Mental Health Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP)

An Intensive Outpatient Program provides several clinical sessions a week — individual therapy, group therapy, and skills work — on a schedule built around work, school, and family. It is real clinical intensity without asking you to step out of your life to get it.

Golden Coast Rehab is a contracted provider of Specialty Mental Health Services (Partial Hospitalization Program and Intensive Outpatient Program) for the County of San Diego, Behavioral Health Services, under County Contract 575462. Our mental health IOP serves adults 18 and older whose primary condition is a mental health condition.

Who IOP is for

• People stepping down from PHP. IOP keeps the structure and support in place while you take back your ordinary responsibilities.
• People for whom weekly therapy is not enough. One hour a week is not much support for a condition that is affecting every day of the week.
• People who need to keep working or studying. Symptoms are serious, but stepping away entirely would cost a job, a degree, or custody arrangements. IOP is built for exactly that constraint.

What the week looks like

Several sessions a week, scheduled to leave your other commitments intact. Group work carries much of the program — skills groups drawing on CBT and DBT, process groups, and psychoeducation — alongside individual therapy and psychiatric medication management where that is part of your plan. Family sessions are available with your consent. Many clients pair IOP with sober living in San Diego — structure at home, treatment during the day.

Because you are living your regular life at the same time, IOP has a particular advantage: you practice a skill in group and then use it that same week, in the situation it was meant for, with your clinical team available to talk through what happened.

The IOP schedule

Mental health IOP groups run 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Pacific time, which leaves the rest of the day for work, school, and family. Your specific days are set at intake and reviewed as you progress. Telehealth is available, and whether any part of your care happens by video is decided with your clinical team.

As of July 2026 the program is staffed at two clinicians for every five clients, a ratio we review as the program grows.

How long IOP lasts

A typical stay runs around six weeks, decided clinically and reviewed with you rather than fixed in advance — some people need less, some need considerably more. The endpoint is a step down to weekly outpatient therapy with a plan you have helped write.

Conditions treated in this program

• Depression
• Anxiety
• Bipolar disorder
• PTSD and trauma
• OCD
• ADHD, most often alongside another condition
• Borderline personality disorder
• Schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders

Where a substance use disorder is also present, it is treated in our separately certified addiction programs by the same clinical team — see co-occurring disorders.

Getting in

One call and a clinical assessment. If IOP fits, we schedule your start; if you need more or less intensity than IOP provides, we will say so. See how admissions works.

Coverage and cost

If you have Medi-Cal in San Diego County — any of the four managed care plans — this program can be covered at no cost to you. Specialty mental health services are administered by San Diego County Behavioral Health Services rather than by your managed care plan, which is why your plan name does not decide where you get this care. Details on our Medi-Cal page.

Call (858) 925-8589 — answered 24 hours a day — and we will check your eligibility with you. In a crisis, the San Diego County Access and Crisis Line is available around the clock at 1-888-724-7240.