Development of a virtual partial hospital program for an acute psychiatric population: Lessons learned and future directions for telepsychotherapy

Research suggests that individuals may benefit from participation in a partial hospital program (PHP) following discharge from inpatient psychiatric hospitalization. Indeed, PHPs are designed to facilitate further stabilization and skill-building before discharge to the community. As a result, our hospital-located in a large metropolitan area in the Northeastern United States-has long maintained a commitment to providing this critical level of care. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, these in-person PHP services were discontinued in response to public health recommendations and to ensure the safety and well-being of patients and staff. To maintain this important point along the psychiatric care continuum, hospital leadership encouraged our PHP team to pursue an alternative approach to treatment delivery: video-based telepsychotherapy. This article describes the development of a virtual PHP that serves acute psychiatric patients stepping down from inpatient hospitalization. First, we provide an overview of the original in-person PHP and then discuss the process of its transition to a virtual format. Next, we describe in detail the components of our newly developed virtual PHP, highlighting adaptations necessitated by patients and staff being remote from our physical hospital. Finally, we present preliminary evidence of our virtual PHP's acceptability and feasibility, based on experiences with our 23 patients to date; discuss lessons learned from this program development effort; and recommend future directions for research and clinical practice. Information provided herein aims to guide the development of other virtual PHPs and telepsychotherapy programs that similarly strive to offer intensive treatment to an acute psychiatric population.