brooklawn
child &
family services
PURPOSE. Brooklawn
Child & Family Services, founded in 1851, is a private, not-for-profit
LICENSURE
AND PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS. Brooklawn is
licensed as both a Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facility and Child Caring
Residential Treatment Facility by the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family
Services. Brooklawn is an approved
Medicaid provider, and is also utilized extensively by the Department for
Community Based Services. Brooklawn is a
POPULATIONS
SERVED. Brooklawn’s community based pro-grams serve
IMPACT Plus eligible clients, families referred under contract by the
Department for Community Based Services, and other children and families.
Brooklawn’s residential programs serve emotionally and behaviorally troubled
boys ages 6 to 17 without regard to race, creed, or national origin. Children referred to Brooklawn exhibit
moderate to severe emotional disturbances and behavioral problems. Residents’ treatment issues may include
depression, oppositional defiant disorder, attention deficit disorder, learning
problems, chemical dependency or sex offenses.
FACILITIES. Brooklawn is
located on a beautiful 25-acre campus in an attractive suburban neighborhood,
easily accessible by expressway and close to community schools, library and
shopping centers. The scenic acreage is
distinguished by a quiet stream which flows through the grounds and gives the
agency its name. The facilities include
a new school and gymnasium, ten housing options for residents, numerous
playgrounds, athletic facilities, and administrative and clinical offices.
ADMISSIONS. To make a
referral or explore treatment options at Brooklawn, contact us as follows: Phone (502) 451-5177; Administration
Fax (502) 451-0896; Admissions & Referral Fax (502) 479-5609; Clinical Fax
(502) 515-0464; E-mail ➟ referrals@brooklawn.net
or info@brooklawn.net. Jeff Brown
is the Admissions Coordinator.
COMMUNITY
BASED PROGRAMS.
Family Skills
Program. The Family Skills
Program provides home-based support services to families through a contract
with the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Families. Families are referred to the program by the
Department for Community Based Services with the goal of preventing out of home
placements. Brooklawn employs five
Family Support Workers who work
primarily in the home with families who are at risk for separation due
to neglect or abuse issues. Family Support Workers serve as advocates for
families with other agencies such as the courts and schools, and provide
linkages for families to needed services, such as medical or mental health
care. In the home, Family Support
Workers provide training and modeling to parents in effective communication and
discipline with children, meeting the educational needs of their children,
financial management, housekeeping and other needed parenting skills. They also help parents pursue employment or
career counseling and education. The average length of service provided to
clients in this program is six months.
Active Parenting. Educational curriculum titled Active
Parenting Now and Active Parenting of Teens are utilized in our
parenting skills building programs. The Family Based Program Manager is a
trainer for both active parenting programs. The Family Support Workers in the
Family Skills Program have been trained in the parenting skills building
programs and are able to facilitate sessions with parents individually or in a
group setting. Both active parenting
programs are offered to clients in the Family Skills Program. These group
parenting skills building sessions are also available to community agencies and
schools for a fee.
Dare to Care Food Bank. Brooklawn
maintains a Dare to Care Food Bank for the benefit of the families served
through our Community Based Programs.
Case Management and Therapeutic Child Support. The Case
Coordinators provide IMPACT Plus Service Coordination for IMPACT Plus approved
cases. The goal of this program is to
prevent institutionalization and to reduce the lengths of stays in psychiatric
hospitals and PRTFs. In many cases, a
child in residential treatment receives case coordination services through
IMPACT Plus and a Brooklawn Case Coordinator follows the case after the child
is discharged, arranging for additional aftercare services by Brooklawn through
appropriate community mental health agencies, or other service providers. Brooklawn also provides Therapeutic Child
Support which is an IMPACT Plus service similar to in-home wraparound, but with
a stronger clinical component.
Foster Care. Brooklawn maintains an affiliation with
Maryhurst and the New Beginnings Foster Care programs for the placement of
Brooklawn residents exiting residential treatment. These agreements provide
for both pre-placement and post discharge clinical support.
