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Red Hawk Academy for Girls Therapeutic Boarding School Phases of Treatment
Girls in our care go through three stages of care over a period of 8-10 months.
PHASE ONE
Evaluation and Assessment:
Treatment begins with a comprehensive evaluation that becomes the foundation for an individual’s personal treatment plan. Our clinicians conduct a thorough assessment to determine the specialized treatment needs that are appropriate and individualized for your daughter. Our Red Hawk Treatment Team identifies specific goals and interventions that are needed to address your child’s specific needs. All treatment goals follow the “SMART” goal format which helps young women have a specific standard for accomplishing treatment objectives. Subsequently, the family and young woman will then engage in various forms of interventions and therapeutic counseling to get the maximum benefit from the program. Proper and accurate evaluations and diagnosis can save time and money for parents.
PHASE TWO
Rehabilitation:
This is the main phase and most challenging part of treatment. Rehabilitation involves completion of the assessment and implementation of the individualized Treatment Plan. Treatment includes intensive clinical work involving individual therapy, group therapy, family therapy, equine-assisted therapy, recreational therapy, and social and living skills classes. Each young woman participates in a planned daily schedule that is focused on goal-setting, therapy, education and homestead work. Activities are planned to encourage our young women to address the issues that have caused disruption in their lives. Your child may be assigned to participate in additional special programs to overcome, anger management, attachment concerns, trauma resolution or even suicide intervention within the Red Hawk Program. Resident progress is monitored by a tier-level progress system for control and adjustments in treatment.
PHASE Three
Continuing Care:
This phase is UNIQUE to Red Hawk and can have a major impact in your daughter’s continuing recovery. Red Hawk provides individualized referrals to community programs in your area for continued support upon returning home. Often times change can be difficult and managing a transition home may leave adolescents with struggles adapting to life outside of residential treatment. Our team of experts are able to assist your child with finding hope and courage to move forward in their lives with confidence. Our professional staff assist your child with coping mechanisms to return to her path of growth and self-discovery in a healthy way. Each resident will continue to work with her therapist 30 days after completing phase 1 and 2 of her Red Hawk Program.
Information on the Key Conditions Red Hawk Works With
Though we treat other issues, a majority of the students in our intense program are here as a result of being diagnosed with ADHD, Oppositional defiance (ODD), Depression, Anxiety, Adoption-related issues or Trauma (PTSD) from childhood physical, mental, or sexual abuse or tragedy.
Children and teens could have PTSD if they have lived through an event that could have caused them or someone else to loose their life or badly hurt. Such events include sexual or physical abuse or other violent crimes. Disasters such as floods, school shootings, car crashes, or fires might also cause PTSD. Other events that can cause PTSD are war, a friend’s suicide, or seeing violence in the area they live.
Despite evidence linking childhood trauma to subsequent social, emotional, psychological, and cognitive problems, many children who have experienced trauma do not receive mental health treatment that has been proven to be effective. In utilizing the evidence-based practice of trauma informed care we can help enhance the current negative state of mental health treatment for these young women. Here at Red Hawk we utilize these evidence based practices that had been proven worthy to help teens with PTSD.
During the teenage years, youth form an identity that is separate from their parents and begin to learn adult life skills. Adoption adds complexity to the normal developmental tasks of teenagers, regardless of the age they were adopted. Our Clinical team will create a designed program specifically to help our residents and their adoptive parent understand their adopted experiences and better understand how to respond with practical strategies that foster healthy development. These strategies include approaches that acknowledge trauma and loss, support effective communication, promote a teen’s independence, and address behavioral and mental health concerns.
What is ADHD and why is it so important to understand what it is?
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a brain disorder with a number of likely causes. Available evidence suggests that ADHD is genetic and is passed down from parent to child. Researchers suspect that a gene involved in the creation of dopamine, a chemical that controls the brain’s ability to maintain regular and consistent attention may be to blame. Children and adults with ADHD seem to have low levels of dopamine. This chemical controls neurotransmitter activity in the brain that regulates the following:
Pre-frontal cortex- impairing executive functioning which controls- focus, concentration, planning, decision making, initiating tasks, completing tasks, sustaining tasks, inhibition or restraint, impulse control, reward systems, anticipating consequences and emotion regulation. Limbic system- regulating emotions, restlessness, inattention or emotional volatility. Basal ganglia- causing information to “short-circuit,” which results in inattention or impulsivity. Reticular activating system- causing inattention, impulsivity, or hyperactivity.
Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria
Has your child always been more sensitive to criticism, teasing or rejection than their peers? This can often be linked to ADHD and there is a name for it! Rejection sensitive dysphoria (RSD) is an extreme emotional sensitivity and emotional pain triggered by the perception, not necessarily the reality, that a person has been rejected, teased, or criticized by important people in their life. RSD may also be triggered by a sense of failure, or falling short, failing to meet either their own high standards or others’ expectations.
When this emotional response is internalized, it can imitate full, major depression complete with suicidal ideation. The sudden change from feeling perfectly fine to feeling depressed that results from RSD is often misdiagnosed as rapid cycling bipolar disorder. When this emotional response is externalized, it looks like an impressive, instantaneous rage at the person or situation responsible for causing the pain. 50% of people who are assigned court-mandated anger-management treatment have previously unrecognized ADHD.
Often young women experience episodes of “acting in” instead of “acting out.” Depression and anxiety are ways our body “act inward” as a response to something happening in our environment. Often times young women don’t understand what they are experiencing and are reactionary to the emotions they feel. Depression can be a serious mental health concern that shows up in depressed mood or loss of interest in activities that gets in the way of daily living. Anxiety is also a serious mental health concern. It is characterized by feelings of worry, anxiety, or fear that that make daily living unmanageable. Many treatment options are available to address mild to severe symptoms of depression and anxiety.
