Our Place: Children’s Day Treatment Program

Our Mission

To provide quality treatment to children and adolescents who are in need of short-term behavioral health care in a highly structured environment. To provide a less restrictive and more creative alternative to 24-hour inpatient hospitalization. To promote and protect the rights and emotional well-being of children and adolescents. To promote the importance of positive family engagement and provide a service that encourage positive and appropriate family involvement.

Our Place is Four Rivers Behavioral Health’s Day Treatment Program for Children. Our Place is not for everyone. There may be other, less intense programs offered through our Center for Specialized Children’s Services that may be a better fit for your child. Further, there are more restrictive programs, such as full hospitalization, offered by third-party providers that may be necessary for the child to get the level of care they need. The decision to enroll in the Our Place is one that will be based on our pre-admission screening and on your wishes. Treatment is most successful when the parent or guardian is in agreement and believes the treatment options chosen are in the child’s best interest. We encourage you to talk with your physician or other healthcare providers such as counselors or therapists, as well as schedule a time with Four Rivers Behavioral Health’s Center for Specialized Children’s Services to discuss this program as an option for care.

About OurPlace

OurPlace is an intensive program offering five hours of behavioral health care a day as well as educational instruction. We operate five days a week as an alternative to inpatient services that provides a detailed program of a professional team made up of therapists, clinicians and our child psychiatrist to assess and treat complex emotional and behavioral problems. Four Rivers Behavioral Health has the only Board Certified Child Psychiatrist in the region and the doctor plays an important role in our overall treatment plans.

Our Goals

The Primary objective of the program is to assist the child in resolving their own unique issues in an environment characterized by empathy, patience, and individual responsibility.

Our Process

Each child will have an individualized treatment plan addressing their specific needs through the use of multiple techniques including individual, group, and family therapy. Families are an important part of the treatment process and will be involved in the program.

program components

Therapists lead a general psychotherapy group daily. These sessions will provide children an opportunity to share thoughts and feelings, give and receive support, and learn healthy ways of communicating and interacting with others.

Individual therapy sessions will be provided as indicated in the treatment plan.

There will be a daily group covering a wide range of topics including anger management, relaxation, cognitive therapy, and other issues. This group will include discussion, activity, lecture, and role play.

A daily group will be held to improve individual social skills. The primary focus will be to increase skills in the areas of communication, conflict resolution, stress management, avoidance of peer pressure, and personal development. Other topics will be covered as well.

Five times a week, children will be involved in therapeutic activities such as recreation, arts, crafts, and game playing. The focus will be to increase social and personal skills through the use of leisure activities.

Community group is held daily to encourage discussion of group issues, concerns, and needs. This group helps to maintain a therapeutic environment and will follow a protocol. During each group, children will discuss their progress towards daily goals, provide concerns and compliments to peers, and identify group problems that need to be addressed. Staff and the community leader will lead this group. The primary focus will be to encourage the use of positive and constructive communication in a problem-solving environment.

Progress Reports

As child progresses, their daily goals should reflect the following stages of growth:

Beginning: The child’s goals should be focused on building knowledge of the program expectations, and building a sense of safety and trust with staff and peers.

Learning: The child’s goals should focus on skills learned in program, self-awareness, and utilizing solutions learned in program to manage daily struggles.

Growing: The child’s goals should focus on a more consistent utilization of tools and problem-solving strategies and begin to make attempts at independent problem-solving.

Independence: The child’s goals should focus on taking personal initiative to consistently use tools at home and in program to problem solve.

The child’s daily goal setting sheet will be sent home every afternoon. This will allow parents to review child’s progress in program and encourage continuity of expectations between home and program.

Admissions/Assessments

Children are referred to OurPlace from your child’s school, a referral from your general physician, a referral from your child’s outpatient therapist, from the court system or a step-down from hospitalization/residential care.