You may be reading this after another hard week of second-guessing food, meals, body changes, or whether things have gotten “serious enough” to ask for help. Maybe weekly therapy doesn’t feel like enough anymore. Maybe your child is trying to keep up with school while meals keep turning into conflict. Maybe you’re trying to work, parent, or study while an eating disorder takes over more of the day.

That’s where an intensive outpatient program for eating disorders often comes in. It gives more structure than standard outpatient care without requiring someone to live away from home. For many families, that middle ground is the part that feels hardest to understand.

The good news is that IOP is not mysterious once you see how it works in real life. It’s a practical treatment format built around therapy, nutrition support, and repetition. People learn skills in session, then practice them at home, at work, at school, and at the dinner table where recovery needs to happen.

What Is an Intensive Outpatient Program for Eating Disorders

An intensive outpatient program for eating disorders is a structured level of care for someone who needs more help than weekly therapy, but doesn’t need round-the-clock treatment. A simple way to think about it is this: IOP is a bridge between higher levels of care and fully independent outpatient treatment.

Many people get stuck on the word “intensive.” They picture hospitalization. That’s not what IOP means. In most eating disorder programs, IOP involves 3 to 4 hours of programming per day, 3 to 4 days per week, and patients live at home while working with registered dietitians and therapists trained in evidence-based care, according to Eating Recovery Center’s overview of intensive outpatient treatment.

Who IOP is usually for

IOP often fits people who are medically stable but still need steady support to interrupt eating disorder behaviors. That can include struggles with restriction, binge eating, purging, rigid food rules, meal avoidance, body image distress, or anxiety that spikes around eating.

It can also help someone who:

• Needs more repetition: Weekly sessions leave too much unstructured time between appointments.
• Has support at home but needs guidance: Family or loved ones want to help, but everyone needs a clearer plan.
• Is stepping down from a higher level of care: Residential or day treatment has helped, and now the person needs a strong transition.
• Is trying to avoid a higher level of care: Symptoms are interfering with daily life, but the person may still function at work, school, or home.

What makes IOP different from weekly therapy

Traditional outpatient care might include one therapy session a week and perhaps visits with a dietitian or psychiatrist. IOP gives you more contact, more accountability, and more chances to practice skills while life is still happening around you.

That matters because eating disorders don’t only show up in the therapy office. They show up in the grocery store, in the kitchen, at restaurants, before school, after stressful meetings, and in the moments when a person wants to fall back into old rules.

Practical rule: If someone can stay physically safe at home but can’t make meaningful progress with weekly appointments alone, IOP may be the level of support worth discussing.

A good starting point is learning how eating disorder services are generally structured and what options may fit your situation. This overview of eating disorder treatment can help put IOP into the broader recovery picture.

Comparing Levels of Care IOP vs PHP and Residential

A Phoenix parent may hear three terms in one phone call, IOP, PHP, and residential, and they can all blur together. What families usually want to know is much more practical: Where will my loved one spend the day, how much support will they have, and what will still happen at home?

The clearest way to separate the options

These levels of care are different mainly in two areas: how many hours treatment holds each week, and how much of recovery has to happen at home.

Level of care	Where you live	Time commitment	Day-to-day independence
IOP	At home	Several days a week for a few hours at a time	More independence, with structured support
PHP	At home	Most of the day, most weekdays	Less independence during the day
Residential	At a treatment facility	Full-time	Highest level of structure outside a hospital

That chart gives the outline. The lived experience matters more.

How IOP feels compared with PHP

IOP works like guided practice in real life. A person goes to treatment several times a week, then returns home and has to use what they learned in the kitchen, at school, at work, or during a difficult evening.

PHP holds much more of the day. Meals, therapy, and support happen in a tighter schedule, which leaves less time for symptoms to take over between sessions. The person still sleeps at home in many programs, but treatment carries more of the daily load.

For families, the difference often looks like this:

• IOP may fit when someone is medically stable, can be safe at home, and needs frequent check-ins, meal support, and accountability while continuing parts of normal life.
• PHP may fit when unstructured time keeps leading to restriction, bingeing, purging, compulsive exercise, or skipped meals, and the person needs more of the day supervised.
• Both levels usually include therapy, nutrition support, and skills work. The primary difference is how often support happens and how much the home environment has to carry.

