Individual and Family

Addictions

Whole Life Juvenile

Community Services

Services to Business
 
 
 
 

At Family and Community Services, the good we do shows in how we help people.  Here are some examples*:
 

• Justin is a 16 year-old high school student. When he started therapy at our agency six months ago, he was about to drop out of high school. Justin had almost 3 years of severe truancy problems and with this, a very negative reputation at his school. He had managed to alienate himself from most of his teachers and the administration at his school. As a result of his truancy, Justin had been in court and to the Youth Shelter. His family had been forced to pay a great deal of money on fines. None of these consequences appeared to have any effect on him. At the time he joined treatment, Justin did not seem to care anymore about changing things at school and was ready to give up. Justin would have been the first member of his family to drop out of school. His parents are successful professionals who tried to provide him with counseling, emotional support and exposure to academic opportunities. They did not know what else to do to help their son. Justin had been in treatment with many therapists over the past three years and never seemed to “click” with any of them. He appeared to be uninterested in treatment but was willing to attend in order to placate his parents. Over the course of four months, Justin made some very significant changes. With the assistance of a guidance counselor at school, he managed to change his schedule and move into classes with several new teachers. He was granted a chance at a work-study program and worked in the local supermarket. Justin loved working and quickly found he was confident and competent in his job. This seemed to make school a little bit easier to manage. Justin attended therapy appointments regularly and seemed to benefit from a non-biased listener whose goal was to motivate and encourage him. He also became aware that he had been depressed for a few years and followed through with strategies to relieve his depression. Since this time, Justin has managed to attend school regularly and improve his relationship with school officials. His self esteem, attitude, and judgment has improved. While he recognizes that the struggle is not over and there continues to be challenging days, Justin feels he is back on track. He plans to graduate next year and will consider a community college.

• A man was suicidal because he had lost his job, his home, and even his wife and children as a result of his problems with drinking and gambling. He received services from our addictions and mental health counselors as well as our psychiatrist. He came to realize that his addictions were a disease and that he could take control over his actions in dealing with his illness. He is now sober and has gone many months without placing a bet. As he recently said, "The worst day I had since I stopped drinking and was better than the best day that I had when I was in my addictions." He is employed again, also less depressed, and working on moving ahead in life in a healthier manner."

• The W. Family had a number of problems. Mr. W. was referred to us because of allegations of domestic violence. Alcoholism was a problem for both Mr. and Mrs. W; their teenage daughter had a problem with truancy and her behavior. Treatment included individual counseling for the husband to address the spousal abuse issue, substance abuse assessments and counseling for both parents, and later couples counseling started after the issues of spouse abuse and substance abuse were sufficiently dealt with. The daughter also received individual counseling from a separate counselor who specialized in working with adolescents. There was also much collaboration between the therapists and outside community resources. In the past several months there has been no domestic violence or drinking in the W. Family, and their daughter is attending school regularly and doing well academically. 

*All names and some other details have been adjusted to insure privacy.