes the condition worse, leading to more anxiety and essentially reinforcing the ritualistic actions.
Examples of obsessions include:
Examples of compulsions include:
With the rise of social media, BDD is becoming increasingly common. This mental illness causes the sufferer to have a distorted view of how they look. It leads to severe preoccupation with a perceived defect or flaw in appearance that’s either minor or nonexistent to others. It might cause such strong feelings of shame and disgust that you avoid seeing other people.
People with this condition might seek cosmetic surgery to fix their supposed flaw, which relieves anxiety to some extent, but it often returns after a while. Symptoms include:
Personality disorders are mental health conditions that often stem from coping mechanisms in childhood and adolescence that a person never grows out of. They usually involve thought and behavioral patterns that differ significantly from cultural norms. These disorders can cause serious difficulty relating to other people and prevent proper functioning in daily life.
It’s generally accepted that there are 10 personality disorders:
Deliberately harming yourself can occur as part of another mental illness or as a stand-alone method of relieving stress, anger or emotional pain. It can bring on immediate feelings of euphoria or release but is often followed by shame and guilt. It’s an impulsive act, not a premeditated cry for attention, and any strong emotion can trigger the behavior. It’s not usually a suicidal act, but it can lead to life-threatening injuries and serious consequences.
Substance abuse can trigger psychosis, which is defined as a break from reality. While it’s believed that drug use alone can’t cause serious mental illness, it can trigger underlying conditions such as psychosis. Large amounts of cocaine and cannabis and any amount of hallucinogens or crystal meth are most commonly associated with the onset of psychosis, but ecstasy and MDMA can also trigger the condition.
Panic disorder is an anxiety disorder that causes frequent unexpected panic attacks. Someone with this mental illness has usually experienced four or more panic attacks and lives in fear of having more of them. These attacks create intense fear that comes on suddenly without warning and usually lasts for between five and 20 minutes. Common symptoms of panic attacks include:
While many mothers experience baby blues as a result of major hormonal changes that occur during pregnancy and childbirth, perinatal depression is a persistent mood disorder. It includes prenatal depression, which occurs before birth, and postpartum depression, which occurs afterwards. If you’re a mother with this mental illness, you’ll feel extreme sadness, fatigue and anxiety that make self-care and caring for your baby very hard.
Phobias are anxiety disorders that can range from mild to severe. Agoraphobia is the fear of leaving the house, which can make working and maintaining personal relationships difficult. Fears of spiders or thunderstorms might be considered less severe because they won’t necessarily cause impairment of daily life. Nonetheless, whichever type of phobia you have, if it causes you distress, treatment is available.
Sleep disturbances such as insomnia can be a symptom of another mental issue but they can cause significant distress by themselves. Sleep is essential for good health, and not getting enough can lead to significant disruption of daily life.
What is Inpatient Mental Health Treatment Like?
Life at an inpatient mental health treatment center is designed to provide a structured and therapeutic environment that supports recovery and personal growth. Here’s what a typical day might look like for a resident:
Morning Routine:
- Wake-Up: Patients begin their day with a routine that establishes a sense of normalcy and structure.
- Medication and Monitoring: Those on medication receive their doses under medical supervision, and health checks are conducted to monitor any changes or needs.
- Breakfast: A nutritious breakfast provides the energy needed for the day’s activities.
- Therapy Sessions: The morning may include individual therapy sessions, during which patients work one-on-one with mental health professionals to discuss their progress and challenges.
Mid-Morning Activities:
- Group Therapy: Patients participate in group therapy sessions, which focus on a variety of topics relevant to mental health recovery. They can share experiences and support each other’s progress.
- Specialized Therapeutic Activities: Depending on individual treatment plans, patients may use specialized therapy sessions tailored to address specific mental health issues.
Afternoon:
- Lunch and Leisure Time: There may be some free time for personal reflection or light activities after lunch.
