Roundel Residential

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Therapeutic Residential Treatment for Boys and Girls – Ages 10-15

The Roundel Residential Program serves boys and girls ages 10-15, in a therapeutic setting. The RR program uses a trauma-informed approach to provide youth-centered individual and family counseling, aftercare services, academic programming, life skills, and positive youth development activities to address behavioral health challenges.

The Roundel Residential Program utilizes specialized education services to address behavioral health challenges.

The Roundel Residential program began in 2018. Over 100 youth have been involved in the program since its founding. Our high-quality clinical and direct care work yields an enrollment that is individualized in length and determined by the treatment team.

Those completing the program and successfully returning home have been some of the highest-risk youth in Maine. In many cases, students who complete the program do better in school, are less likely to commit a crime, become more successful members of the community, and have more successful relationships with their families. Youth say the program has led them to greater self-awareness and has taught them how to communicate with others in a socially acceptable manner; leading to a successful return to the community setting.

In combining the relational model of Collaborative Problem Solving with the Restorative Justice model of accountability and responsibility for the impact of one’s choices on another with the goal of restoring both to wholeness, the program does more than consider one’s mental and/or behavioral health. It creates holistic and authentic connections with youth; achieving a high success rate with this extremely vulnerable population.

Youth are referred to Roundel Residential from a variety of sources, including crisis stabilization units, psychiatric hospitals, other residential treatment programs, foster and biological homes, and the Maine Department of Corrections. Roundel Residential is a Good Will-Hinckley program funded by state and federal Medicaid funds and the Maine Department of Health and Human Services.

Our Program

The clinical framework at GWH seeks to understand the complex interplay among human relationships, the mind, and the brain. It blends findings from various fields such as attachment, interpersonal neurobiology (IPNB), and psychology to illustrate and explain how personal experiences and interpersonal relationships direct the evolution and operational functions of the brain, which in turn imprints onto the emotional, social, and cognitive aspects of the youth. Treatment interventions and strategies are then formulated in a holistic and idiomatic style steeped in theory and practical applications for each youth and their family and informed by their existing, as well as aspirational community connections.

Once admitted, youth typically attend school in our campus day treatment program and participate in after-school enrichment programs. The focus varies, but key elements include mindfulness, emotional identification, and expression, exploring hobbies and “downtime” activities to add to their repertoire of things to do, healthy physical activity, and learning about age-appropriate development.

After these group exercises, the youth have dinner in the residence, do household tasks, participate in an evening activity and then return to their rooms for a wind-down activity. Treatment-focused groups, individual sessions, and family therapy sessions occur throughout the afternoon and on weekends. Weekends typically include family visits and earned outings for successful achievement during the week.

Services Provided

At intake, a licensed team of treatment providers will conduct a comprehensive diagnostic evaluation, which will include a historic as well as functional assessment of family relationships and dynamics, past and recent trauma history, evaluation of the attachment needs of the youth and caregivers, review of the medication and physical needs of the youth, and a complete records review of the youth’s academic strengths and deficit areas. This comprehensive data set is used to formulate the individualized plan that will be the focus while in the program. These plans are reviewed every ninety days with progress toward goals being measured through weekly individual, family, and group progress notes.

Daily evaluation of progress toward stated goals is measured and evaluated through the work of Behavioral Health Specialists who receive six hours of clinical supervision monthly from a licensed professional, as well as additional monthly hours of adjunctive training to enhance job performance and understanding of the youths and their families. The focus of these monthly supervisions is to provide practical skills for the staff to be able to intervene in dysfunctional patterns in developmentally appropriate ways and provide in-vivo life skills for the youth we serve. Monthly supervision also allows for a feedback loop to examine the appropriate “fit” of one intervention over another, as well as for future development of such skills.

The program also offers crisis stabilization and intervention, and case management beginning on the day of admission. Aftercare services are also offered for up to six months after a youth returns to the community setting.

There is a 24-hour on-call service with a licensed mental health clinician that provides the staff with extra support when needed.

Other services include:

  • Routine medical, dental and optical care
  • Psychiatric consultation, evaluation and medication management
  • Individual, family and group therapy
  • Parent Groups
  • Structured programming dedicated to building effective problem-solving skills and positive peer leadership
  • Specialized educational services

Clinical Models Offered

Trauma Focused-CBT, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Collaborative Problem Solving, Attachment Regulation and Competency (ARC), ARC Parent Curriculum, Modular Approach to Therapy for Children (MATCH), Triple-P Parenting Program, Somatic Therapy, Internal Family Systems and Parts Work, Polyvagal Theory, Aggression Replacement Training (ART), Cognitive Processing Therapy, Exposure and Response Prevention.