Intensive In-Home Services

FOCUS and Wraparound (Ages 3 to 18)
Targeting emotionally and behaviorally challenged, high-risk children and their families, these programs use a collaborative team process to bring together the formal and informal networks of community services that are available to support the child and family. Services address the child’s social functioning needs by working collaboratively with parents, schools, social and mental health services, along with other community resources. In addition to the goal of strengthening families and preventing out-of-home placements where possible, the programs strive to ensure the child’s success in school and to reduce his or her involvement in the juvenile justice system.

FOCUS II (Ages 3 to 18)
Less intensive services than FOCUS and WRAP for youth with emotional and behavioral challenges and their families. The treatment goal is to prevent out-of-home placement or assist in re-integrating youth in the community after graduating from more intensive WRAP services while living out of home.

Multidimensional Treatment Foster Support (Ages Birth to 18)
Working with foster parents of children and youth who have emotional, behavioral and delinquency problems, the program applies a nationally recognized best-practice approach (www.mtfc.com) proven by research to increase pro-social behaviors, improve family relationships, enhance parenting skills, decrease conflict and, ultimately, keep foster children living safely with loving and confident parents. These goals are achieved through involving the foster families as critical partners in the treatment process and providing them with all the support and resources to help them raise healthy and well-adjusted children. Examples of such supports are: weekly support meetings, staff availability 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, daily contact with each foster family, among others. The program demonstrates a lower rate of arrests of boys (half that of boys living in Group Homes); also, fewer girls who completed the program were sent to locked facilities and spent less time in such facilities as compared to girls in traditional treatment programs. For younger children, the results are also very positive.

Multi-Systemic Therapy (Ages 10 to 17 1/2)
An intensive, 3-5 month program, it reduces out-of-home placements of adolescents with delinquency problems, or helps them re-integrate in the community after they had been living in a group home or locked facility. The major goal is to empower families with the skills and resources needed to independently address the difficulties that arise in raising children, providing family, peer, school and neighborhood interventions. Staff is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to assist caregivers dealing with crisis or everyday challenges. Condition for participation is the active involvement of at least one parent/caregiver in the intense treatment process. Based on a best-practice model (www.mstservices.com), the program has shown reduction in long-term rates of re-arrest by 25% to 70% for violent and chronic juvenile offenders. It has also demonstrated a reduction of days in out-of-home placements by 47% to 64% compared to control groups.

Functional Family Therapy (Ages 11 to 18 and their younger siblings)
This is a short-term (over a 3-month period), family-based prevention and intervention program for youth at risk of or dealing with delinquency, violence, substance use, conduct disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, or disruptive behavior disorder. The services are delivered in an office, school, home, juvenile court and/or community settings and include as many family members as appropriate. A major goal of Functional Family Therapy is to improve and strengthen family relationships while decreasing intense negativity and blame. Additionally, family members are helped in adopting positive problem-solving and communication skills, as well as effective parenting strategies. Based on a Blueprints for Violence Prevention best-practice model (www.fftinc.com), when applied according to model requirements, the program has shown success for over 30 years in a wide variety of multi-ethnic and multi-cultural contexts. Functional Family Therapy leads to reduction in criminal activity, violent and other high-risk behaviors, decrease in family hostility, improvement in family interactions and parenting competencies and ultimately keeps children and youth safely at home.

The program’s high rate of effectiveness has been recognized by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and the U.S. Surgeon General’s Report on Youth Violence which names it a model program for seriously delinquent adolescents.

Teaching Pro-Social Skills (Ages 13 and above)
Based on the idea that “children behave the way they do because they simply don’t know what else to do,” Teaching Pro-Social Skills is an evidenced-based practice model of intervention designed to assist adolescents in learning social skills, anger control strategies and enhanced moral reasoning skills. Led by highly trained staff, Teaching Pro-Social Skills is offered in a group format with 6-8 participants meeting for 10 consecutive weeks. Separate groups for boys and girls, ages 13 and above, are offered two to three times per year; caregivers are strongly encouraged to attend with their child. The program has shown effectiveness within juvenile detention facilities and group home settings; in fact the program is strongly supported by the Department of Probation as a possible alternative to continued incarceration, and usually fulfills the “anger management” training that is a requirement. River Oak is the only children’s mental health agency to offer this program on an outpatient basis, and has adapted the program for individual intervention for clients who are unable to attend the group program. Since the program at River Oak started in March 2007, over 50 boys and girls have completed it, and have shown increased mastery of social skills, anger management, and moral reasoning, which in turn has led to a reduction in oppositional and defiant behaviors as well as an improved quality of relationships with peers and adults.

 

5030 El Camino Avenue, Carmichael, CA 95608, (916) 609-5100, fax (916) 609-5160
info@riveroak.org
Click here for contact info for our other program sites.

 

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