Outpatient Counseling. In specific
cases, residents or families may want or need to continue individual or family
therapy at the agency after the child has been discharged. This is especially true when the child and
family come from a geographic region with few counseling resources, or when the
child’s situation presents special needs which cannot be addressed by local
counseling providers. In these
instances, Brooklawn therapists have the capacity to serve as the aftercare
counselor to the child and family, on a limited, case-by-case basis. In these cases, special arrangements need to
be made with the family for transportation, scheduling, and payment for
outpatient aftercare counseling sessions.
When the family is also being provided services by IMPACT Plus, Medicaid
will cover the costs of outpatient counseling if the Brooklawn therapist is a
Licensed Clinical Social Worker or other independent practitioner.
CAMPUS
BASED RESIDENTIAL TREATMENT PROGRAMS.
Overview. Brooklawn offers a continuum of residential
treatment options. The Brooklawn model of treatment is an integrative,
interdisciplinary, systems based approach that seeks to bring about positive
change in the lives of emotionally and behaviorally troubled boys, and their families,
by addressing their biological, psychological, and social needs. Each resident’s care is guided by an
individualized treatment plan of individual, family, and group psychotherapy;
residentially based behavior modification; medical/nursing services; social and
cultural activities; and educational services.
The core of these therapies is the relationship
between the treatment staff and the child.
These various modalities of treatment combine to promote healing,
improved family and social relationships, higher self-confidence, positive
behavior, and enhanced self-esteem and are delivered from a strengths based
approach in a culturally relevant manner.
More specifically:
✦ Individual
and family therapy at Brooklawn is guided by integrated theoretical
approaches, with the specific modality being matched to the specific needs of
each client and may include Cognitive/Behavioral, Psychodynamic, Family
Systems, Narrative, Reality, Play, and/or Humanistic therapies.
✦ Group
therapy is primarily from a psycho-educational perspective and seeks to
develop enhanced skills in the areas of mood, behavior, and impulse management;
social skills; and family dynamics.
✦ Brooklawn’s residentially
based behavior modification program, called Strategies Toward
Effective Problem Solving or STEPS, emphasizes
developing new, more successful behaviors to replace previously unsuccessful
behaviors. STEPS prioritizes
repetition, reinforcement, relationships, and personal responsibility.
✦ Medical/Nursing
services ensure that each resident’s health care and medication needs are
monitored and addressed with the highest quality of care.
✦ Social
and cultural activities help to address the developmental needs of
residents for exposure to, and appreciation of, diverse ethnic, cultural, and
religious traditions.
✦ Educational
services through Brooklawn’s school, which is staffed by
Treatment Teams. Brooklawn’s interdisciplinary
treatment staff function as a team to provide comprehensive and integrated
services to residents. The treatment
staff is comprised of highly skilled professionals who utilize the latest technology
within their various fields. The staff
includes board certified psychiatrists, clinical social workers, an art
therapist, psychological associates, marriage and family therapists, nurses,
special education teachers, recreation leaders, a chaplain, and child care
staff. Brooklawn’s clinical department
includes therapists who specialize in the treatment of sex offenders, sexually
reactive children, trauma recovery, chemical dependency, and severely oppositional
children.
Child and Family Involvement. Each child
participates in the development of his own treatment plan and attends treatment
team meetings to share input and questions personally with the team. Residents’ family members and community
workers are also important members of the treatment team whose input is invited
and encouraged through their attending treatment planning meetings, family
therapy sessions and family education programs.
Whenever possible, residents’ treatment plans include
arrangements for therapeutic passes to their home and community, or to
surrogate family options for children without families. For children with families, letters, phone
calls and on-campus family visits are routine parts of the children’s family
service plans, as deemed appropriate, to support each child’s treatment goals.
Brooklawn’s social service and case management staff
are often involved in making recommendations to the Department for Community
Based Services for foster home or group home placement for residents after they
leave Brooklawn. In these cases, the
treatment team works closely with potential foster parents or other aftercare
providers to ensure the child’s smooth transition to new living arrangements.
Interdisciplinary Staff Functioning. All staff are
highly skilled and trained child care or treatment professionals. Primary
therapists are all licensed, graduate level practitioners and most residential
workers hold bachelor’s degrees.
