Management of Challenging Children
DayBreak accepts difficult individuals whom historically have been denied or expelled by other behavioral health providers. The typical DayBreak resident demonstrates oppositional aggressive behavior social boundary issues and aggression that often exhaust the resources and expertise of others. DayBreak‘s management and employees view challenging children and adolescents as integral to its mission and philosophy as a company. In fact, expulsion of a resident by the agency is seen as a failure. The management of DayBreak spends a considerable amount of time training employees on behavioral treatment methodology, symptomology of specific disorders, and techniques designed to reduce stress.
Proximity to the Family
While other behavioral health providers locate homes outside the county, DayBreak has strategically located its homes in the Northern Arizona Counties of Yavapai and Coconino. This facilitates the participation of the family in treatment, eliminating excessive travel as a barrier.
Reliability of Treatment
When a child is placed in a DayBreak Therapeutic Group Home, the treatment effected is more likely to generalize to the child’s home situation upon discharge, due to the similarity in environments. In addition to the therapeutic component, the resident participates in the daily activities of maintaining a home including cooking and household chores. Behavior modification and cognitive restructuring are the foundations of treatment. Focus remains on changing thought and behavior patterns, not on preventing maladaptive behaviors with either physical or medical force. Treatment occurs in a home-like environment, not a locked, sterile unit.
Program Goals
DayBreak’s program goals involve primarily one focus: to develop a resident’s internal controls to enable him or her to function in a less structured environment. That is, to reduce the resident’s need to be controlled by external forces (e.g. highly structured behavior management programs, staff, or both).
DayBreak’s milieu is specifically designed to teach alternatives to challenging behavior. Grounded in a functional analysis approach whereby challenging behaviors are believed to serve a purpose for the individual, treatment is focused on determining what purpose the challenging behavior is actually serving. Once this has been established, an alternate or replacement behavior is identified. Individual teaching protocols are then developed to address the need, and are implemented either incidentally or on a formal basis. A resident’s progress is measured via his or her level of independence achieved during practice sessions as recorded by well-trained staff. The data obtained from these sessions is presented during monthly child and family treatment team meetings and utilized as a basis for making treatment decisions.
Another integral program goal is to address the needs of the resident with the family and plan for the eventual return of the resident home. Often times a resident’s lack of progress in other treatment programs has resulted in a family’s reluctance to bring the child back into the home. Indeed, behaviors such as aggression and opposition often place family members at risk making them reluctant to accept the individual back. DayBreak’s clinical team defines progress within the context of the family and therefore is responsible for facilitating the re-establishment of trust between family members and the resident. Central to this concept is the required participation of family members in treatment and the belief that the resident can change. Without these core tenets, progress is unlikely.
For those resident’s who have no immediate family, treatment is focused on the inclusion of significant others in the child’s life. These persons could be casemanagers, social workers, siblings, or other relatives who have bonded with the child. While the ultimate goal may not be to return the child to the home of origin, treatment can be directed to transitioning the child to a foster family, group home or similar situation.
Client/ Staff Ratios
Ratios within the Level II Behavioral Health Residential Facility setting will be 1:3 during active treatment hours from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. daily. Another staff may be added during critical periods. At all other times, when residents are awake, the ratio will be 1:4. One overnight staff will remain awake during the hours of 11 p.m. to 8 a.m.
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