New News
The Children’s Center Now Open!
We are exceptionally pleased to announce the opening of our brand new Children’s Center; an innovative resource available to the children and families of Illinois. This state-of-the-art facility allows us to meet the needs of children separately from adolescents. This enables us to truly specialize in age specific mental health treatment on one campus.
Our Children’s Center incorporates all of the positive elements of our H.O.P.E philosophy along with additional speech and language development and occupational therapy services. All of our programs in the Children’s Center are outcomes-based and developed in conjunction with the nation’s preeminent experts in the treatment of child mental health and autism spectrum diagnosis, our Clinical Specialty Board.
It is fundamental to our program that the children we serve are not viewed as the sum of their challenges and deficits. Our Children’s Center programs will identify strengths and assets in all areas of a child’s life as well as work to have the child and the caregivers capitalize on them.
Advanced Child Treatment Programs I & II
The Children’s Center contains separate and specialized Advanced Child Treatment inpatient programs (ACT I & II), totaling 24 beds. These programs are designed to meet the needs of children, ages 4-12 years old, which have had multiple hospitalizations throughout their lifetime without sustainable success. These programs also have the unique ability to provide aftercare consultation well after a child has been discharged from our hospital. This follow up support is especially helpful for children living in foster care, group homes or residential treatment centers.
Unprecedented Assessment & Outcomes Study Begins
In our on-going effort to improve the services we provide to the community, we are undertaking a new and exciting clinical assessment study to measure our success in treating some of our most challenging children. We want to verify that children hospitalized on our ACT program stabilize quicker, and remain stabile longer after discharge, than children in standard children’s inpatient units.
We hope that the results of this study will support our program design and strengthen it as well. We plan to share our results throughout the mental health community with the goal of building even stronger bridges between inpatient and community-based care.
This unprecedented study is made possible through cooperation with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, and Dr. Scott Leon, professor at Loyola University in Chicago. The study will begin on August 1, 2009 and results will be published throughout the year.
Child and Adolescent Autism Spectrum Program
The Children's Center also has a 24 bed program dedicated to children ages 10-17 years old, diagnosed within the autism spectrum. The staff designated to work in this program have all be been trained by the professionals at the Hope School in Springfield, Illinois. We have also consulted closely with an autism spectrum experts from Tufts University in Boston.
This program is coed and the programming includes features to address not only the Pervasive Developmental Disorder but social skill deficits and sensory processing differences as well. The hallmark of this program is very individualized programs that are developed and run by highly trained staff to address the unique needs of the adolescents that are admitted. This program also is an acute inpatient care program, so the focus is on stabilization and diagnosis initially and moves to more specific treatment objectives as the stay allows.
Self Harm Program — Female Adolescents
The prevalence of self-destructive behaviors in the United States is growing markedly. This is particularly true in the female adolescent population, whether this is due to the problem being more in the public eye or due to more accurate reporting; it has reached epidemic proportions in many major population centers. To address this grave concern within our communities, we have developed the Self Harm Program for female adolescents.
The Self Harm Program is a 24 bed inpatient program for 12-17 year old females that exhibit self destructive behaviors and are in need of stabilization due to chronic internalizing and externalizing behaviors; they also should have had previous treatment failures, including outpatient and/or psychiatric hospitalizations. The program has its own wing located within our main inpatient hospital building, but is separated from our other inpatient units.
All diagnoses are accepted and those adolescents that are developmentally delayed are eligible for admission to the program. Each adolescent will be evaluated on a case by case basis to determine if the program can reasonably expect to be effective in stabilizing and treating her.
Each adolescent has an individualized program and treatment plan that shall reflect her unique needs and goals. We will work with her case worker and other multi-disciplinary outpatient care providers for this purpose throughout the admission. Comprehensive assessments, treatment plans, and long-term intervention recommendations are developed for her and are communicated to the family, school, court/legal system, and external treatment providers by the time she is discharged.
The prominent treatment philosophy utilized in this program is Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). DBT combines elements of cognitive-behavioral techniques, relaxation, self soothing, and enhancement of self awareness skills. This approach emphasizes the acceptance of adolescents as they are while encouraging them and teaching them skills which will enable them to make positive changes in their life. DBT has produced the most promising data in the treatment of this population.
Our experience in implementing evidence-based treatment interventions, and our ability to incorporate the latest innovative models for difficult populations as new research becomes available, enables this program to be the best choice for those adolescents whose mental health issues put them at risk for harm to themselves.
The ultimate goal is for an adolescent to learn how to modulate her emotions thus allowing her to make healthy choices and utilize appropriate coping skills within her community.
