Stabilization: The Importance of a Schedule
DAS stands for diversion acute stabilization, this means that kids that come to MHY's placement facility are usually coming from a traumatic high and were either taken to the police station or the hospital. They are now coming to MHY because they need to be stabilized on their meds while entering them back into a normal routine setting. When you are dealing with a child who has high escalation tendencies you have to keep them busy, practically all day. Some of the kids on the DAS units had ADHD or ADD diagnosis, but even the ones that weren't diagnosed were very high energy children.
The day started out two different ways during my internship period, while it was the summer, the kids attended summer school for five hours. There is Longmore academy, a special school on MHY's campus where the teachers are trained to help best with the children's particular behavior issues. The academy is located close to the units, allowing the staff to walk the kids to the school instead of having to take the kids on a transport to get them to class. Longmore Academy also has students that just come for the classes and then go home once they are over. These kids often have the same behavioral issues as the kids staying on campus 24/7 but have not lost the privilege of living at home yet. After the kid's summer school day is over the staff assigned to the unit of kids will come and get them and walk them to the cafeteria to get lunch which they will eat on the unit. After which their schedule becomes the same as the days they do not have school, like the weekends. Every day the kids have to complete a journal entry which is answering three questions that are in line with the therapy topic of the week. Every day the kids will receive a therapy group that is run by one of the therapists employed by MHY or a therapy group lead by the staff.
For example, if the therapy topic for the week is bullying. The journal questions would ask the kids why do they think people bully others, how does the bully feel when they are mean to others, and if they have ever been bullied or bullied others. Then the therapy group lead by a therapist might talk about the heavy material associated with bullying like self-harm and suicide. The therapy group lead by the staff are prepared activities with instructions and materials to help the staff complete the activity. These can range from discussion topics where the kids write their answers and then talk about them or they could be a drawing activity or physical activity. These activities are designed to help prepare these kids to face bullies in the future or to avoid becoming a bully themselves. Both of which are easy to do when they constantly struggle with controlling their emotions and impulses due to their mental and behavioral difficulties.
Since the kids have these instructional moments regularly happening throughout their day they are able to rely on the schedule. It allows them to prepare to talk about their feeling at these points in the day. They become used to having these therapy parts in their day and are not upset when they are asked to talk about something a little heavier than normal conversation. These kids are also quite used to having therapy groups during their day. Kids come from having in-home therapy to being in a long-term facility to group homes. By having the kids do a therapy group gives them something to do that they are used too.
Once these groups are over and in between them, the kids have the time for lots of physical activity. MHY's campus has lots of land and therefore has many spaces for outdoor events. They have a pond for kids to go fishing, a hiking trail to walk through the woods, an outdoor basketball court, and indoor gym and an inground swimming pool. They also have the option to walk around the entire paved campus, its great for the days when the kids just have tons of energy and feel very cooped up. The staff will let them a pick a ball if they want it and let them bounce it as they walk a couple laps around campus.
The second way for the kid's days to go would be when they did not have school, they get to sleep in a little and the routine of getting breakfast and going to take their medication is slightly delayed. After the kids have completed their morning routine and have gotten their medicine then breakfast, the unit will begin what is called super clean. It is a routine cleaning that the kids do to help pick up the unit and make the space they are living a little nicer. MHY has professional cleaning services that come and cleans as well, but this is a chance for the kids to take pride in something that they are doing and to earn something called a tallie. A tallie is just a point that they can accumulate with good behavior to buy goodies on Sunday when the unit goes to the sanctuary store. The sanctuary store has candy, stuffed animals, coloring books, pencils, markers, crayons, stress balls and much more. Super clean also takes a decent bit of time because only one child can be cleaning at a time. While one kid is cleaning the rest are watching a movie, the kids often really enjoy the mornings with super clean because they earn the tallies and get to watch a full movie which they do not have time for during the regular schedule.
The rest of the day with no school follows the schedule of the days with school very closely. The third option is when summer school is done for the last few weeks of the summer. MHY brings in lots of volunteers to give the kids more things to do throughout the day so they aren't bored and restless. This round of volunteers are from Lincoln Park and came to teach the kids drumming, rhythms, how to play different drums, acting, and juggling. Juggling was probably the most interesting of the activities the kids went through. Having the volunteers on campus was a give and take relationship during their time with the kids. On one side it was great to introduce the kids to new information and to stimulate their minds, on another, it was difficult. These volunteers were not trained to deal with kids who have behavioral issues and could often aggravate a child or fail to understand why a child needed to step out of the activity instead of paying attention the whole time.
In the end, having a set schedule for large periods of time was not only beneficial for the kids but also the staff. It gave the units a sense of unfailing order throughout the summer. Even when staff members were going on vacation for periods of days, when they came back, even if the kids had changed, they were able to pick right back up with the schedule to best help the kids that were still there. When kids come to MHY they are staying there 24/7 with no family or friends and strangers dictating their lives to them. It can be fairly scary even without having little to no control over their emotions and behaviors. Having this schedule, and having it posted where they could check it as many times as they wanted throughout the day was therapy in its self. Also the effect of knowing what was going to happen, nothing was a surprise or out of the blue, made every transition easier to accomplish.
