Aurora Charter Oak Hospital is a psychiatric hospital in Covina, California, that treats post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in adults and in teens ages 13 to 17. If you’re comparing PTSD treatment centers in the San Gabriel Valley, here’s the short answer: a hospital stay averaging 5 to 7 days when safety comes first, a weekday day program, and an intensive outpatient program built on cognitive behavioral therapy and Seeking Safety.
Assessments are free, confidential and available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and there’s no waiting list for the assessment itself. Call the Charter Oak Assessment Center at 800-654-2673. Our clinical team will ask what’s been happening, recommend a level of care for PTSD, and explain the next step before you agree to anything.
How PTSD Is Diagnosed
PTSD is a mental health condition that can follow a shocking and dangerous event that you saw or that happened to you. Most people who live through a traumatic event won’t develop PTSD.
For people who do, reminders of the event set off a fight-or-flight response as if it were happening again. The danger is over, but the alarm keeps firing, and PTSD starts to shape sleep, work and relationships.
Clinicians sort PTSD symptoms into four types. Re-experiencing symptoms include flashbacks, recurring memories or dreams about the event, and a racing heart or sweating when something brings it back. Avoidance means staying away from places, events or objects that remind you of it. Arousal and reactivity symptoms look like being easily startled, feeling on edge, poor sleep and angry outbursts.
Cognition and mood symptoms are the ones families miss most. With PTSD, they show up as negative thoughts about yourself or the world, exaggerated blame, ongoing guilt or shame, lost interest in things you used to enjoy and pulling away from people.
To be diagnosed, the National Institute of Mental Health says an adult must have at least one re-experiencing symptom, at least one avoidance symptom, at least two arousal and reactivity symptoms and at least two cognition and mood symptoms, all for at least a month. PTSD symptoms usually begin within three months of the event, but they sometimes show up later. Some people recover within six months, while others have symptoms that last a year or longer. Having a few of these symptoms after a hard experience doesn’t mean you have PTSD, which is why the Charter Oak assessment asks about all four types.
How Common PTSD Is Among Adults and Teens
PTSD isn’t limited to combat. It can follow sexual assault, physical or emotional abuse, or a natural disaster, and national survey data from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication, collected from February 2001 to April 2003, show that an estimated 3.6% of U.S. adults had PTSD in the past year and 6.8% had it at some point in their lives, with past-year rates of 5.2% for women and 1.8% for men.
Teens carry real risk too. In the adolescent version of the same survey, run from 2001 to 2004 with young people ages 13 to 18, an estimated 5.0% of adolescents had PTSD at some point in their lives, with lifetime rates of 8.0% for girls and 2.3% for boys. Those surveys date from the early 2000s, so read the figures as a long-standing national baseline rather than a current count.
PTSD rarely travels alone. Depression, substance use and anxiety disorders often show up with it, so the Charter Oak assessment looks at the whole picture. If a broader trauma history brought you here, our page on psychological trauma treatment covers complex trauma and the care path for trauma alongside addiction.
Our Intensive Outpatient Program for PTSD
Our adult intensive outpatient program is where most of the day-to-day PTSD work happens at Charter Oak. The IOP meets three days a week for three hours a day, and most people complete it in 2 to 4 weeks. You live at home and practice new skills in your real life between sessions, which is the point.
The IOP is built on intensive group therapy using cognitive behavioral therapy, Illness Management and Recovery, and Seeking Safety. In the program’s own words, “Seeking Safety, one of the models we use, was built specifically for people managing trauma and substance use at the same time.”
Each model does a different job. Cognitive behavioral therapy helps you spot and challenge the thoughts that keep PTSD fear and shame running. Illness Management and Recovery teaches you to recognize your early warning signs and build a plan for staying well after the IOP ends. Our dialectical behavior therapy groups add skills for riding out intense emotion without acting on it, and they work alongside the CBT and Seeking Safety groups. For someone who drinks or uses to quiet flashbacks or nightmares, Seeking Safety addresses both problems in the same room instead of treating PTSD and addiction as separate cases.
Some people need more structure than three days a week can give. Our adult partial hospitalization program runs Monday through Friday for 2 to 4 weeks, and you go home for evenings, weekends and holidays. At Charter Oak, the PHP can serve as a step down after a hospital stay or a step up when IOP care isn’t holding.
When Inpatient PTSD Care Makes Sense
Yes, you can go inpatient for PTSD, and sometimes you should. Our adult inpatient program serves adults 18 and older, with 134 patient beds across eight inpatient units. On average, an inpatient stay at Aurora Charter Oak lasts about 5 to 7 days, with 24-hour monitoring and medication management.
Inpatient care is for the times when PTSD has become a safety problem. That means thoughts of suicide or self-harm, flashbacks so severe you lose track of where you are, or being unable to eat, sleep or function. If you’re in crisis right now, call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988, or call 911 if your life is in danger.
