TYC - Residential Treatment

Residential Treatment

The Youth Campus (TYC) Residential Treatment Program provides our young people with quiet, cottage style homes in Park Ridge, a Cook County suburb north of Chicago, Illinois. The 11-acre site presents youth a safe and caring environment in which to pursue their plans of treatment.

Mission To Serve
The Youth Campus serves adolescent girls, ages 12-18, who have serious emotional and behavioral problems. These teens often come from the last of many foster homes or a psychiatric hospital. From day one at TYC, the staff works with them to identify their next living arrangement. Their hope is supported by all the normal opportunities and special clinical resources they need to develop appropriate skills for the planned transition. The Youth Campus offers special expertise with significant mental health issues.

Approach
TYC takes advantage of the natural future orientation of adolescents and grounds its approach in a proven clinical model. Basic principles include safety, permanence and well-being. Immediately working toward the new placement provides a goal shared by our young person and staff and a foundation for building trust and improving problem-solving skills.

Safety
All of our girls come to us in crisis. Our first goal is to stabilize them and provide an emotionally safe environment for personal healing, reflection and change. From the moment they arrive at TYC, our clients receive intensive 24 hour staff-secure supervision by skilled and caring staff in a client to staff ration of 4:1. There are three comfortable and welcoming resident homes, each housing 10 to 12 girls. Onsite security provides additional crisis management capability in this 34-bed, open setting.

Permanence
TYC girls identify where they next want to live. That might be with a family member, former foster parent, transitional living situation, independent living program or a new foster home. TYC staff work to ensure, when appropriate, that all family visits occur encouraging family contact and family therapy. Work opportunities in the community are explored. TYC staff attends all school staffings.

Well-Being
An interdisciplinary team works with each girl and, if possible, her family. The program director, an LPHA (Licensed Professional in the Healing Arts), leads the team which coordinates and monitors all services for each client. The on-site team includes therapists, a psychiatrist and psychologists, social workers, nutritionist, nurse, program coordinators, counselors and case managers. Together, they approve an individual treatment plan (ITP) and behavior management plan targeting the girl's goals. Our young person's strengths, interests, daily living experiences, activities, interventions and schedules are integrated into the plans' requirements and include the following:

Clinical Services -- individual, group and expressive therapies, medication management
Behavioral Education -- structured cognitive approach based on youth's strengths
Academic Education -- team directed Individual Education Plan (IEP) pursued in community schools
Alcohol and drug abuse prevention and early intervention on-site through a local, expert partner (TYC does not provide in-patient substance abuse treatment.)
Immediate 24-hour access to highly reputable, local teen medical clinic and psychiatric hospital
Recreation and Social learning in purposeful group and individual activities on and off site
Culturally and individually appropriate spiritual activities
Well-being program -- on-site nursing, consulting nutritionist, opportunities to develop hobbies and activities of interest

Mission Accomplished
Throughout our young person's treatment at The Youth Campus various assessments are used to determine her needs, monitor the progress she is making and decide readiness for transition back to the community. The TYC team and client constantly measure and adjust the plans to target a successful path to her goal. In the context of a safe and caring environment, TYC is committed to accept and serve adolescent girls suffering serious emotional and behavioral problems on their way to successful homes and relationships.