A simple question can help: If treatment ends at 3 p.m., what is likely to happen from 3 p.m. to bedtime? If that stretch feels manageable with support, IOP may be enough. If that stretch feels risky or consistently chaotic, PHP may be the safer fit.

When residential treatment becomes the better fit

Residential is a different experience because recovery does not pause when the program day ends. The person lives in the treatment setting, follows a full daily structure, and has staff support woven through meals, evenings, and wake-up routines.

That level is often considered when home is not enough to keep the person safe or when eating disorder behaviors are so strong that recovery tasks cannot reliably happen outside a controlled setting. For some families, residential can feel like a relief. It takes the full burden off the household for a period of time so stabilization can happen first.

A practical way to picture the progression is:

1. Residential for round-the-clock structure and support.
2. PHP for most-of-the-day treatment with nights at home.
3. IOP for several structured treatment blocks each week while daily life continues around them.

The right level of care is a clinical match, not a measure of motivation, willpower, or how "serious" someone looks from the outside.

What families in Phoenix often need help deciding

Families often worry that choosing a higher level of care means they have failed, or that choosing a lower level means they are underreacting. Usually, neither is true. The goal is to match support to the person’s current symptoms, medical needs, and home situation.

A careful assessment looks at more than diagnosis. It asks whether meals are happening consistently, whether behaviors escalate when the person is alone, whether parents or partners can provide support at home, and whether school or work demands are helping or hurting recovery. For Phoenix residents, that assessment step is often the fastest way to stop guessing and get a clearer local recommendation.

A Typical Week in an Eating Disorder IOP

Tuesday at 3:30 p.m., a Phoenix parent is sitting in the car outside a program for the first time, wondering what happens next. Will their teen be in group the whole time? Do they eat there? What if the ride home is tense, or dinner falls apart later that night?

Those questions are normal. IOP often feels less confusing once you can see the week the way families live it. It is treatment woven into ordinary life, not treatment that replaces life entirely.

What a program day often includes

An IOP day usually lasts a few hours. Some programs meet after school or work. Others offer daytime blocks. The schedule depends on the clinic, but the building blocks are often similar.

A single treatment block may include:

• Check-in group: Patients talk about meals, urges, anxiety, conflict at home, and what support they need that day.
• Skills group: The focus may be coping skills, body image, emotion regulation, food flexibility, or cognitive behavioral therapy skills for eating disorder recovery.
• Supported meal or snack: A dietitian or therapist helps patients follow the plan, notice eating disorder thoughts, and finish the food in a structured setting.
• Post-meal processing: Patients talk through what came up during eating and practice a different response than restriction, bingeing, purging, or other behaviors.
• Individual sessions: These might happen before or after group, or on a separate day, with a therapist, dietitian, or psychiatric provider.

The easiest way to understand IOP is to compare it to physical therapy after an injury. You do guided work in session, then you use those same muscles at home. The hours outside the program are part of treatment, because that is where breakfast happens, roommates make comments, stress spikes, and old rituals try to return.

What the week often feels like

The emotional rhythm matters as much as the schedule.

Early in the week, many people feel exposed. They may come in carrying a hard weekend, skipped meals, binge episodes, family conflict, or the shame that often follows eating disorder behaviors. Saying it out loud can feel uncomfortable, but it also brings the problem into the open where staff can help.

By the middle of the week, the program often starts to act like a set of guardrails. There is another check-in coming soon. There is another meal with support. There is a place to bring the thought, “I am slipping and I do not know what to do.”

Then come the hours at home, which are often the true test. Recovery practice usually includes ordinary tasks that used to feel loaded or impossible:

• eating breakfast before school or work
• following a meal plan without bargaining with the eating disorder
• texting a parent, partner, or friend before acting on an urge
• going to the grocery store and buying foods that were previously avoided
• getting through an evening of anxiety without restricting, bingeing, or purging

For someone struggling with binge eating, outside support can also include simple tools between sessions, such as this guide on how to stop binge eating.

