PARENT ORIENTATION
What to expect...
While your adolescent is in our program your cooperation and understanding is most crucial to our overall effectiveness.We offer exceptional care for young people. The program day is long and intense; and in order to achieve personal growth and scholastic success, a teenage resident must consistently perform in ways they never had before!
We adhere to an emphasis of family system participation as a process of education and support to the primary care of the adolescent. It is therefore necessary to provide a systematic format for the development of the family system as an effective and efficient problem-solving unit. In order to initiate this process and help the entire family system move from a “stuck” position, we provide this list of guidelines for your review. These guidelines are especially important as they address potential “TRAPS” for all members of the family system:
1. No contact with your adolescent for the first 72 hours of care. This moratorium allows for an opportunity for the adolescent to “thaw out”, reduce the “crisis interval”, and facilitate an attachment to the program milieu. This time allows parents and other family members an opportunity to identify their own distress issues.
If you want to check on the status of your young person, you may call, not visit, the Primary Therapist or Clinical Director for an update. Your adolescent will not be permitted to call anyone during this moratorium period.
2. Visiting policy is restricted to approved family members, and is initially limited to scheduled family therapy sessions or appointments approved by the Primary Therapist. Other visitors must be pre-approved by the parents and the Primary Therapist.
Note: Please remember that “I thought that since we were in the neighborhood we would drop by” will not be approved! This type of communication may be quite harmful, may constitute a confusing or double message, and is disruptive to the milieu and schedule. As the treatment process develops, visits are more liberalized.
Given the intensive level of service offered by the Institute, attempts have been made to evaluate admission criteria and to utilize the data in determining the most appropriate families for our treatment. Several characteristics have been observed. We have identified that a gateway relationship exist between: (a) the severity of emotional and medical disturbance (Axis I-II-III); (b) the adaptive level of functioning (Axis IV-V) of the adolescent; (c) the adolescent's role in the family, and (d) the ability of the parent(s) to be responsive and actively participate in treatment at our recommended level of care. These criteria are reflective of the level of prescribed care and are based on more than the severity of the presenting symptoms of a child's mental or emotional difficulties. Treatment is clearly related to the personal, familial, and social supports available to the adolescent over the course of his/her psychiatric illness, developmental progress and/or adjustment difficulties.
Specifically, several parental patterns are recognized as relevant to the successful implementation of the recommended course of treatment. The ability of the parent(s) to follow through with treatment plans is crucial in determining the level of care in conjunction with the specific needs of the adolescent. Parental feelings and associated decisions stemming from embarrassment, denial, exaggeration, shame, guilt, or anger directed toward the adolescent may indicate a broader problem. These and other family dynamics are considered in determining the recommended level of care and address an intervention beyond a temporary "quick fix" solution. We differentiate the "problem" from the complaint and direct treatment at the problem, not the complaint! The "system maintained or system maintaining behavior role" of the adolescent in the family system yields significant insight and opportunities for appropriate interventions designed by our staff.
