Mental Health Services

Mental Health Services

Creative Alternatives offers a wide range of mental health services that support its residents’ personal growth, increases their personal, social and life skills, promotes their emotional and behavioral stability and help encourages each resident to reach their placement goal of family reunification or lower level of care such as a foster home or successful emancipation.

STRTP Mental Health Services:

• In-home Weekly Individual and Group Counseling.  Current group materials obtained from Global Priority Solutions include a roundtable methodology that focuses on personal and social values and principles such as goal setting, attitude, responsibility, ambition, teamwork, etc.
• Individualized Needs Assessment.   Personal strengths exploration, life-long connections identification and goals development is regularly done with each resident in conjunction with group home staff, social worker and, when available, significant others in the child’s life so that the child feels valued and supported and develops a sense of purpose and direction.
• Monthly Residents-Staff Meetings.  Facilitate and promote problem-solving, personal, social, communication and relationship skills in a healthy, supportive and therapeutic milieu.
• Quarterly Therapeutic Team Meetings.  Assesses and ascertain progress and movement toward skill-acquisition, emotional and behavioral goals.
• Treatment Decision-Making Meetings (TDMs).  Conducted as needed with all relevant parties such as the referral agent, family, life-long connection individuals, teachers and county social workers to ensure proper placement and service delivery.
• Clinical Team Advocacy.  Clinical team advocates for residents’ needs and goals in relation to the residential environment, county of origin services, school placement and extracurricular opportunities.
• Training and Skills Acquisition.  To ensure the highest professional services delivery, the clinical team provides ongoing support and skills training to group home staff to more effectively serve our residents.
• Coordination of Services with Collateral Agencies.

Counseling Center

Creative Alternatives Counseling Center provides outpatient individual, family and group psychotherapy for children and adolescents who are placed in the Creative Alternatives Residential and Foster Family Programs. Through a therapeutic, supportive, caring environment and a capable therapist, the individual can develop the necessary trust and skills to deal with and work through those emotional and/or behavioral problems that are impacting their success. It is the goal that every resident will develop internal self-regulation and control, take responsibility for their actions and try new solutions to old problems.

Therapeutically, an eclectic approach is used to treat the individual needs of each resident. The Counseling Center has a goal of offering as many tools as possible to help each resident have the opportunity for success. Some of these may include weekly groups on Anger Management and Drug Prevention and Abuse.

Psychiatric Treatment

Each resident has access to psychiatric services by our consulting, board-certified child psychiatrist. After the intake assessment, residents are seen on a regular basis for medication and behavioral reviews.  Services are provided to Creative Alternatives offices located in Turlock and Merced.