A simple weekly rhythm

No two programs look exactly alike, but a week often has a pattern like this:

Day	What treatment might include	What real life practice might include
Monday	Group check-in, skills work, supported snack or meal	Getting back on track after the weekend
Tuesday	Individual therapy or dietitian visit	School, work, errands, evening meal at home
Wednesday	Group therapy and post-meal processing	Using coping skills during midweek stress
Thursday	Family session, psychiatry, or another program block	Practicing flexibility with food and routines
Friday	Group review and weekend planning	Setting up support for less structured days
Weekend	Often no formal programming, depending on the clinic	Following the plan, using supports, noticing warning signs early

Families are often surprised by how much weekend planning matters. Staff may help the patient map out meals, identify risky situations, decide who to call if urges rise, and rehearse what to say at home. That preparation can make the difference between “the weekend went off the rails” and “we had a hard moment, but we knew what to do next.”

What Phoenix families should expect at home

The ride home after IOP can be quiet. Sometimes the person is tired, irritable, relieved, hungry, or emotionally raw. That does not always mean treatment went badly. It often means they did hard work.

Home support usually works best when it is calm and concrete. A helpful question sounds like, “Do you want company during dinner?” or “What is the plan for tonight?” It usually works better than a debate about whether they are trying hard enough.

For Phoenix families, another practical question is timing. Traffic, school schedules, work shifts, and the Arizona heat can all affect meal timing and stress. Asking a local program exactly when groups meet, whether they offer evening options, and how family sessions are scheduled can save a lot of scrambling in the first week.

The main goal of IOP is simple to describe, even if it is hard to do. Patients practice recovery with support close by, then repeat those same skills in real life until the week starts to feel more manageable.

Key Therapies and Approaches Used in IOP

An eating disorder IOP isn’t just “more therapy.” It’s usually a coordinated mix of approaches that target thoughts, emotions, routines, and physical safety all at once.

CBT, DBT, and ACT in plain language

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, helps people notice the thought patterns that keep the eating disorder going. That may include rigid food rules, all-or-nothing thinking, fear-based predictions about eating, or beliefs tied to shape and weight.

In session, CBT sounds less academic than people expect. It often looks like this: “What did you tell yourself before skipping lunch?” Then the therapist helps test whether that thought was accurate, useful, or driven by the eating disorder.

If you want a plain-English overview of the model itself, this page on what is cognitive behavioral therapy is a good companion.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy, or DBT, focuses on getting through distress without using eating disorder behaviors. That matters when food restriction, binge eating, purging, or compulsive routines function as emotional coping tools.

DBT often teaches skills such as:

• Pause skills: Slow down before acting on an urge.
• Emotion labeling: Name what you’re feeling instead of defaulting to behavior.
• Distress tolerance: Make it through a hard wave without making things worse.
• Interpersonal effectiveness: Ask for help clearly and set limits when needed.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, or ACT, helps people act in line with values even when difficult thoughts are present. Instead of waiting to feel perfectly confident around food, the person practices doing the next healthy action while anxiety is still there.

Other parts of IOP that matter

Verified guidance from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia notes that effective eating disorder IOPs often include psychiatric monitoring, family-based therapy for adolescents, and cognitive remediation, which targets thinking patterns such as set-shifting difficulties. In anorexia, some cognitive test errors can exceed norms by 20% to 30%, and cognitive remediation is used to help improve flexibility, according to CHOP’s description of intensive outpatient treatment.

That sounds technical, but the practical meaning is simple. Some patients get mentally “stuck.” They may struggle to shift gears, tolerate change, or move away from rigid routines. Treatment can work directly on that pattern.

How these therapies show up in daily recovery

A good IOP helps connect the therapy to moments that happen at home.

For example:

• A person uses CBT when they challenge the thought, “I ate one off-plan item, so the day is ruined.”
• They use DBT after a stressful phone call when the urge to binge spikes.
• They use ACT when they choose dinner with family because connection matters, even if body image thoughts are loud.
• A teen’s caregivers may use family-based treatment strategies to make mealtimes more consistent and less chaotic.

For readers trying to understand one symptom area further, this guide on how to stop binge eating offers practical ideas that can complement professional care. It’s not a substitute for treatment, but it can help people put language to what they’re experiencing.

Recovery skills are useful only if a person can remember them when distress shows up. IOP builds that repetition on purpose.

Does IOP for Eating Disorders Work

A parent often asks this after the first intake call: "Will this help, or are we about to rearrange our whole week for something uncertain?" That question makes sense. IOP asks a lot from the person in treatment and from the people around them.

