Birch House Facility #236890052
Opening in October 2019, Birch House is a Center-Based Complex Care program that serves youth aged 7 to 17 who have severe symptoms and/or behaviors. The acuity of these symptoms, which are characterized as self-destructive and self-sabotaging, prevent these youth from being able to access Intensive Services Foster Care Programs or traditional STRTP milieu settings. Youth that require a Center-Based Complex Care placement need safety, structure, routine, clear expectations, and effective therapeutic interventions. Underlying these basic components of an effective treatment program must be a shared philosophy that values engagement and a positive relationship with youth. At Birch house, staff view a youth’s problematic behavior as an attempt to survive and/or gain control of chaotic and scary situations and/or get their wants and needs met. Behavioral interventions focus on: 1) identifying with youth what is happening emotionally, behaviorally, and socially, 2) clarifying, with youth what he or she is trying to accomplish and 3) offering options and support so that the youth can utilize more effective methods for getting their wants and needs met. Birch House holds the view that behavior problems are established and maintained by negative reinforcement in which dysfunctional externalizing behaviors by youth are inadvertently reinforced by negative parent & youth interactions and/or other shaping elements from their social environment.
