LifeWorks NW provides support for children with emotional, behavioral issues
By Sue Lyon-Myrick, Marketing coordinator, Lifeworks NW
Thanks to the new Children’s Day Treatment Program at LifeWorks NW, children like Jonah no longer have to battle alone against the day- to-day crises that come with these emotional and behavioral issues. |
Like other 9-year-old boys, Jonah enjoyed being active, but found it difficult to make friends.
He wanted to have fun, but on his terms. When things didn’t go his way, he threw rocks, screamed, and hit the walls – and his classmates. Gradually, others in his class stopped playing with him, which only made his behavior worse. Jonah constantly threw tantrums, and refused to participate in school, sometimes not showing up at all.
Social Service workers were called when it became clear that Jonah was not only a danger to others, but also to himself. They discovered that he was living in a house riddled with abuse and neglect. He was taken to a foster home, but his foster parents struggled with his violent behavior. Finally, he was taken to a 90-day residential evaluation program. The psychiatrists there realized that Jonah would succeed, if he only had some semblance of family support, so they recommended that he not be placed in residential care, but rather kept in a foster home, where they could give him the loving support he needed.
The doctors also recommended that he be placed in a psychiatric day treatment program, one that would give him the benefit of both intensive counseling and schooling. Because no such program existed in Washington County at the time, it was a daily struggle to keep him out of the hospital and in his foster family, until he reached an age where a day treatment program was available.
Thanks to the new Children’s Day Treatment Program at LifeWorks NW, children like Jonah no longer have to battle alone against the day-to-day crises that come with these emotional and behavioral issues.
In September, LifeWorks NW opened the first of two classrooms at our Tigard Child and Family Center. Our caring staff works with children just like Jonah, ages seven through 11, who aren’t making it in their homes and schools. The year-round program includes both schooling and therapy, including individual, group and family counseling, plus art and music therapy.