- Therapeutic and Educational Workshops: The afternoon is often filled with structured activities, including creative arts therapies, skills development workshops, or physical wellness activities. These are designed to help patients develop new interests and coping skills.
Evening:
- Dinner: Evening meals are followed by free time or light activities that help patients wind down from the day.
- Support Groups or Peer Sessions: Evening may include less formal group sessions where patients can connect and share their day’s experiences and feelings.
- Personal Time: Before bedtime, patients are encouraged to engage in quiet, personal activities like reading or journaling that promote relaxation.
Night Routine:
- Medication and Check-Ins: Any necessary medications are administered, and health professionals are available to ensure patients are settled and comfortable.
- Preparation for Sleep: Activities such as guided relaxation or meditation may be offered to support a restful night.
What you experience during your mental health treatment program depends on your individual needs, and the above schedule is only a potential routine you may have during your stay. Each day in an inpatient mental health program is carefully planned to balance therapeutic sessions, physical activities, social interaction, and personal time, fostering an environment conducive to healing. A daily routine helps manage mental health conditions and establish healthy habits that patients can carry into their lives after discharge. The consistency and security of the schedule provide a stable framework within which patients can focus on their recovery and health.
What Are the Goals of Inpatient Mental Health Care?
The aim of inpatient mental health treatment is to help individuals with mental health disorders learn coping skills and understand their condition so they can manage symptoms independently. Beyond that, the objectives of inpatient treatment for mental health vary significantly from person to person, depending on their unique requirements.
Goals are usually broken down for individuals, beginning with small steps and gradually increasing to larger objectives as the individual moves through treatment into recovery and aftercare.
Mental Health Treatments
The inpatient mental health care and treatment you will receive depends on your medical history, background and objectives. When you take part in an inpatient mental health treatment plan, you can usually expect to receive a mixture of the following approaches.
Individual Therapy
The main type of treatment for mental conditions is called talk therapy. This usually includes a range of approaches, including CBT, DBT, motivational interviewing, counseling, interpersonal therapy, EMDR and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. As the name suggests, this therapy involves talking with a qualified professional who helps you understand yourself and your condition, identify unhelpful patterns and develop new, healthy coping skills while in the residential inpatient program.
Support Groups
Group therapy is an essential element of inpatient treatment for mental health disorders because they provide context and encourage empathy, listening skills and open communication. Qualified counselors guide group therapy sessions and encourage positive discussion, but it’s communication between peers with similar experiences that helps people grow and move forward.
Being able to talk freely about your experiences and listen to other people are crucial for good mental health. Holding in or being ashamed to speak about your emotions and being ambivalent about other people can allow poor mental health to persist. Group therapy provides the perfect environment to overcome these common challenges.
Family Therapy
Family therapy is an essential component of inpatient treatment for many people. Ensuring your loved ones understand your condition can be crucial for moving forward and maintaining good mental health once you leave treatment. Family members aren’t usually mental health experts, and learning about how to communicate effectively, set boundaries and understand your condition helps everyone move forward.
Brain Stimulation Therapies
Brain stimulation therapies involve using electricity to physically stimulate or inhibit brain activity. This is usually carried out indirectly using electrodes that are placed on the scalp. In the past, more invasive techniques were used, usually in the most extreme cases. Modern forms of this type of therapy are noninvasive or modified for safety and show promise as a last resort for people with serious mental illness who don’t respond to medication and talk therapy.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
CBT is the preferred type of mental health treatment in many rehab centers because it has been scientifically proven to be effective for many mental illnesses. It’s based on the premise that unhelpful patterns of thinking are partially responsible for poor mental health and drive unhelpful behaviors. It aims to teach people more helpful ways of thinking and behaving so they can get more positive outcomes from life.