The short answer is yes. IOP can help many people with eating disorders, especially when the program fits the person’s current needs, medical status, and daily life. The goal is not perfection in a few weeks. The goal is steady change that shows up where recovery has to happen most often: at meals, after stressful moments, and at home.

What "working" usually looks like in real life

Families sometimes expect one dramatic sign that treatment is working. In practice, progress is usually more ordinary and more meaningful than that.

It may look like finishing more meals with less negotiation. It may look like fewer binge, purge, or restriction behaviors over time. It may look like someone answering a hard text, going to class, or sitting through dinner without using the eating disorder to escape distress.

Recovery often works like physical therapy after an injury. You do not judge it by one perfect day. You look for improved function, better endurance, and the ability to do hard things with less support than before.

Why IOP helps some people more than weekly therapy alone

IOP gives people repeated practice during the week. That matters because eating disorders are persistent. A person may understand a skill in a therapy office on Monday and still feel pulled back into old patterns by Tuesday night.

IOP creates a middle ground between "too little support" and "full-day treatment." The person keeps living at home, going to school, working part of the day, or being with family. Then they return to treatment several times a week to review what happened, eat in a supported setting, and try again. That rhythm is one reason IOP can be effective. It closes the gap between learning a skill and using it in daily life.

This is also why families often notice progress first in small routines. Breakfast gets less chaotic. The drive home after program gets calmer. The person recovers more quickly after a setback.

What improves first, and what usually takes longer

Symptoms do not all shift at the same speed.

Behavioral changes often come before emotional relief. Someone may begin eating more consistently while still feeling intense body image distress. Another person may stop a behavior but still feel mentally preoccupied with food, weight, or control. That does not mean treatment is failing. It often means the outside behavior is changing before the deeper fear has fully loosened.

A helpful question is not "Do they feel better every day?" A better question is "Are they doing recovery behaviors more often, even on hard days?"

Signs an IOP is helping

You do not need to wait for complete recovery to know whether the program is a good fit. Look for patterns such as:

• more consistent eating and fewer skipped meals
• less secrecy around food, exercise, or symptoms
• better follow-through with therapy, nutrition sessions, and psychiatric care
• more honest communication after slips or urges
• improved ability to use coping skills between sessions
• fewer family battles that end in total shutdown

These changes can seem modest at first. They are not modest. They are the building blocks of recovery.

What gets in the way

IOP is not the right level of care for everyone. It tends to help most when the person is medically stable enough for outpatient treatment and able to participate with some consistency.

Several factors matter a lot:

• The program has to match the severity of symptoms.
• The treatment team needs to be aligned.
• The person needs support outside program hours.
• Home has to be safe enough for recovery work to continue between sessions.

If someone is rapidly declining, unable to interrupt behaviors, or medically unstable, a higher level of care may be more appropriate. If someone is too well for this level of structure, weekly outpatient care may be enough. Fit matters.

A word about virtual IOP

Some families worry that virtual treatment will feel less real or less useful. For some people, virtual IOP works well because it removes travel barriers and lets the team work with what is happening in the home environment. For others, in-person care provides more structure and fewer distractions.

The better question is often not "Which format is best in general?" It is "Which format gives this person the best chance of showing up, practicing skills, and staying engaged week after week?"

What Phoenix families can do with this information

If you are in Phoenix and trying to decide whether IOP is worth pursuing, focus on three practical questions during your first call with a program:

1. What does a typical week look like for someone like my family member?
2. How will you measure progress during the program?
3. What happens if symptoms improve too slowly, or worsen?

Those answers will tell you more than a generic promise ever could.

If cost is part of your hesitation, it can help to review the basics of is therapy covered by insurance before you speak with admissions. Clear financial information makes it easier to decide next steps.

If you’re wondering how progress should look in any therapy setting, this guide on how to know if therapy is working can help you evaluate change in a more grounded way.

Good treatment often feels repetitive, challenging, and very real. Those are not signs that it is failing. They are often signs that recovery work is happening.

Navigating Insurance and the Cost of IOP

A parent finally decides to call for help, then gets hit with a second wave of stress. Will insurance cover this? What will the first bill look like? What if treatment starts and coverage changes halfway through?

Those questions are common. They also have answers.

It helps to treat the financial side of IOP the same way a treatment team treats recovery. One step at a time, with clear information and no guessing where possible.

