Outpatient treatment
Outpatient treatment is addiction or mental health care delivered in scheduled sessions while the patient lives at home, at a lower intensity than an intensive outpatient program.
Also called outpatient rehab, outpatient therapy, ASAM Level 1
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- 4 related terms
What it means
In the fourth edition of the ASAM Criteria, outpatient care is Level 1, split into 1.0 long-term remission monitoring, 1.5 outpatient therapy and 1.7 medically managed outpatient. What the third edition called Level 1 outpatient services is now labeled 1.5.
Outpatient care can be someone's whole treatment or the last step after residential, PHP and IOP care. It usually means individual or group sessions once or a few times a week, and it can include medications such as buprenorphine.
Why it matters for your website
Outpatient is where people keep their lives intact, so the page should answer practical questions: evening and weekend hours, telehealth, insurance, and how soon the first appointment can happen.
Do not bury outpatient beneath your residential program. For many searchers it is the level of care they are actually looking for, and it deserves its own page and its own local search work.
Sources
The facts on this page about a law, a regulator, a clinical standard or a platform come from these sources. Each link opens the original in a new tab.
- Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, SAPCASAM Criteria 4th Edition Implementation (levels of care and dimensions) (opens in a new tab)
Last reviewed
This entry explains a clinical term so you can describe your care accurately on your website. It is not medical advice, and clinical decisions belong with your clinical team.
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