Paint Rock Valley recognizes that family involvement is critical to your child’s success in treatment and beyond. Your family will have several avenues to promote changes in your relationships and level of support for one another.
This component of our program affords the family a way of breaking the old cycle of frustration and discouragement and to apply proven effective parenting and relationship-building skills when your child returns home.
Family Counseling. Family dynamics are crucial to understanding how to effectively change behaviors to maximize your family’s potential for success. Masters level clinicians guide your family in counseling sessions to address issues such as broken trust, effective communication, boundaries, family rules, and explorations of goals for the future. Sessions occur at 30-45 day intervals throughout your child’s stay, but can be more frequent when needed. These sessions are critical to a smooth transition to the home environment as your child works toward graduation from the program.
Family Communication. Many of the families that come to our program are having difficulty with effective and healthy communication with their son or daughter. Paint Rock Valley provides many structured and unstructured ways for your child to learn communication skills and practice them in your family. Each child calls home weekly with the time allotted for the call increasing as the child progresses through the program. These calls are monitored by a staff member who can assist your child with finding appropriate ways to communicate strong emotions. Students write letters home weekly, reviving a lost art of communication in families—the written word. Families on campus for support days participate in structured activities within the group that promote healthy communication as well.
Family Support Days. Every month the program hosts a Family Support Day where all families are invited on campus to interact in fun and therapeutic activities. Family members participate in multi-family counseling groups, art projects, adventure programming, and other activities designed to promote healthy and fun interactions between family members. Parents provide items for a potluck lunch during this fun and busy day. Many parents take this opportunity to strengthen their support network by interacting with other parents both on and off campus.
Training. Paint Rock Valley offers a variety of training opportunities for parents, including quarterly training sessions on campus and access to information on topics applicable to family problems. Staff provide lecture and interactive trainings on such topics as understanding the treatment process, communication in the family, parenting as a unit, dealing with oppositional behaviors, internet safety, issues of the adoptive family, dealing with depression and substance abuse. Parents are encouraged to submit other topics for trainings.
Parent and Sibling Stage System. The program provides a voluntary system for members of the family to set goals and move through a stage system that is similar to the student’s. This system provides more structure, guidance, and the opportunity for your family to make changes that will benefit all members. The campus celebrates these accomplishments in the same way as the accomplishments of the students. This is a great way to bring siblings together and promote a sense of unity and common goals in your family.
Visits. Families are afforded the opportunity to interact with their child several times a month through attendance at Family Support Days, family counseling sessions, and on structured visits on or off campus. The more your child can test the skills he or she has learned with the family, the more comfortable he or she will be using these skills in life beyond treatment. Students begin their visits with their families with an on-campus experience. Visits progress each month toward visits in the home environment for a few days at a time and finally, near the end of your child’s stay in the program, he or she may be coming home for a week at a time to practice new skills and begin planning for a transition home. Students and families plan these visits with their assigned clinician and set goals to promote progress toward treatment goals. Program staff are available by phone for consultation and assistance during visits. Families are encouraged to take advantage of these many opportunities to witness the changes in their child.
Message Board. Paint Rock Valley hosts a secure message board that allows families to communicate and interact virtually with program staff and other families. This message board is a source of information about upcoming events, training resources, and support for parents who are either struggling or celebrating accomplishments in their child’s treatment or in their family’s journey. Many parents find this resource invaluable to their understanding of the process of treatment as well as to the building of a support network of other parents who understand their unique circumstances.
Communication with Staff. Program staff are available to speak with families by phone or in person before, during, and after your child’s stay. The clinician that works with your family is the designated liaison for parents with the treatment team, however, many other staff members are available to consult with parents as needed, including the nurse, psychiatrist, psychologist, academic staff, and program leadership. Parents can expect updates on progress in treatment in both verbal and written form, consultation about medical issues including medication adjustments, and periodic newsletters or information directly from the students. Parents are also invited to participate in a treatment team meeting about their child and can arrange this through their clinician. As well as being available by phone, each member of the professional staff has email access for the convenience of the parents. Many of the professional staff are available to consult with parents on Family Support Days.
Parent of a Three Springs student
"Paint Rock Valley feels that family relationships and parent involvement are important to treatment. We have an open relationship with our clinician and I feel we are working on the issues with my son as a team. Parents are encouraged to talk to each other via a secure message board. Every month the program has a family support day and the boys group and their families spend the day together. This is a wonderful opportunity to get to know the boys in a group, to see how they interact with each other and to meet and talk with the other parents. I have found it incredibly helpful to meet other parents who have had similar struggles."
