Mental Health Services

SCYAP MENTAL HEALTH

What are Mental Health Services?

Mental Health Services are planned, face-to-face therapeutic interactions between a trained and qualified clinical professional and the client or a family unit. Mental Health Services at SCYAP use a range of clinical techniques, strategies, and modalities depending on the recipient’s needs and diagnosis, and are aimed at:

Helping the client family, or group achieve and maintain stability.
Improving the mental and emotional health of the client or family and assisting them to cope or gain control over the symptoms and effects of their illness or life stressors.

Mental Health Services can be delivered in a SCYAP Family Services Clinic, in the client’s home, or in a school-based setting, and are made available to the client or family at times that are most convenient to them.

SCYAP Mental Health Services Referral Form

Available Services

Individual Therapy

Individual therapy can be used to assist the individual in identifying maladaptive behaviors and cognitions, identifying more adaptive alternatives, and learning to use those new adaptive behaviors and cognitions.

Positive outcomes of individual therapy include:

Learning and practicing adaptive coping and problem solving skills; Promoting cognitive and emotional development;
Resolving inner conflicts or dysfunctional thinking; Learning to express feelings in an appropriate manner; and
Improving ability to relate to others and developing healthy relationships.

Family Therapy

Family therapy involves face-to-face clinical mental health services that are facilitated by a specially trained mental health clinician and members of a family unit. In family therapy, the clinician assists the family members with identifying maladaptive interaction patterns between family members and developing competence in utilizing more adaptive patterns of interaction. Family members are assisted in understanding and improving the ways in which they interact and communicate with each other. Treatment is focused on changing the family dynamics by revealing areas of strength and reducing and managing conflict. The goal of family therapy is to get family members to recognize and address problem areas by establishing roles that promote autonomy and individual membership while maintaining a sense of family cohesion and solidarity and rebuilding positive family relationships.

Behavioral Health Screening

The purpose of a Behavioral Health Screening (BHS) is to provide early identification of behavioral health issues and to facilitate appropriate referral for either a more focused/detailed assessment and/or for treatment. BHS is designed to identify behavioral health issues and/or the risk of the development of behavioral health problems. BHS is conducted using a standardized clinical assessment tool through client interviews and/or self-report.

Medication Monitoring

Medication monitoring is conducted via a Board Certified Psychiatrist to assess and reassess the need for medication, continuation of medication, and/or change of medication, to educate the client about his/her medication, to determine any physiological and/or psychological effects of medication(s) on the client, and to monitor the client’s compliance with his/her medication regime.

Crisis Management

A crisis may be thought of as a dramatic emotional or circumstantial upheaval in individual or family’s life. Those experiencing a crisis event may have reactions consisting of psychological, behavioral, and/or even physiological symptoms accompanied by marked deterioration of functioning. The purpose of Crisis Management (CM) is to assist the individual or family in restoring his or her or their level of functioning. This is accomplished by: (1) evaluating the nature of the problem and determining the recipient’s mental, psychological, and/or medical status; (2) ensuring the safety of the recipient and others; (3) providing reassurance and support; (4) assisting the recipient in developing an action plan that can be used to mitigate the crisis, minimizes distress and prevent similar incidents in the future; and (5) following up with the recipient and other relevant persons to ensure follow-through, assess progress, and provide additional mental health services and support as needed, including referral to available community resources.

Diagnostic Assessment

The purpose of a Diagnostic Assessment (DA) is to determine the need for mental health services, to establish or confirm a diagnosis (diagnoses), to assist in the development of an individualized plan of care based upon the individual’s strengths and deficits, and/or to assess progress in and need for continued treatment. A DA includes evaluation of clinical considerations of the individual’s general physical, developmental, family, social, psychiatric, and psychological history and current condition and also include information on strengths, vulnerabilities, and needed mental and other services.