Day Treatment Center ready for children
by Chris WestPublic Relations
In an effort to IMPACT what can be the dark and dismal sky of at-risk children, MUSC has added another shiny STAR.
Located in the Mark Clark Business Center on Leeds Avenue, MUSC’s new Children's Day Treatment Center is now accepting its first group of children. The new groups will consist of 3-to-12-year-old children who will be the first to use the seven thousand-square-foot facility in the youth intervention programs known as IMPACT and STAR.
With roots in MUSC’s Institute of Psychiatry (IOP), STAR and IMPACT are treatment programs targeted at children with severe emotional and/or behavioral disturbances. The participating child’s age designates which program he or she will enter for treatment and intervention with the goal of addressing and overcoming the problem areas of their lives.
Innovative Models for Parent and Child Treatment (IMPACT) offers treatment for preschool-age children with extreme disruptive behavior at home or daycare.
“The goal of IMPACT is to intervene early enough in a child’s life to set him or her on a more adaptive course of behavior before the problem behavior worsens,” said Owen Shoemaker, Ph.D., and program director. “And while IMPACT cannot be considered primary prevention, it is proactive in its approach before the problem seriously disrupts their educational, social and emotional development.”
Initially conceptualized by Conway Saylor, Ph.D., and Rusty Wolf, M.D., IMPACT was made reality when the doctors realized a growing need to address and serve young children who were already having considerable problems adjusting to home, school and community environments. Initially housed in the Charles Webb Easter Seal building and sponsored by the IOP, it was decided to move the program to a site in West Ashley in 1994. Shoemaker, who lent consultation services in its fledgling years, became program director in 1995. Through the years, the site grew in popularity to a large population desiring its services.
“The West Ashley site had been carrying a long waiting list over the years and even after referral a child’s admission may take up to three months. That’s why we were fortunate to have the support of IOP administrator Joan Herbert in acquiring the new site at Leeds Avenue,” Shoemaker said.
The IMPACT format consists of two groups: one for three and four year-olds and another for five and six year-olds. The groups are led by two facilitators and are kept small. According to Shoemaker, this allows for prompt consequences of behavior, both positive and negative.
STAR is a partial hospitalization/day treatment program for youths with severe emotional and/or behavioral disturbances. Dedicating its services to younger children, STAR picks up where IMPACT leaves off. Children ages 6 to 18 are eligible for the STAR program. The STAR acronym reveals the four mission steps of the program: stabilization, treatment, assessment and reintegration. All four must be completed for “graduation” from the program. The initial classes will consist of three groups of peers, ages seven to twelve, and will be led through the six to eight week program by a teacher/facilitator.
Tei
McCurdy
“STAR began in 1995 on the fifth floor of the Institute of Psychiatry (IOP),” said Tei McCurdy, program coordinator. “Shortly after, the program grew in popularity and found itself with an expansive waiting list that still exists today. This new facility was established to take some of the crunch off of the other facilities and because of its location, should facilitate serving some of Charleston’s outlying areas, such as Summerville and North Charleston.”
STAR is also designed to intervene with problem behavior in children to restore age appropriate independent functioning and reintegrate them into their problem areas minus disruptive behavior. But the similarities don’t stop there.
Parent/caregiver participation is mandatory for admission to both programs. There they are taught behavior management skills to ensure that treatment continues in the home after the child has left the facility.
Parent/caregiver participation is a vital component, as both programs recognize the crucial role that parents and caregivers play in helping a child to make changes in behavior. Family groups and individual family therapy sessions are provided to help the patients and family integrate new skills. IMPACT therapists may also work with the patient and family in the home in order to individualize treatment.
The two programs have a similar treatment model with children participating in therapeutic groups which range from social-skill focused groups to spending time in a classroom-type environment in order to help children learn skills in handling both highly structured and less structured settings.
While each program will have treatment personnel working specifically with its children and families, there will be some limited sharing of space and personnel in order to maximize the efficient use of resources. Mark Wagner, M.D., will serve as the attending psychiatrist for both programs. Shoemaker will continue to provide administrative, research, training, clinical and supervisory services for both IMPACT programs, and McCurdy will provide coordination services for the STAR Leeds program.
In the early stages of opening their new site, the goal of Shoemaker and McCurdy is to have the new programs fully running as soon as possible. The programs have already begun working with new patients and are accepting further referrals.
For more information, contact McCurdy for STAR or Shoemaker for IMPACT
at 740-6130.