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hi_iq - I was invited into a program like you describe. The "Partial Hospitalization" that you went to for two months sounds to me like what is more often called "Psycho-Social Rehab." Just as you say, I found that there were really low functioning patients there who had "been there for years." PSR totally was not for me. I felt that they "infantilized" patients. Of course, some patients were like at the level of 3rd graders. (Not developmentally challenged, but so dependent that I don't think they could manage to get to the store to buy a pack of gum.) It was really a mix of apples and oranges, but the program geared down to the needs of the lowest functioning. The "Ts" would act like monitors in grammer school.
So I left after one day. Most of these folks got picked up by a "Special Bus" because driving a car would have been way over a lot of their heads. I, on the other hand, had to drive for 25 minutes to get there. (I went to this little rural community because I wanted privacy and I was too well known in my own town, where I had worked as a nurse in every psych unit.)
I don't feel smugly superior to these folks who were in what I would care Psych Day Care for the profoundly challenged. I envied them. They seemed happy going there and pleased to go there for years. A program can not be all things to all people. So that was not for me.
The REAL Partial Hospitalization that I attended for 4 months in 2004 was totally appropriate for me. My peers there pretty much all were driving their own vehicles to get to the program. They were a diverse lot, but very interesting to interact with. We had classes taught at a college level on what goes on with the brain when mental illness diminishes one's ability to cope. I experienced friction with peers and staff, buy that was actually great because I needed to learn how to be more "diplomatic."
Programs like I just described are costly to run, and this program lost it's funding and got pared down to something that wasn't anywhere near as good. I suspect that is true all over the country.
Mainly, I want to say that I understand that you need a program where you and the peers have "commonality of experience."
Like - another program that I was in for awhile was aimed at substance abuse. That's not my issue. So there I was sitting with all these people wearing ankle bracelets they were mandated to wear by the courts. Again, I do not feel superior - just DIFFERENT. I kind of was just too shy to be amongst these folks who, whatever issues they had, social reticence was not one of them. Women there would be talking about how they were trying to get back custody of their kids. I felt like an oddball there.
Having peers that you can relate to is one of the most important feature of a program, if it's going to do you any good - IMO.
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