Adolescent

Residential Treatment For Adolescents

The East Mountain Youth Lodge (EMYL) on the Carrier Clinic® campus is an adolescent and teen residential treatment program for ages 13-18 with psychiatric and/or emotional difficulties. The program provides comprehensive 24-hour clinical, therapeutic, and educational treatment.

East Mountain Youth Lodge Mission

We understand that our residents are survivors not only of psychiatric, learning, and emotional difficulties, but often abuse, neglect, and violence as well. As such, they have developed coping strategies such as substance abuse, running away, defying rules and authority figures, even attempting suicide.

As part of our mission to create, promote and maintain a healing environment, we invite teens to put aside their past survival skills and learn new ways of coping and self-expression. We reinforce these newly-acquired skills with individual and group therapy, family education, therapeutic recreation, and day-to-day interactions with highly-trained staff.

The aim is to nurture emotional healing, provide social skill acquisition, and prepare our residents for a future in a less restrictive setting. Families are involved in each individual’s treatment from day one to ensure the opportunity to meet their four basic needs: Belonging, Mastery, Independence, and Generosity.

Our Facility

In an effort to individualize treatment and maximize the effectiveness of therapies, our young people are served in four distinct residential settings.

The Bear Lodge is our treatment program for a population of adolescent and teen males struggling with a combination of mental health, behavioral disorders, and co-occurring substance abuse disorders.

The Eagle Lodge is our program serving a population of adolescent and teen females with a behavioral focus on treatment. These young ladies struggle most prominently with oppositional, conduct disordered behavior including anger/aggression and co-occurring substance abuse disorders.

The Butterfly/Dragonfly Lodge serves a co-ed population of adolescent and teen females and males with more of a mental health focus of treatment. These teens more frequently struggle with depression, anxiety, psychosis, and self-harmful behaviors including self-mutilation and/or suicidal ideation, gestures, or attempts.

The Wolf Lodge is a co-ed population of adolescents and teens struggling with a combination of mental health, behavioral disorders, and more intense co-occurring substance abuse disorders.

The Sunflower & Lotus Lodges each serve adolescent and teen females who receive intense mental health treatment congruent with the regulations and expectations of a Psychiatric Community Home. Both programs embrace the following Wellness and Recovery belief statements that guide the care process:

• The key concepts of Wellness and Recovery are HOPE, SUPPORT, PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY, EDUCATION and SELF ADVOCACY.
• There is HOPE.
• People can and do get well, stay well for long periods of time and do what they want with their lives.
• Every person is treated with dignity, compassion, mutual respect and unconditional high regard at all times.
• The focus is on Strengths and away from perceived deficits.
• Each person is the expert on him/her self.
• There are no “limits” to recovery.

The Swan Lodge serves a co-ed population of teen men and women who have transitioned from various inpatient settings who need intense treatment services before returning home or to less restrictive settings. Swan Lodge residents present with the highest level of acuity/need.

Our Residents

Our residents include males and females age 13-18 with psychiatric, emotional and behavioral difficulties, most of whom have a history of failed placements elsewhere, and who have experienced multiple traumas such as sexual abuse, abandonment and loss. Many residents have been previously diagnosed with Conduct Disorder, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Depression, Anxiety, Impulse Control Disorder, Substance Abuse, and various other psychotic and personality disorders. Their behavioral histories could include property destruction, violence, anti-social behavior, stealing, defiance of authority, poor school attendance, illegal activity, running away and drug use/dealing.

Our Programs

All programs at provide 24-hour intensive residential services plus afford access to the full array of an adolescent continuum on campus, including a special education school program and an Adolescent Inpatient Unit if needed for acute crisis stabilization. East Mountain Youth Lodge provides individual, group and family therapy, psychiatric, and nursing services as well as education, recreation and adventure-based treatment, all aimed at building our resident’s strengths, coping mechanisms and preparing them to be successful in less restrictive settings.

We offer a comprehensive family treatment component, addiction treatment and volunteer experiences available to our young people as well. On the grounds, residents have the use of a full indoor gym, an outdoor in-ground pool, a softball field, tennis, basketball and volley ball courts, a game room, chapel, art room, hiking trails and a low ropes adventure treatment site. Specialized programs such as equine therapy further encourage teens to get in touch with their feelings and emotions, so they can better understand themselves and begin to heal.

Our Staff

The East Mountain Youth Lodge provides one direct care staff member for every four to five adolescents. Our clinical team includes a Board-certified psychiatrist, licensed clinical social worker, registered nurse, substance abuse counselor and residential counselor.

Youth Treatment Services

• Individual, family and group therapy with licensed clinical social workers
• Psychiatric consultation and medication monitoring
• 24-hour therapeutic milieu including Specialized addiction treatment
• NA/AA meetings in the community
• Daily social skills training groups
• Education at Carrier Clinic’s East Mountain Day School
• Pre-vocational training
• Individualized case management and discharge planning
• Physical fitness program includes camping, canoeing, hiking, rock climbing, swimming, trips to the beach, lakes, amusement parks and sporting events
• Year-round recreational activities are geared to expose residents to appropriate social interactions and cultural programs such as music, arts and crafts
• Adventure-based counseling
• Full Value Contract approach, peer intervention and group accountability
• Crisis intervention

Continuum of Care

As part of Carrier Clinic’s full continuum of care, residents have access to a wide array of additional services:

• Inpatient Care
• Lab Services
• Physical Therapy
• East Mountain School

Terms and Definitions

Stress: A feeling of tension or strain that can be caused by many different things, including the loss of a loved one or your job, health problems, being overloaded with things to do each day, etc. Too much stress can sometimes cause various physical and emotional changes, and requires treatment.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder: GAD is a condition where, for at least six months and without reason, you are worried, anxious or nervous, much more than is warranted for the event causing the worry or anxiety. While no sure cause is known, GAD usually appears after physical or emotional stress.

Bipolar Disorder: Also called manic depressive illness, this is a long-term mood disorder that causes mild to severe changes in mood and behavior. People with bipolar disorder have mood swings-sometimes you will feel manic (overly excited and active); other times very depressed (deeply sad). You can also feel both at once (mixed bipolar state).

Schizophrenia: A long-term mental disease that affects how your brain works. It can change how you think, feel and behave, affect your ability to know what is real and not real, cause your thoughts to be unclear, even jump from one topic to another. Delusions, hallucinations, disordered thinking and speech, emotional unresponsiveness are a few of the symptoms.

Schizoaffective Disorder: A mental illness that may change how you think, feel, and act around others. You may have symptoms of psychosis (loss of reality), along with symptoms of a mood problem, such as being depressed, manic or both. SAD is a long-term disease that could be caused by an imbalance in brain chemicals (neurotransmitters).

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: PTSD is a condition that occurs after suffering or facing a traumatic (hurtful) event that brings you much pain or sorrow. You may continue to feel helpless after the event, which may even make you think you will get hurt or die. These experiences are often repeated or re-lived, affecting your daily activities, work and relationships.