What are residential treatment centers for teens?
Residential treatment centers for teens are inpatient facilities made specifically for individuals grappling with behavioral and/or emotional issues. Residential treatment centers for teens usually offer a wide variety of therapeutic treatment options, an accredited academic program, and are staffed by a team of expert therapists and passionate supervisors. Teen residential treatment centers strive to equip struggling individuals with the knowledge and tools to work through their issues.
Residential treatment centers for teens often provide a number of therapies in order to give struggling adolescents the best treatment possible. These therapeutic options can range from equine therapy to cognitive-behavioral therapy to group therapy. All of these are used to fit the specific needs of each individual child.
Some residential
treatment centers for teens are geared towards helping a specific gender or set of behavioral or emotional issues. Some are all gender, some are gender specific. Some treat very severe mental illnesses, some treat less severe. Many residential treatment centers offer programming that work towards treating specific diagnoses.
Overall, residential treatment centers for teens want to help individuals work through and overcome their specific emotional or behavioral issues by developing coping skills that can be transferred back home and used over a lifetime.
Who do residential treatment centers for teens help?
Residential treatment centers for teens sometimes treat individuals based on diagnosis, gender, or age. Some residential treatment centers focus on younger teens, some focus on older teens. Some treat teen girls, some treat teen boys. A large amount of residential treatment centers help teens struggling with behavioral and/or emotional issues such as:
- Defiance
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Trauma-related issues
- Obsessive/ compulsive
- Substance use
- Manipulative behaviors
- Anger management issues
- Difficulty focusing
Many residential treatment centers for teens provide programming designed specifically for diagnoses like ADHD, ODD, OCD, bipolar disorder, or school refusal.
Benefits of residential treatment centers for teens
Traditional therapy is not always a large enough intervention for struggling teens, which is why residential treatment centers exist. Residential treatment centers for teens offer many benefits to individuals and families:
24/7 Care: Residential treatment centers for teens offer ‘round the clock care by trained staff. This is to make sure your child is in a safe environment at all times. This also allows staff to notice patterns and triggers to create a more aware, personalized therapeutic treatment.
Safe and Secure: The facilities created for residential treatment centers are designed to have the utmost safety so they have a secure environment for teens to make mistakes and grow.
Accredited Academic Programs: Many residential treatment centers provide academic programs so that students will not fall behind while receiving therapeutic treatment. This also makes it easier for teens to transfer back home because there’s a sense of normalcy.
Individualized Plans: Oftentimes residential treatment centers for teens strive to have a program that can cater to the needs to each individual student. To do this, they provide many different types of therapy to see which is more effective for each student.
Family Integration: To truly help a teen get through their issues, family support is needed. Residential treatment centers often work on repairing the family dynamic by offering family therapy and weekly communication with the family.
Trained, Experienced Staff: These treatment centers are often staffed by therapeutic professionals with years of experience in dealing with struggling teens. They usually hire staff that are passionate about changing the lives of teens for the better.
Elevations RTC as a residential treatment center for teens
Elevations RTC is one of the leading all gender residential treatment centers for teens. Elevations offers support, guidance, and relief to teens of all genders, ages 13 to 18. Students at Elevations often struggle with issues surrounding mental health problems, learning disorders, substance use, emotional disorders, and more.
Unlike many residential treatment centers for teens, Elevations provides a real-world residential setting combined with psychiatric treatment and care. Elevations strives to teach each student coping skills that pertain specifically to their individual struggles in life. By offering accredited, college-prep academics, students are able to stay on track for a successful life. Elevations utilizes many types of therapy to give students the best possible care. These therapies can include adventure therapy, equine therapy, family therapy, individual therapy, and much more.
Residential treatment in the media
Residential treatment centers are often used for helping with anything from major depression to eating disorder to substance use. They have the potential to help a lot of people. Which is why Ke$ha, well-known pop-singer, checked herself into a residential treatment facility to get help for her eating disorder. She was quoted saying, “I’m a crusader for being yourself and loving yourself, but I’ve found it hard to practice.” She said she entered residential treatment to help her “love herself” again.
Another pop idol that has experienced time in residential treatment is Demi Lovato. She’s struggled with suicidal thoughts, self-harm, eating disorders, anxiety, and depression. Finally, after a violent episode, she got treatment in a residential treatment center for teens. There, she found out that she had bipolar disorder. Now, she has recovered, is successful, and, though she struggles sometimes, she’s living a much happier life.
Research
In a recent study published by JAMA Psychiatry, it was found that mindfulness-based cognitive therapy is effective as a way to prevent relapses in depression. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy is a combination of traditional cognitive behavioral therapy with mindfulness training. Mindfulness training helps an individual become more aware of their feelings and surroundings, making it easier to catch depression symptoms.
In a survey done by the National Institutes of Mental Health, it was found that over 25 percent of teens, ages 13 to 18, struggle with anxiety. That’s one out of every four teenagers that you come across, and many of them never get treatment. Girls were more likely than boys to develop an anxiety disorder.