What is the difference between outpatient, private, and Help Me Grow therapies?
OUTPATIENT
Outpatient therapy for children is typically associated with a hospital, clinic or medical practice. They take on a medical approach to therapy. Your doctor can provide you with a referral for a specific therapy which you can use to set up an evaluation. The evaluation will be completed by a therapist in the field of the referral, Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy and/or Speech Therapy.
Once the evaluation is complete the therapist will identify if your child qualifies for therapy. Generally, this requires a standardized assessment in which your child receives a score that falls below average.
They then create goals and you set up a time and day that you would like to bring your child in for treatment sessions. There can be long waitlists the more selective you are on time and day, for example most families want after school times so those spots fill up quickly.
You can choose to continue services through the school year, however some families like to utilize outpatient services during the summer and pause them during their child’s school year, if they receive services from their school. However, when you want to restart therapy after pausing, it can take a while to get a new time slot and day, as your slot is not held for extended periods of time.
When you bring your child in for outpatient therapy, sessions can last any amount of time, typically 30-60 minutes. The therapist works on addressing skills needed to achieve the goal that they set. They write a daily or progress note and bill insurance.
PRIVATE
Private therapy looks a lot like outpatient therapy, in that you bring your child in for sessions. Some private practices have all specialties available or they may just have one. Private practices can use standardized assessments but do not have to. If you are looking to determine where your child’s skills are in comparison to their peers, you will need some form of a standardized or norm referenced assessment.
Some private practices will address any skill you want your child to work on.
Individual sessions are much like outpatient lasting any amount of time, again typically 30-60 minutes. The therapist works on addressing skills needed to achieve the goal that they set. They write a daily or progress note and bill insurance.
Sometimes private practices are easier to “get into” or schedule a time/day compared to outpatient but that is not always the case.
HELP ME GROW
Help Me Grow has a wide arrange of services- see Help Me Grow Post
Early Intervention (EI) is Ohio’s system that provides services to parents of eligible children under the age of three with developmental delays or disabilities. Your service providers come to your home to work on goals that you set for your family and child. If you do not live in Ohio, there are many programs like this one in every state. You can try your state’s department of health or department of developmental disabilities.
Your service providers typically involve a team of people with a coordinator and developmental interventionist. They may or may not have training in the backgrounds of speech, occupational or physical therapy but can coach you through different kinds of activities that may be associated with one of those fields.