"Honestly, I have had a wonderful stay here. I wanted to thank everybody for helping and teaching me everything I learned. I will never forget you all. I love you guys!"
—Kandice**
Child and Adolescent Acute Care Program
Padre Behavioral Hospital Acute Care Program is a psychiatric intensive care program designed to treat a child or adolescent in immediate crisis while providing the patient and family with skills to help prevent future incidents that would require readmission.
The Acute Care Program deals with children from the ages of 4-17 who have experienced the following:
- Suicidal thoughts/attempts
- Severe depression
- Hallucinations
- Sexual acting out
- Anger / rage
- Severe attention deficit–hyperactivity disorder
- Erratic mood swings
- Alcohol drug abuse
- School suspensions/ expulsion
- Oppositional defiant behaviors and aggression
- Self harming behaviors (cutting, etc.)
- Runaway behaviors
- Asperger’s syndrome
Treatment Overview
We place emphasis on creating a stable, safe environment in which a child can develop and practice new insights, functional skills and behaviors and begin a process of taking personal responsibility for their behaviors and the changes that need to be made for them to be able to successfully reassume their daily lives.
Strong family involvement is a key to each child’s progress. A supportive home system both during and after treatment is essential to the success of each child. Family counseling and education are provided to promote improved communication, conflict resolution, and a better understanding of the role that family dynamics play in the child’s dysfunction.
Padre Behavioral Hospital adheres to the philosophy of providing the least restructure level of care for all patients we treat. As a result we offer a natural progression to treatment based on close assessment of individual progress.
For a certain number of children the acute care crisis stabilization program can not meet the needs of those whose problems are of a more extreme nature. For those individuals we offer a level of intensive treatment where the length of stay is often extended and the level of family involvement increased.
For others that have progressed to a point that impatient care is no longer seen as necessary we often offer a opportunity to transition into our partial hospital program that offers a unique opportunity for children and family to practice the skills they have learned in the inpatient phase while being able to return to the hospital daily where they can process any problems they continue to have at home and develop even more effective skills to deal with those problems.
An essential part of our program is discharge planning which begins at the time of admission. Prior to a patient leaving our program referrals will be made for continued psychiatric care, individual and / or family therapy and other services needed to help assure that progress made while in treatment can be maintained and enhanced.
Treatment Program Components
- Behavioral Therapy – social skills and goal setting
- Individual, group, and family therapy – aftercare planning
- Comprehensive diagnosis and evaluation
- Medication and dietary monitoring
- Recreation and art therapy
- Case management/discharge planning
The program provides a balance between responsibility and participation, structure and independence. Through positive reinforcement each child earns more privileges and autonomy as they set goals, attend program activities, and increase achievement. Treatment activity focuses on the following themes:
- Conflict resolution / anger management
- Trust and positive thinking
- Accountability / respect for authority
- Social skills and positive relationships
- Impulse control / delayed gratification
- Self esteem / peer pressure
Inpatient Programs
- Focuses on rapid stabilization for suicidal, homicidal, psychotic thoughts and/or behaviors
- Rapid stabilization
- Crisis intervention
- Interdisciplinary team approach
- Discharge planning, beginning at time of admission
- Medication Management
- Treatment modalities: individual therapy, family education, group therapy, activity and creative arts therapy, medication and illness education, psychological testing
Partial Hospital & Intensive Outpatient Programs
Padre Behavioral Hospital offers those individuals that have progressed to a point they no longer need a level of treatment that requires hospitalization, or that did not meet the criteria for inpatient hospitalization to begin with, a unique opportunity to attend therapy, at the hospital, in our Partial Hospital Program or Intensive Outpatient Program. These programs allow an individual to be in a therapeutic environment during the day and return home during the evening. The advantage of this type of programming is that it provides an opportunity to take those skills learned in therapy and to practice them in real life situations. When it comes to children and adolescents this gives them and their families the chance distinguish between those things that are effective and helpful and those that are unproductive. Parents with children in these programs receive feedback from staff on a daily basis about how their child performed in treatment and to provide the staff the same type of feedback about how their child did at home. This approach offers the family an opportunity to deal with problems as they arise and seek solution before things progress to the point of deterioration.
For more information about the child and adolescent programs offered by Padre Behavioral Hospital please call (361) 986-9444.
**Names have been changed for privacy.