The terms you’ll likely hear

Medical necessity means the insurer wants records showing why IOP fits the person’s current needs. For eating disorder treatment, that often includes symptom severity, daily functioning, medical concerns, and why once-a-week outpatient therapy is not enough right now.

Pre-authorization means the insurance company may need to approve care before treatment begins, or shortly after intake.

Benefit verification means someone checks the details of your plan, including deductible, copays or coinsurance, in-network status, and any limits on this level of care.

If these terms feel cold or confusing, that is normal. Insurance language often sounds like a different dialect. An admissions coordinator can usually translate it into the question families care about, which is: “What will we likely owe, and what do we need to do next?”

Questions worth asking before treatment starts

A good financial conversation should leave you with a picture of your week, not just a vague statement that care is “covered.” Ask questions that help you understand both approval and logistics:

• Is eating disorder IOP covered under my plan
• Does this level of care require pre-authorization
• How many IOP days or sessions are usually approved at one time
• Is this provider in network or out of network
• What deductible, copay, or coinsurance will apply
• Do I need a referral from my primary care doctor
• Is virtual IOP covered differently than in-person IOP
• Who contacts insurance if more sessions are needed
• If coverage is denied, do you help with appeals or next options

If you want a broader starting point before making those calls, is therapy covered by insurance offers a helpful overview of how mental health benefits are commonly structured.

What cost conversations should include

The price of IOP depends on several moving parts. The level of care matters. The number of treatment days matters. In-network versus out-of-network matters. So does format, because virtual and in-person programs can be billed differently.

That is why the best question is rarely just, “How much does IOP cost?” A more useful question is, “What cost should we expect for this specific treatment plan, with this insurance, in this format?”

Ask the program to walk you through the practical pieces:

1. Why this level of care is being recommended
2. How many days per week are expected at the start
3. What portion insurance is likely to cover
4. What your family may owe before the deductible is met
5. Whether meal support, family sessions, or psychiatric visits are billed separately
6. What happens if insurance approves less time than the clinical team recommends

That last question matters. In real life, coverage decisions do not always line up neatly with what a clinician would prefer. You want to know, before treatment starts, who will request additional days, who updates the insurer, and how your family will be told about any change.

A steadier way to think about it

Families often feel pressure to solve the money question before they even know what kind of help is needed. That can keep people stuck.

A better order is simpler. First, find out what level of care is clinically appropriate. Then get the exact insurance and billing details for that recommendation. Once you know what the week will look like, the financial picture usually becomes easier to handle because it is tied to something concrete.

You do not need to become an insurance expert before making the first call. You only need enough information to begin. A good program should help you work through the rest, step by step.

Find an IOP in Phoenix Your Next Steps with reVIBE

If you’re in the Phoenix area, the next step doesn’t have to be dramatic. It can be a phone call, a question, or an intake conversation to find out what kind of support would fit best.

Why local access matters

Eating disorder treatment is hard enough without adding a long commute, confusing logistics, or a schedule that doesn’t work with real life. Verified background guidance notes that there is limited data specifically on IOP outcomes for adults balancing work and school versus adolescents, and that this highlights the need for flexible scheduling such as evening or hybrid options, especially in a market like Phoenix, according to Within Health’s discussion of intensive outpatient care.

That’s an important point for adults who are trying to hold together jobs, caregiving, school, or transportation needs while seeking help.

A practical path for Phoenix-area families

If you’re looking locally, reVIBE Mental Health has five convenient locations and a central phone number for getting started.

• Call for information at (480) 674-9220
• Chandler
  3377 S Price Rd, Suite 105, Chandler, AZ
• Phoenix Deer Valley
  2222 W Pinnacle Peak Rd, Suite 220, Phoenix, AZ
• Phoenix PV
  4646 E Greenway Road, Suite 100, Phoenix, AZ
• Scottsdale
  8700 E Via de Ventura, Suite 280, Scottsdale, AZ
• Tempe
  3920 S Rural Rd, Suite 112, Tempe, AZ

What to say when you call

You don’t need a polished script. You can say:

“I’m looking for support for eating disorder symptoms, and I’m trying to understand what level of care makes sense.”

Or:

“My child is struggling with food and eating, and we need help figuring out next steps.”

That’s enough to begin.