Strategies to help people change the way they think and act include:
- Being mindful of distorted thinking that creates problems and helping you reevaluate them
- Gaining a more constructive insight into how other people behave and why they behave these ways
- Learning problem-solving skills that can help you cope with challenges
- Developing more confidence in your own abilities
- Facing fears instead of avoiding them
- Learning strategies to calm down your mind and relax your body
Dialectical Behavior Therapy
DBT is an evolution of CBT that’s mainly used to help people overcome suicidal ideation. It was developed to help people with borderline personality disorder but has shown promise for a range of mental health disorders. It helps you learn healthy coping mechanisms, regulate your emotions and improve relationships with others that are in inpatient care too.
DBT helps you cultivate the following skills:
- Mindfulness
- Distress tolerance
- Assertiveness about your feelings in interpersonal relationships
- Navigation of difficult emotions
- Understanding that acceptance and change can exist alongside one another
Mental Health Medications
Mental health problems might not be visible, but they’re medical conditions nonetheless, and there are a range of psychiatric medications that can help relieve symptoms. Inpatient mental health treatment is needed to administer these medications so a patient can have 24/7 professional monitoring. Some commonly used medications include:
- Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors
- Selective serotonin and norepinephrine inhibitors
- Monoamine oxidase inhibitors
- Antipsychotic medications
- Anti-anxiety medications such as benzodiazepines
What Causes Mental Health Disorders?
Mental illnesses don’t have a single cause, and causation varies significantly from person to person. Factors such as personality, sensitivity to stimuli, physical health during childhood and other seemingly unrelated elements play a bigger role than was previously believed.
Below is a breakdown of the main influences on overall mental wellness.
Genetics
Genetics are thought to be a major cause of mental health disorders, with strong evidence that presence of a condition in family members makes it more likely a related person will also have mental health problems. What’s more, certain personality traits are thought to be caused by genetics. For example, if someone is highly sensitive, has low self-esteem or worries excessively, this might be part of their character and could put them at an increased risk of mental health disorders.
Environment
While genes are implicated in poor mental health, sometimes conditions won’t materialize without external triggers from the environment. Factors you can encounter in life that could increase the chance of you developing a mental health condition include:
Stress
Stress is thought to be the strongest environmental factor that can contribute to the onset of a mental health problem. If you go through a stressful life event without support, such as grief, job loss, divorce or an accident, you might be at an increased risk for mental illness.
Physical Health
Long-term chronic or life-threatening diseases can also lead to mental health issues in some people. Head injuries, problems with the immune system, cancer and heart disease are examples of physical health problems that can lead to poor mental health.
Substance Abuse Issues
There’s no denying there’s a connection between mental health conditions and drug abuse, but causation isn’t clear. It seems like substances can trigger mental illness in some cases, while in others, mental illness compels the sufferer to self-medicate with drugs or alcohol.
What Sets Behavioral Health Centers Apart From Psychiatric Hospitals and Other Rehab Centers?
At Behavioral Health Centers, we go the extra mile to help our clients gain control over their mental health symptoms. We deploy evidence-based treatment, and state-of-the-art inpatient mental health treatment programs in a beautifully modern facility, with caring, kind and highly qualified staff on hand around the clock.
Let’s look at what sets us apart from other inpatient mental health treatment centers in Florida:
- Substance abuse treatment
- Dual-diagnosis treatment options
- Customized aftercare
- Specialty drug and alcoholism treatment for veterans and first responders
- Experiential therapies that inpatient psychiatric hospital services don’t offer
- Neuro-behavioral therapy
- Luxury amenities
Behavioral Health Centers also works with the following mental health insurance providers to offer coverage for mental health disorders:
Get Help From a Mental Health Professional Today
Get in touch today at 772-774-3872 to learn more about one of the best inpatient mental health treatment centers in Florida. We also offer PHP for Mental Health Treatment.
Our inpatient mental health center provides safe, comfortable, and effective treatment to residents across the United States and the following local counties and cities of Okeechobee County, Palm Beach County, Martin County, Jupiter, Stuart, Fort Pierce, West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Naples, Fort Myers, Tampa, Sarasota, St. Petersburg, and Orlando Florida.
