ASSESSMENT PROCESS FOR ADOLESCENTS AND YOUNG ADULTS:

It all begins with you. As parents, you are an essential and integral part of the treatment team. When you call Recovery Counselling Services, you will speak with our Parent Therapist. After ensuring that we are the right place for you to be, an appointment will be made to meet with you on your own. An hour and a half will be set aside to go over your son/daughter’s personal, medical, social and mental health history. You will receive support to assist you in helping your son/daughter connect with one of our team members who specialize in working with this age group.

An appointment will be made with your son/daughter. You may be asked into the appointment for a few minutes to clarify your concerns. Then the remainder of the appointment will be to meet, dialogue and begin the assessment process. This two hour appointment is designed to engage an individual in the assessment process and as an opportunity for the counsellor to get to know your son/daughter and to begin to develop a supportive relationship between them and the counsellor in an environment of safety and comfort.

In your son/daughter’s second visit with their counsellor, they will receive feedback on the results of the assessment. They will have had some pen and paper homework to complete and with that information, the counsellor and your son/daughter begin the treatment planning.

In the third visit, you, the parent therapist, your son/daughter and the counsellor, will meet to review the findings of the assessment and go over a letter of understanding which contains the recommended treatment plan, the course of action that your son/daughter is prepared to engage in and a brief overview of the assessment.

Your son/daughter will continue to see their counsellor on a weekly basis (more/less if indicated) and if they are committed to staying clean, they will be invited to our youth support group. This group gives your son/daughter an opportunity to have a sober peer group, receive support from peers who understand their struggle and to develop new friendships with other young people who wish to be clean and sober. After six weeks a family progress meeting will take place to evaluate the course of the treatment protocol.

Sometimes an inpatient programme is the best next step. We are expert in matching clients with the most appropriate centre's either in Ontario, Canada or internationally. We are part of a comprehensive network of preeminent treatment providers and recovery experts. We will work with you and your young person to help facilitate the referral process and choosing the best place for them to go.

PARENT GROUP:

As previously stated, you are an essential part of the treatment team. As such it is important that parents learn new skills in helping to support healthy recovery choices and how to support behaviours that are destructive to the recovery process. The weekly group is designed to provide a therapeutic and supportive forum for parents of teens and young adults who may or may not be in recovery. Parents & guardians report that they felt they were alone until they joined this group and began addressing specific issues common to families in early recovery.

We find the when parents attend group, that the adolescent or young adult receiving treatment do better than those whose parents are not involved in the process. Attendance at parent support groups or one to one counselling with our Parent Therapist is part of the treatment plan for your son or daughter.