To help the kids carry on the effects of having a stable day we give them the tools to continue creating a stable and consistent schedule when they leave. Giving them their journal that they wrote in every day is a big one. We can never guarantee that these kids when they discharge from MHY are going to get better or move on from their circumstance. We can only hope and work our hardest to show them it can get better while they are with us.
The day started out two different ways during my internship period, while it was the summer, the kids attended summer school for five hours. There is Longmore academy, a special school on MHY's campus where the teachers are trained to help best with the children's particular behavior issues. The academy is located close to the units, allowing the staff to walk the kids to the school instead of having to take the kids on a transport to get them to class. Longmore Academy also has students that just come for the classes and then go home once they are over. These kids often have the same behavioral issues as the kids staying on campus 24/7 but have not lost the privilege of living at home yet. After the kid's summer school day is over the staff assigned to the unit of kids will come and get them and walk them to the cafeteria to get lunch which they will eat on the unit. After which their schedule becomes the same as the days they do not have school, like the weekends. Every day the kids have to complete a journal entry which is answering three questions that are in line with the therapy topic of the week. Every day the kids will receive a therapy group that is run by one of the therapists employed by MHY or a therapy group lead by the staff.
For example, if the therapy topic for the week is bullying. The journal questions would ask the kids why do they think people bully others, how does the bully feel when they are mean to others, and if they have ever been bullied or bullied others. Then the therapy group lead by a therapist might talk about the heavy material associated with bullying like self-harm and suicide. The therapy group lead by the staff are prepared activities with instructions and materials to help the staff complete the activity. These can range from discussion topics where the kids write their answers and then talk about them or they could be a drawing activity or physical activity. These activities are designed to help prepare these kids to face bullies in the future or to avoid becoming a bully themselves. Both of which are easy to do when they constantly struggle with controlling their emotions and impulses due to their mental and behavioral difficulties.
Since the kids have these instructional moments regularly happening throughout their day they are able to rely on the schedule. It allows them to prepare to talk about their feeling at these points in the day. They become used to having these therapy parts in their day and are not upset when they are asked to talk about something a little heavier than normal conversation. These kids are also quite used to having therapy groups during their day. Kids come from having in-home therapy to being in a long-term facility to group homes. By having the kids do a therapy group gives them something to do that they are used too.
Once these groups are over and in between them, the kids have the time for lots of physical activity. MHY's campus has lots of land and therefore has many spaces for outdoor events. They have a pond for kids to go fishing, a hiking trail to walk through the woods, an outdoor basketball court, and indoor gym and an inground swimming pool. They also have the option to walk around the entire paved campus, its great for the days when the kids just have tons of energy and feel very cooped up. The staff will let them a pick a ball if they want it and let them bounce it as they walk a couple laps around campus.
The second way for the kid's days to go would be when they did not have school, they get to sleep in a little and the routine of getting breakfast and going to take their medication is slightly delayed. After the kids have completed their morning routine and have gotten their medicine then breakfast, the unit will begin what is called super clean. It is a routine cleaning that the kids do to help pick up the unit and make the space they are living a little nicer. MHY has professional cleaning services that come and cleans as well, but this is a chance for the kids to take pride in something that they are doing and to earn something called a tallie. A tallie is just a point that they can accumulate with good behavior to buy goodies on Sunday when the unit goes to the sanctuary store. The sanctuary store has candy, stuffed animals, coloring books, pencils, markers, crayons, stress balls and much more. Super clean also takes a decent bit of time because only one child can be cleaning at a time. While one kid is cleaning the rest are watching a movie, the kids often really enjoy the mornings with super clean because they earn the tallies and get to watch a full movie which they do not have time for during the regular schedule.
The rest of the day with no school follows the schedule of the days with school very closely. The third option is when summer school is done for the last few weeks of the summer. MHY brings in lots of volunteers to give the kids more things to do throughout the day so they aren't bored and restless. This round of volunteers are from Lincoln Park and came to teach the kids drumming, rhythms, how to play different drums, acting, and juggling. Juggling was probably the most interesting of the activities the kids went through. Having the volunteers on campus was a give and take relationship during their time with the kids. On one side it was great to introduce the kids to new information and to stimulate their minds, on another, it was difficult. These volunteers were not trained to deal with kids who have behavioral issues and could often aggravate a child or fail to understand why a child needed to step out of the activity instead of paying attention the whole time.
In the end, having a set schedule for large periods of time was not only beneficial for the kids but also the staff. It gave the units a sense of unfailing order throughout the summer. Even when staff members were going on vacation for periods of days, when they came back, even if the kids had changed, they were able to pick right back up with the schedule to best help the kids that were still there. When kids come to MHY they are staying there 24/7 with no family or friends and strangers dictating their lives to them. It can be fairly scary even without having little to no control over their emotions and behaviors. Having this schedule, and having it posted where they could check it as many times as they wanted throughout the day was therapy in its self. Also the effect of knowing what was going to happen, nothing was a surprise or out of the blue, made every transition easier to accomplish.
To help the kids carry on the effects of having a stable day we give them the tools to continue creating a stable and consistent schedule when they leave. Giving them their journal that they wrote in every day is a big one. We can never guarantee that these kids when they discharge from MHY are going to get better or move on from their circumstance. We can only hope and work our hardest to show them it can get better while they are with us.
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