Residential Treatment Program for Teen with Depression/Trauma

We are seeking a short term residential treatment program for our 16 year old daughter who has been struggling with depression, anxiety and, more recently trauma from a sexual assault. We feel completely lost on how to find the best place for her for a 30-45 day treatment. I have a free consultation appoitnment with an educational consultant, but I'm not sure if I really need a consultant if I can find recommendations for a good residential program in the Bay Area. Is anyone familiar with Paradigm residential program in San Rafael? Can anyone recommend an educational consultant in the area to help me figure out where to place my daughter? If you have other recommendations of programs, I would love to hear about them. We are less concerned with substance abuse issues than the trauma, depression and anxiety our daughter is dealing with. I'm a little wary of a mixed gender group given her assault experience, but I don't know if there are single gender programs in the area. We feel desperate- any help or advice is welcome.

Parent Replies

New responses are no longer being accepted.

I’m sorry that you and your daughter are in this situation. It’s incredibly hard. We had a good experience with Evolve Treatment Centers. They have several locations in CA, including in the Bay Area. Our daughter went in Augora Hills (near LA). Her therapist and the other staff were excellent. They now have more programs in the Bay Area, including outpatient programs that she could transition to after residential. 
Evolve took our insurance, but we had to fight for them to continue to cover it after about 3 weeks. 

Our child went to Paradigm in San rafael and later in Malibu. We were very satisfied with the programs and the staff. We were able both times to get a single case agreement to get insurance to pay out of network. We use Jennifer Taylor of JetEdConsulting.  She is based in Marin. She has been effective and supportive for us. The only single gender place I am familiar with is Center for Discovery and I would not recommend them at all. They are Behavioral based, meaning EVERYTHING is based on behavior and they do not address underlying issues. 

Have you tried going through your medical insurance?  Medical insurance will provide short-term residential treatment (30 - 90 days) for various mental health issues.  You do have to push hard for it.  A new law took effect this year; the California Mental Health Parity Act.  Where most medical insurance has to provide equal access to any mental health treatment as they would for any physical ailment.  Sometimes they already have contracts with the residential treatment program, and sometimes you would have to go out of network to get it.  By following your medical insurance's appeal process, you can get this covered.   One of the things that will help, is getting a written statement from one of your daughter's care team, stating the need for treatment.

I Have heard good things about Paradigm.  I do think it's worth using an ed consultant  because they should know many of the prgrams directly. I used Jennifer Taylor at Jeted consulting and found her to be knowledgable and helpful.

I'm so sorry that your daughter is going through such personal trauma.

Is it an option for her and your family to have her stay at home + get treatment from a local therapist several times a week, similar to an RTC in intensity?

A therapist well-versed in the latest methodologies for treating trauma and do EMDR, IFS therapy, Somatic Experiencing Therapy is key for processing and clearing it from the body and mind.

Sending our child out of state to an RTC to get help ended up causing additional trauma, though there was no way for us to have predict that at the time. The consequent trauma of abandonment as she experienced it, had to be addressed prior to treating the initial trauma, lol. We see now that being sent far away + removed from the comforts of home and friends was a double-trauma.

Your situation is unique of course and IDK the particulars.

HTH

Hello.  I am sorry to hear that your daughter is struggling.  We are checking my daughter into Paradigm in Malibu tomorrow.  We live in the East Bay and would have taken a spot at San Rafael or Malibu, just wanted first available. I have heard mostly positive feedback about Paradigm.  

This will be our daughter's second residential treatment program. My daughter suffered from suicidal ideation and was placed on 5150 holds multiple times in 2020.  My husband and I became so desperate that we took advice from our daughter's therapist and psychiatrist at the time, and decided to send her to residential treatment. Evolve in Gilroy and Danville had immediate openings and we decided to move forward with Gilroy.  She was miserable the entire time. It was a punitive program and the director and therapist led us to believe that our daughter was the problem and was not cooperating. We eventually brought her home and she was really no better. Our daughter reported that several staff members were mean to her. For example; one told her she would go to hell if she was not a vegetarian and ate animal protein.  She claims a staff member threw food on the floor in the kitchen and then told her to clean it up.  Last week, a social worker from the state of California called me.  Another family has filed a complaint regarding Evolve in Gilroy.  I participated in the interview and shared what my daughter had told us over the past year.  I feel incredibly guilty that we sent my daughter to Evolve. I am hoping by posting our story here, this will help at least one family make a more informed decision than we did.

As far as consultants, my understanding is that they are more useful for therapeutic boarding school or wilderness program placement.

These are difficult decisions.  Best of luck to your family.