Overview
The 14-bed adolescent residential treatment program, based in Ventura County, is the most intensive children’s short-term treatment program Casa Pacifica offers. Individualized treatment programs tailored to each child and youth’s needs typically take place over 9 to 12 months and are built on a 24-hour therapeutic environment overseen by a multidisciplinary team of experienced professionals, including licensed mental health staff. Based on a trauma-informed approach to child development, this highly structured experiential program is designed to provide children with emotionally reparative relationships and teach cognitive strategies and social skills that will enable them to live effective and fulfilling lives at home and in the community. In addition, some children in the residential treatment program are enrolled in the campus non-public school.
Who Is Eligible?
The STRTP is designed to help female, transgender, and nonbinary youth ages 12 through 17 seeking placement in a primarily female setting. Their symptoms have often proven too acute for a foster home or other youth care programs and have exhausted all other treatment options in the community. Youth in the STRTP often face challenges like emotional disorders and attachment disorders.
Referrals
Referrals to Cass Pacifica’s STRTP can be made through county child welfare agencies, county probation agencies, and post-adoption services.
For more information please contact Admissions
(805) 366-4000
admissions@casapacifica.org
How STRTP Works
Casa Pacifica’s STRTP integrates day rehabilitation and the cottage STEPS to Success Program. Youth progress through five STEPS while in treatment, beginning with orientation and ending with leadership and a transition phase before graduating. Each program staff member has a unique role in creating a therapeutic alliance, and through collaboration, they strengthen our intentional culture and support the therapeutic environment:
- The STRTP is led by a supervising licensed clinician and cottage supervisor that provides individualized, highly accessible mental health services.
- Reporting to the supervising clinician is the direct care “leadership trio” consisting of a behavioral specialist, assistant cottage supervisor and support counselor. A major task of the leadership trio is to provide supervision and coaching to youth care workers to sharpen their skills, maintain our culture, and create a strong trauma-informed environment and program structure.
- Each youth has a primary youth development specialist that gets to know them, builds a close relationship with them, takes them on individual outings, spends special time with them, engages them in the program, helps advocate for them within the cottage, coaches them on forming relationships and goal achievement, and is the “go to” person for the youth.
- Therapeutic recreation interventions are offered to all youth on campus at least twice daily, after school, evenings and weekends. It is considered part of their daily program and therefore, all youth are encouraged to participate to gain the most out of their treatment. The Recreation Therapy program offers many physical as well as creative interventions.
- STRTP youth also have access to Casa Pacifica’s licensed Health Clinic which offers psychiatric care, medication administration and coordinates medical, dental and specialty services.
Families are invited into the cottages and encouraged to participate in their youth’s lives through activities, cooking a meal, helping with homework, family therapy or just visiting.
Youth ages 16-18 years old may also be referred to our Transitional Youth Services Program (TYS) that helps them prepare for emancipation. TYS assists youth in making a life plan and exploring living options, employment and career, educational opportunities, community life skills, and personal well-being.
Family Driven/Youth Guided
Casa Pacifica is committed to being a family driven and youth guided program. As such, we have joined the national initiative Building Bridges. The Building Bridges mission and goals are to identify and promote effective practices and policies; create strong and well-coordinated partnerships and collaborations; and ensure that comprehensive services and supports are:
- family-driven
- youth-guided
- strengths-based
- culturally and linguistically competent
- individualized child treatment
- evidence- and practice informed
- consistent with the research on sustained positive outcomes
Our philosophy reflects an ongoing commitment to the youth and family by preventing premature discharge and striving to provide continuity of treatment by supporting transitions, promoting individualized and culturally competent service delivery and goals, eliminating blame, and supporting the strengths of each family member. We incorporate a “whatever it takes” and “never give up” attitude to providing hope, help and support. Youth have a developmentally appropriate role in their care by planning their short-term treatment goals with their clinician and participating in treatment team meetings. Youth have a role in creating rules, regulations and policies that govern their living environments by participating in the cottage “residential council.”