You’re not committing to treatment by asking questions. You’re gathering information, getting a clearer picture, and making room for support. For many families, that first contact is the moment things stop feeling quite so impossible.

Frequently Asked Questions About IOP

A lot of families reach this point with very practical questions. Can my teen still go to school. Can I keep my job. What happens if we start and it is not enough. Those questions are not a sign of resistance. They are how people figure out whether treatment can fit into real life.

Can I still work or go to school in IOP

Often, yes.

IOP is built for people who need more support than weekly outpatient care but do not need to be in treatment all day. That means many clients keep part of their usual routine while attending programming several days a week. Some go to school in the morning and attend IOP later. Some adjust work hours for a period of time. Some need a lighter schedule while they get more stable.

The better question is, "Can daily responsibilities and treatment work together right now?" If work or school is draining so much energy that meals are skipped, therapy homework never gets done, or stress keeps symptoms active, a temporary change in schedule may help recovery take hold.

What happens after IOP ends

IOP is usually one step in a longer recovery path, not the finish line.

After IOP, people often continue with outpatient therapy, nutrition counseling, medical care, psychiatric follow-up, or family sessions. The goal is to keep enough structure in place so progress does not disappear the moment the program ends. A good discharge plan works like a handoff between runners. One source of support passes the baton to the next without a gap.

A strong plan often includes:

• Named follow-up providers: therapist, dietitian, psychiatrist, or primary care clinician
• A meal support plan: what meals will look like at home, work, school, and on weekends
• Warning signs to watch for: changes in eating, isolation, body checking, bingeing, purging, or rigid rules
• Clear next appointments: not just ideas, but scheduled follow-up whenever possible

Is virtual IOP really as effective as in-person treatment

For some people, yes. Virtual IOP can be a solid option, especially if transportation, childcare, work hours, or distance make in-person attendance hard.

What matters is fit. Some people focus well at home and feel more able to attend consistently online. Others need the structure of leaving the house, sitting with peers in a room, and having face-to-face meal support. A full assessment can help sort out which format matches the person’s symptoms, home environment, and level of support.

How long does an intensive outpatient program for eating disorders last

There is no single timeline.

Length depends on several things: medical stability, how often symptoms are happening, how meals are going, how much support exists at home, and whether the person is stepping down from PHP or stepping up from outpatient care. Two people with the same diagnosis may need very different lengths of stay.

A better way to judge readiness is to look for steady change in daily life, such as:

• More regular eating
• Fewer eating disorder behaviors
• Less panic around meals and snacks
• Better use of coping skills outside program hours
• A realistic support plan for the next level of care

Will family be involved

Often, yes, especially for adolescents.

Eating disorders affect the whole household. Parents and caregivers are usually the ones buying food, noticing skipped meals, handling conflict at dinner, and trying to respond without making things worse. Family sessions can give everyone a shared map. They clarify what helps, what tends to escalate symptoms, and how to support recovery at home.

For adults, loved one involvement depends on preference, privacy, and clinical need. Support can still matter a great deal, but it should fit the person’s life and relationships.

Family involvement is about coordination, not blame.

What if I’m not “sick enough” for IOP

This question comes up constantly.

Eating disorders are skilled at minimizing suffering. Someone can be consumed by food thoughts, stuck in bingeing or purging cycles, hiding restriction, or avoiding entire groups of foods and still believe they are "not bad enough" to ask for help. Waiting for proof that things are severe enough usually gives the disorder more time.

If eating symptoms are taking over your time, thoughts, mood, relationships, or ability to function, an assessment makes sense. You do not need to be certain about the diagnosis before you reach out.

What if I start IOP and it’s not enough

Treatment can be adjusted.

If symptoms stay intense, meals remain unsafe, or the person needs more structure than IOP can provide, the team may recommend PHP, residential care, added medical support, or more family involvement. If IOP is more than the person needs, they may step down to outpatient sooner. Starting treatment does not trap you in one level of care. Good programs keep reassessing and making changes based on how the person is doing.

If you’re ready to ask questions, explore treatment options, or find support close to home, reVIBE Mental Health offers compassionate care across the Phoenix area with locations in Chandler, Phoenix Deer Valley, Phoenix PV, Scottsdale, and Tempe. Calling (480) 674-9220 can be a simple first step toward understanding what kind of help fits your situation best.