CU OCD and Anxiety Intensive Outpatient Program 

The CU OCD and Anxiety Intensive Outpatient Programs (IOP) is an in-person treatment program at the University of Colorado's Department of Psychiatry for people aged 18 and older.

What is IOP? 

This program allows you to live at home while attending a higher level of care. IOP aims to give people quicker access to affordable higher levels of care compared to a regular outpatient program. The IOP is also designed to help people’s mental health symptoms from getting worse and needing to stay in the hospital for psychiatric treatment. 

Our IOP requires a minimum of 9 hours per week, dispersed over 3 days in-person at the clinic for 12 weeks.

Hours:

What we Treat: 

The OCD and Anxiety IOP primarily treats obsessive compulsive disorder and related disorders, as well as anxiety disorders.  

Reasons why IOP could be the right level of care: 

• You have a clearly established OCD or anxiety disorder psychological diagnosis requiring additional therapeutic support.   
• You are experiencing an increase in your mental health disorder symptoms and are not functioning in one area of life (work, relationships, family, activities of daily living) and need fine-tuning and support. 
• Your treatment needs exceed routine care in an outpatient mental health setting.  
• You do not meet admissions criteria for traditional inpatient or residential psychiatric services.  
• You have recently completed an inpatient or residential program, and your aftercare plan includes intensive outpatient services to achieve and maintain your recovery lifestyle. 

Benefits of our IOP Program: 

• OCD and anxiety expert-led groups and sessions
• Interactive and in person exposure therapy
• Psychoeducation, process/discussion, experiential activities, and group therapy focused on allowing patients to learn, practice, and implement therapeutic skills
• The IOP will offer a combination of group & Individual therapy, med management, and case management sessions. 
• Individual sessions may occur on non-IOP days, with the goal being that you do not miss any group sessions. Group sessions will always have at least 2 clinical staff present (case management and/or individual check-ins will occur during group time when necessary) 
• IOP level of care can also help stabilize individuals to keep them from needing a higher level of inpatient care 

How to Start:  

Insurances accepted at this time: Anthem, Aetna, Cigna, Colorado Access, and Colorado Community Health Alliance 

• Step 1: What to expect when you call the program at 303-724-4716 and/or email at OCDIOP@CUAnschutz.edu

• Our admin team will gather some personal information and send it to one of the IOP team members for review.

• Step 2: Getting to know your individual needs – what to expect during pre-admissions. 

• Our team wants to ensure that IOP is the best next step for you and understand your specific needs.  
• If the team feels you would benefit from a different service, our team will help guide you to other resources.  

• Step 3: Intake & Admissions  

• If our team determines IOP is the right fit for you, you will be scheduled for a full intake assessment to set final details of you starting IOP.  
• Our in-house admission team helps by calling your insurance provider on your behalf, followed by thoroughly reviewing your benefits to ensure you’re provided with the best options for mental health treatment. 

Our IOP Curriculum: 

Some of the Core Topics Include: 

• Psychoeducation on OCD and anxiety
• Exposure Response Prevention introduction and related skills:
  • Creation of hierarchies
  • Exposures
  • Response prevention plans
  • Non-engagement responses
  • Mindfulness skills
  • Self-compassion skills
• Skills from Acceptance and Commitment
  • Thought defusion
  • Values
• Skills from Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Cognitive Behavior Therapy, Cognitive Remediation Therapy, etc.
• Interpersonal skills and skills for fostering connection; boundary setting, getting needs met, etc.
• Life skills, self-care, stress management, problem solving, tools for addressing procrastination, perfectionism, and indecisiveness
• Relapse prevention and symptom management skills