A primary goal of treatment is to help a child self regulate and problem solve without adults monitoring their every move. Initially, however, most youth want to go “where I want, when I want,” even though they repeatedly make poor choices such as running away, being truant, etc. Without external structure, these youth struggle to make needed change and may resort to anything to avoid accountability. Others are fearful that negative peers and pressures may intrude upon them as they try to change. To address these needs, Island View developed a campus incorporating both secure and open areas. For those who need extra support, virtually all Island View services are delivered in secure family living areas, while more advanced students travel the campus unescorted. As students grow in self control, they spend increasing time in the community while supervised by staff or family. Close to graduation students need to spend time with far less supervision to “field test” how well they have learned and internalized coping and problem solving skills. Most Island View students spend 20+ days of their stay “field testing” newly developed skills with family. Initial off campus time with family may consist of a few hours, while a fourth or fifth visit close to discharge, may be as long as 14 days including home school visits, routine chores, socializing with friends, etc. This bridging of treatment and community is essential and avoids the “set up”that comes with limited transitional opportunities in the community and home.
vs. the Ongoing Challenge for Change and Growth, or Both?
The best approach to treatment and change is to focus on the end goal, while providing incremental steps to reach that goal. A parent who wants their child to be a competitive baseball player is not likely to sign him up in the city’s recreational league where he rarely encounters stiff competition, and then hope he makes the college team in a few years. Ball player gets better by playing “up,” not “down” to competition. Mediocre pitching will not produce a great hitter. A parent may start their son in the city recreation, but then move him up to better competition in order for him to improve. Sometimes we see parents go to ridiculous lengths to smooth the bumps and obstacles on their child’s path to adulthood, essentially leaving them ill-equipped to negotiate the next steps of life. Island View works to avoid “false positives” in which a child looks good by merely complying with low level expectations in an isolated environment. The Island View milieu is a safe environment that protects each child from self-destruction, but it also provides ever increasing demands upon a student to “stretch” by raising the bar in terms of interpersonal effectiveness, emotional maturity, leadership, family responsiveness and academic productivity. Island View’s motto is: “We Demand Greatness, Not Compliance.”
In part, because of our size and the composition of the milieu arrangements, Island View can provide a small, supportive, family-like atmosphere as a child begins treatment, or in times of struggle, while also providing access to greater challenges, freedoms, and responsibilities in a rich, heterogeneous environment, more closely resembling the schools and communities to which he will eventually return following treatment. Thus, when the child arrives at Island View, he is asked to play in the “city recreation league,”but as he makes progress, the size of the program and other components (see following) can approximate the “big leagues” he will return to following treatment.