Child and Adolescent Psychiatry - The Adolescent Day Treatment Program

The Adolescent Day Treatment Program offers comprehensive partial hospitalization care to adolescents referred from a broad variety of sources.

Our target population is adolescents who, because of severe psychopathology, cannot function in less comprehensive programs but are not in need of inpatient hospital services. They are adolescents whose psychological, familial, social, and educational needs require multiple-input, interdisciplinary, comprehensive, and integrated treatment.

The most often shared characteristics of the patients in the program, regardless of diagnosis, are severe educational deficits (with or without a specific learning disability); hostile, aggressive and explosive behavior; short attention span; low frustration tolerance; low self-esteem; inability to establish positive relationships with peers and adults; and problems with reality testing (e.g., severe paranoia, hallucinations). Therefore, a highly individualized educational/psychotherapeutic approach is mandatory.

Our goals are to enhance or maintain current levels of functioning and skills, to maintain community living, and develop self-awareness and self-esteem through the exploration and development of patient strengths and interests.

We aim to reduce symptoms and improve patient functioning while maintaining the adolescents in their natural environments, supporting family integrity, and providing ongoing support that helps to maintain the teens in family and family-like settings, in group homes, in school, and in the community.

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