CHILDREN AND YOUTH MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES

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Children and youth services at HamiltonDavis Mental Health helps keep families growing together, by providing a network of services and programs. The services we provide are aimed at supporting and improving their emotional well-being and development, their relationships with family and friends, and their ability to get along with others and function effectively at home, in school, and in the community.  Mental health issues experienced by children include problems getting along with peers or adults, controlling anger or aggression, managing worries or other troubling thoughts or feelings, being able to pay attention or focus, feeling sad or worthless, engaging in risky or self-injurious behavior, and coping with significant losses, traumas, or other major life events and changes. 

Children/Youth with Serious Emotional Disturbance services are child-centered, family-oriented and are to be driven by the individual needs of the child being served. Staff will collaborate respectfully with families in assessment/diagnosis, treatment planning and service delivery, helping them to understand their role in the child's recovery, adaptation and functioning. They also involve the family and the community in the governance of the service system and have a true consumer orientation. Children are served in the least restrictive setting that can meet their needs. Whenever clinically possible, services are modified to decrease restrictiveness. We are committed to serving the child and family regardless of the level of severity of the child’s symptoms or disturbance, level of care needed, or other complicating circumstances. We address adolescents' skills for self-sufficiency, including vocational, educational, and independent living skills. Child and adolescent psychiatrists will make significant and unique contributions due to their broad and in-depth training in child development and psychopathology. Assistance is provided to young adults and their parents with the necessary linkages and transitions to adult services at the developmentally appropriate time. 

Day Programs for Children/Youth/Pre-K With Serious Emotional Disturbances 

HamiltonDavis Mental Health, Inc. provides Day Treatment Services to children/youth and children 3-5 years of age with SED. This community-based treatment option that provides intensive behavior intervention and preventative mental health services for children/ youth. The interventions provided by HamiltonDavis Mental Health, Inc. incorporate trauma informed care and evidenced based treatment modalities that specifically address the individual needs of the child. Children will participate in daily services that consist of mental health per treatment day. Clients, parents, social workers, communities, schools, and courts  are provided with treatment options in efforts to prevent the further deterioration of behaviors and mental illness. In addition, HamiltonDavis Mental Health, Inc. day programs provide an alternative to residential treatment or acute psychiatric hospitalization and serve as a transition from these services. 

Our objective is to consistently strive to improve the lives of children with mental health needs. We work to develop children day treatment programs to foster personal growth, accentuate positive potential, and teach healthy coping skills. Our goal is to provide programs that enhance the strengths of each person, family, and community with whom we work. We strive to have each community see our program as an asset. Our children program must be viewed as a community partner actively interested in seeking positive solutions. We recognize that we must constantly listen to and respond to the needs of our communities.

Psychotherapeutic Services and Intensive Outpatient Psychiatric Services for Children/Youth with Serious Emotional Disturbances

HamiltonDavis Mental Health, Inc. provides Outpatient Psychotherapeutic Services to an individual, family or group where a therapeutic relationship is established to  help mental and/or emotional disturbance; and Intensive Outpatient Psychiatric  Services for children/youth with serious emotional disorder (SED).) up to the age of twenty-one (21) for  family stabilization. Based on a  wraparound model, this service is a time-limited,  intensive family intervention intended to diffuse the current crisis, evaluate its  nature, and intervene to reduce  the likelihood of a recurrence. The ultimate goal  is to stabilize the living  arrangement, promote reunification or prevent the  utilization of out-of-home therapeutic resources   (i.e., psychiatric hospital,  therapeutic foster care, and residential treatment facility).  

HamiltonDavis Mental Health, Inc. provides Home and Community Support Services. Home and Community Supports (HCS) is for individuals who live in the family  home and provides assistance with activities of daily living (ADLs) and instrumental  activities of daily living (IADLs) such as bathing, toileting, transferring and  mobility, meal preparation (but not the cost of the meals themselves), assistance  with eating and incidental household cleaning and laundry which are essential to  the health, safety, and welfare of the individual. Other activities can include  assistance with keeping appointments, use of natural supports and other typical  community services available to all people, social activities and participation in  leisure activities.   

These array of support services are delivered by community-based, Community Support Specialist who specializes in children and youth with serious mental illness .The purpose of Community Support Services are to provide specific, measurable, and individualized services to each person served. The primary focus is the individual’s ability to succeed in the community; to identify and access needed services and to show improvement.  These services will vary with respect to hours, type and intensity of services, depending on the changing needs of each individual. Our staff will deliver the highest quality of care and a high degree of accountability through quality assurance and quality improvement mechanisms as well as the measurement of clinical outcomes.