A unique aspect of Fairwind’s treatment approach is our Young Person’s Program, designed to provide a specialized approach to patients who are in the age range of 18-25 (ish). The “ish” allow us to individually evaluate patients who are older than 25 but for a variety of reasons will benefit from being in the Young Person’s Program. Patients in the Young Person’s Program attend specific groups 4 days per week which are co-facilitated by the Clinical Director and the Senior Therapist, both of whom are very experienced working with this population.
Why have a Young Person’s Program?
Today’s young adults face a world with many changing and challenging realities. We find more and more younger people continuing to live at home for a variety of reasons which makes the maturation process longer and often more difficult. Also, many younger people are reluctant to share personal problems with persons they do not feel understand them or they relate to.
Everything about the Young Person’s Program is designed to promote self-esteem, teach self-discipline and encourage personal responsibility. Of course, these are all principles of recovery which must be emphasized not just as critical elements of learning to live a sober lifestyle but also to help young people begin to fully achieve their potential. Too many of our younger patients have experienced too much failure in their lives. Our job here at Fairwinds is to do all we can to help them to turn that around in a positive direction.
Another very important component of the Young Person’s Program is the family program. We work very hard with family members and significant others to help them to develop realistic expectations and learn some new ways of interacting with their loved one. In both individual family therapy and group therapy it’s critically important that family members seek recovery for themselves and learn that addiction and mental health problems are NOT THEIR FAULT! Excessive emotions such as anger, guilt, anxiety and depression are all very counterproductive to living a happy and healthy life, both for the families and our young people. There is a better way and our goal is to share that with as many people as we can and continue to reinforce and support this new lifestyle.
