"Caring for the Caregivers" - A Unique Training Program Aimed at Training Youth Care Workers to Succeed with the Most At-Risk Teens

Our unique and effective staff training program allows our youth care workers to address the challenges of working with extremely at-risk-teens, those that are considered especially difficult because of their extreme levels of anxiety or violent behavior, including severely depressed teens whose behaviors are likely to harm themselves or others and may even be life threatening.

• We begin our training by teaching a concept we call "thinking the teen", a process by which the staff members learn to get into their heads and attempt to see the world from their eyes, what we call "observing from inside the pit".

• As the staff is taught to “enter” the teen’s head and is exposed to what we call a "radioactive space", the staff must have a singularly supportive training framework, an outlet for the staff member`s feelings and an opportunity to cleanse himself from the “radiation”. We will concentrate on the difference between these meetings and other standard meetings.

• We will then detail how we teach the staff to formulize an “internal position” and encourage their drive to succeed with these teens where all other treatment attempts failed them. Helping to uncover the “divine particles” in the staff member’s soul is the key to successfully treating the teen.

• We will address the importance of building a consistent work plan, which is different than just working in shifts and how it adds value to the staff’s work. Emphasis will be made on our belief that the 23 hours where the child is not receiving psychotherapeutic treatment are 23 therapeutic hours none the less, especially during those vulnerable times of the day when the teen suffered abuse as a younger child, such as shower time, meals and bed time.

• Finally we will discuss the effectiveness of this training on staff competency, longevity and on the rehabilitation of the most at-risk teens.