Levels of care in eating disorder treatment
What the four treatment settings mean — inpatient, residential, partial hospitalization and outpatient — and the questions that tell them apart.
Updated
Eating disorder treatment in the US happens in four main settings. SAMHSA's facility survey records the settings each facility reports, and this directory lists them as "levels of care". A clinician chooses the level after an assessment — the names below help you understand that recommendation.
Outpatient
Scheduled sessions — therapy, dietitian visits, medical checks — while you live at home and keep school, work or caregiving. Intensive outpatient programs (IOP) meet several days a week for a few hours. SAMHSA's mental-health survey does not report intensive outpatient separately, so an IOP may appear here as "outpatient"; ask the program.
Partial hospitalization (PHP)
A full day of structured programming — typically five to seven days a week — with supervised meals, while you sleep at home. Programs call it day treatment too. It is the middle step between living at a facility and living at home.
Residential
You live at a non-hospital facility during treatment: meals, groups and medical checks on site, around the clock. Residential is for people who are medically stable enough to leave hospital but need 24-hour support.
Inpatient
Hospital-level, 24-hour care for medical stabilization or an acute psychiatric need — the highest intensity setting, usually the shortest stay. Discharge typically steps down to residential or PHP.
Questions that tell them apart
Ask each program: How many days a week and how many hours a day? Are meals supervised, and which ones? Is a doctor on site or on call at all hours? Who decides when a client steps up or down a level? What does a week of programming look like, hour by hour?
Where the data comes from
The service settings on each listing come from SAMHSA's FindTreatment.gov, which republishes the facility's N-SUMHSS survey answers. Settings change: confirm the current program with the facility before you decide.
This guide is information, not medical advice. In a medical or mental health emergency, call 911 in the US, or call or text 988, the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.