Rehab Expert Promotes Local Program For Adolescent Females

By John Voket

After working with the Midwestern Connecticut Council on Alcoholism (MCCA) as a program director for the agency’s Adolescent Residential Treatment (ART) program, Tracy Young is not surprised that kids may learn about doing drugs long before they experience what might be considered much more typical adolescent activities.

“Some of these kids have never been to a movie theater,” she told a group representing Newtown Youth & Family Services and the Newtown Prevention Council this week. “Some of them never learned how to make a bed.”

But, as she told a half-dozen attendees who gathered at the NYFS agency office on Church Hill Road, nearly 90 of these youngsters who may be as young as 13 have sought to kick their habits through an innovative residential treatment program administered through her agency and funded by the state Department of Children and Families (DCF).

The MCCA, an affiliate of the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, has been serving the region since 1972. The agency has kept its familiar name despite expanding services from alcohol treatment to other chemical dependencies some time ago.

According to NYFS Executive Director Beth Agen, the short presentation was being held to introduce interested Prevention Council members to the ART program.

“We want to let the Prevention Council members know what types of rehabilitation services are available in the area,” Ms Agen told The Newtown Bee. She said the MCCA is a “collaborative partner” with the NYFS agency.

During the talk, Ms Young explained that the ART program is somewhat unique in that it tailors each girl’s treatment to the particular stage of her development. The ultimate goal of every client, however, is to discharge a young woman equipped with sober living skills, physical and emotional well-being, self confidence, and healthy decisionmaking and problem solving skills as well as age appropriate social skills.

Ms Young explained that the five-year-old ART program began after the state solicited treatment facilities that could provide rehabilitation services in-state, after discovering that so many youngsters suffering chemical dependency were being forced out of state to receive residential services. Answering that request for proposal yielded underwriting for a residential program for either young men or young women.

“We decided to take the young women,” Ms Young said with a smile. “And since then we always wondered what it would have been like if we chose to treat young men.”

She said the average length of stay in the ART program is about nine months. And while the agency hopes that discharged young people will be able to return home, the reality is, many cannot return home for a variety of reasons.

She explained that the MCCA’s ART program is a 15-bed residential treatment facility for females between 13 to 17 years old who exhibit chemical dependency and/or other co-occurring disorders.

The MCCA philosophy buys into the concept that alcoholism and drug addiction are treatable illnesses and that those affected, including family members, can recover. The agency’s treatment philosophy is goal-oriented for the entire continuum of services from intervention through relapse prevention.

All of MCCA’s programs are targeted to produce positive outcomes for the identified patient and family members. And the ART program uses a system that was originally designed for incarcerated adult males called the Seven Challenges.

According to that program’s website, the Seven Challenges Program has been modified specifically for adolescents with drug problems, to motivate a decision and commitment to change — and to support success in implementing the desired changes. The program simultaneously helps young people address their drug problems as well as their co-occurring life skill deficits, situational problems, and psychological problems.

The challenges provide a framework for helping youth think through their own decisions about their lives and their use of alcohol and other drugs. Counselors using the Seven Challenges Program teach youth to identify and work on the issues most relevant to them.

In sessions, as youth discuss the issues that matter most, counselors seamlessly integrate the challenges as part of the conversation. Ms Young said clinicians in the program have the young participants create seven journals corresponding to each of the challenges.

The ART program wraps a combination of services that also includes a state-accredited alternative school, which is conveniently located on the program’s Norwalk campus. All clients participate in this educational resource while enrolled in the program.

The MCCA ART program consists of a coordinated array of scheduled therapeutic activities, including education, recreation, individual psychotherapy, group therapy, developmental counseling, behavior management training, social skills training, and other therapies.

Each client is expected to participate in all modalities as appropriate in her individualized treatment plan. Other issues are addressed in individual therapy sessions and in individualized counselor/client sessions

During the talk, which was attended by Prevention Council members Anna Weidemann and Reverend James Solomon of the New Hope Community Church, the group learned that NYFS can play a significant role in helping local youths discharged from the ART program.

“We still have a huge, huge shortage of group homes for aftercare for these kids once they leave residential treatment programs,” Ms Young said.

Ms Agen replied that her agency would be eager to learn about the interests of the young clients to determine how the NYFS could provide postdischarge.

Ms Young said it would be helpful for the DCF case managers in the Danbury office to be reminded regularly about the kinds of postdischarge programs that might be available to them.

Rev Solomon said he has seen some success working with challenged youths, for example, who become involved with a Civil Air Patrol program at Danbury Airport.

“I think it’s such a challenge to be working on ways to assimilate them back into the community, but in a healthier way they experienced previously,” he said.

Ms Agen said that it was important “for the public to know that NYFS will be looking for new and effective ways to help establish postrelease activities that help keep recovering teens safe and healthy.”