Additionally, Brooklawn administers an in-house staff development and
training program and a career ladder promotional system through which staff are
supported in obtaining further training and advancement in their respective
professions.
Clinical Services
Individual
and Family Therapy. The most important element in each child’s
treatment at Brooklawn is the close, supportive relationships between the
child, his primary therapist and other key treatment staff, especially
residential workers. Each child receives
individual therapy at least once weekly, as well as group therapy several times
weekly. Whenever possible, residents
also receive family therapy as indicated by the family’s needs and ability to
attend, generally either weekly or bi-monthly.
Through their counseling experiences with a licensed
therapist, children address and work through past conflicts, traumas and other
difficulties which have resulted in emotional and behavioral problems. The close teamwork between therapists and
other interdisciplinary staff provides for maximum integration between
residents’ therapy and other learning experiences in school and on their living
units.
Special Groups for Special Needs. Beyond
individual and milieu therapy experiences, children benefit greatly from the
rich array of group therapy options Brooklawn offers. Brooklawn staff are constantly developing new
specialty groups to address residents’ changing needs. Specialty groups occur in nine-week cycles
corresponding to the school grading periods. Children normally cycle into new
groups at the end of each nine-week period, although in specific instances a
child may continue in the same group for an additional nine weeks if he has
additional issues to address in that group.
Some of
the specialty groups most commonly offered include:
✦ Orientation
Group: This beginning group teaches
new residents what to expect and how to be a responsible participant in therapy
groups.
✦ Grief and
Loss: This intensive therapy group
explores feelings of loss and closure needs for children who have experienced
death, abandonment or other forms of separation from loved ones.
✦ The Self
Control Patrol: This behavioral
group focuses on teaching participants with attentional or other learning
problems how to focus and increase their attention span and impulse control.
✦ Anger
Management: This cognitive group
helps participants to recognize and channel their anger to more safe and
socially acceptable means of expression.
✦ Chemical
Dependency Education and Support:
This psycho-educational group teaches members basics about the disease
concept of chemical dependency and the progressive cycle of addiction, as well
as principles of recovery and relapse prevention.
✦ Sexual
Abuse Survivors: This intensive
therapy group provides a safe and supportive setting for participants to
revisit and resolve their experiences and feelings as victims of sexual abuse
or exploitation.
✦ Morality,
Empathy and Community: This
spirituality group, led by the campus chaplain, helps members with histories of
under-socialization or conduct problems to develop an increased sense of
interpersonal connectedness and social responsibility.
✦ Social
Living Group: This behavioral group,
co-led by residential workers and therapists, focuses on enhancing daily group
living experiences in the children’s residential units. Residents learn to more
effectively manage conflicts and build positive relationships. The goal of this
group is to improve how residents relate to peers and adults in a
community living environment.
Aftercare Services. Every Brooklawn resident
receives a thorough assessment of aftercare needs and part of the child’s
individual treatment plan is a clear aftercare plan. When the child is
committed to the Department for Community Based Services, the child’s DCBS worker
normally assists him in obtaining needed aftercare through community mental
health, medical or other service providers.
Whatever aftercare the child’s individual circumstances call for, Brooklawn
staff make the necessary referrals and outline follow-up care needs on the
child’s discharge form, which is signed and circulated to parents, DCBS,
IMPACT Plus workers and/or other involved parties.
Case Coordination. Case coordination consists of management of each
resident’s case from admission to discharge, and interfacing with all members
involved in each resident’s care. Case
Coordinators assist with admission to Brooklawn and provide discharge planning
for residents, working with families and state workers to establish appropriate
services for each resident. Aftercare
calls are made on all discharged residents two weeks, two months, and four
months after discharge to evaluate progress.
Medical/Nursing Services. Medical and
nursing services are directed by a Board Certified Child and Adolescent
Psychiatrist and attended by an additional Board Certified Child
Psychiatrist. Registered Nurses are
available on campus or on-call at all times.
A Transportation Aide schedules and accompanies residents to medical
appointments in the community.
Board Certified Pediatricians attend to general
medical care including immunization updates, physical exams, care of illnesses,
and referrals to specialists as indicated.
Brooklawn medical or nursing staff refer when needed to the medical
center in downtown