A short hospital stay can’t do the whole job, and we’d rather say so up front. Trauma-focused talk therapy is a course measured in weeks, and psychotherapy for PTSD usually lasts 6 to 12 weeks and can run longer. A hospital stay of 5 to 7 days is for stabilizing, starting or adjusting medication and building a plan. The PTSD gains come in the weeks that follow, which is why the next step after a Charter Oak hospital stay is a day program or IOP.
Evidence-Based PTSD Therapies and What We Offer
You’ll see a lot of therapy names on PTSD treatment center websites, so here’s a plain account. The VA National Center for PTSD names cognitive processing therapy, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, and prolonged exposure as the talk therapies that work best, and those last about 8 to 16 sessions.
Charter Oak doesn’t list those three approaches among its programs. What we offer is CBT, DBT, Seeking Safety and Illness Management and Recovery, delivered mostly in groups, plus psychiatric care and medication management. If you want one of the three trauma-focused therapies named above, ask about it during your Charter Oak assessment so you can make an informed choice.
Medication helps some people with PTSD. Two antidepressants in the SSRI class are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for PTSD, and our psychiatric team can review whether medication makes sense alongside therapy rather than instead of it.
PTSD Treatment for Teens Ages 13 to 17
Charter Oak runs adolescent outpatient programs for teens ages 13 to 17, and trauma and PTSD are part of that care. Teens get support in processing difficult experiences and learning new ways to cope while they keep living at home.
Older teens tend to show PTSD the way adults do. Parents notice the change first: a teen who pulls away from friends, seems anxious or low, snaps at everyone, or starts taking risks with alcohol or drugs. Those changes are worth a Charter Oak assessment, even if your teen won’t talk about what happened yet.
Our Facility Medical Director, Dr. Cesar Cruz, M.D., is board certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, completed a fellowship in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and has practiced at Charter Oak since 2015.
Admissions, Insurance and Your First Call
How soon treatment begins depends on the level of care you need and on bed availability, and the assessment team can tell you where things stand for your situation. For PTSD, the main decision is whether to start in the hospital for safety or go straight into the PHP or IOP while you live at home, and you make that decision together with the assessment team. Either way, you’ll end the call knowing which PTSD program is recommended for you and why.
Charter Oak is contracted with 39 plans, including Aetna, Anthem Blue Cross, Blue Shield, Cigna, Health Net, Humana, Inland Empire Health Plan, Kaiser, Magellan, Medi-Cal, Medicare, Molina, Optum, TRICARE, TriWest and United Health Care, and you can check every plan by name on our insurances we accept page. Veterans and military families can ask about TRICARE or TriWest coverage during the assessment, though Charter Oak doesn’t run a separate military or first-responder program. For individuals without insurance, our business office will work with you to make financial arrangements. Cost worries are normal, so raise them early, along with questions about deductibles, copays or how many days your plan approves for each level of care.
Here’s what happens after you call 800-654-2673. We’ll talk through symptoms, safety and history, recommend inpatient, day program or IOP care, and answer your questions about coverage. If you’re admitted to the hospital, bring clothes for about a three-day trip and a list of your current medications. Aurora Charter Oak is at 1161 E. Covina Blvd., Covina, CA 91724.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you go inpatient for PTSD?
Yes. Inpatient care fits when PTSD has become a safety risk, such as thoughts of suicide or self-harm, or when symptoms make it impossible to function at home. At Aurora Charter Oak, adult inpatient stays average about 5 to 7 days. The focus is stabilization and a plan, followed by the Charter Oak day program or IOP for the longer therapy work.
What is the most successful treatment for PTSD?
Clinical guidance points to trauma-focused talk therapy, sometimes combined with medication, as the strongest option. The right choice depends on your symptoms, your safety and anything else going on, such as depression or substance use. At Charter Oak, outpatient PTSD care uses CBT, Seeking Safety and Illness Management and Recovery, with psychiatric care when it’s needed.
What are some common triggers for PTSD?
Triggers are reminders that set off PTSD symptoms. Common ones include returning to the place where the event happened, the anniversary of the event, and sights, sounds or smells linked to it. Learning to recognize your own PTSD triggers and respond to them without shrinking your whole life is a core part of IOP treatment.
Are there PTSD treatment centers near Covina, CA?
Yes. Aurora Charter Oak Hospital is at 1161 E. Covina Blvd. in Covina, serving the San Gabriel Valley and greater Los Angeles. We offer inpatient care for adults, outpatient programs for adults, and outpatient programs for teens ages 13 to 17. Call 800-654-2673 any time for a free, confidential assessment.
Does insurance cover PTSD treatment at Charter Oak?
Coverage depends on your plan and the level of care you need, so ask during your Charter Oak assessment call. The assessment team can tell you where things stand with your plan before you commit to anything. If you don’t have insurance, our business office will work with you to make financial arrangements.
