The START program has been specifically designed by Woods to treat children and adolescents diagnosed with autism and experiencing intensive behavioral and/or psychiatric symptoms. Symptoms can include, but are not limited to aggression, self-injurious behaviors, elopement, and noncompliance.
Admission criteria include:
- Axis I diagnosis of autistic disorder
- Age between 6 and 21
- Presence of significant barriers to continued placement in family home (typically evidenced as aggression, self-injury, or property destruction)
- Ability to benefit from the treatment offered in our program, as judged by our clinical staff via an assessment conducted prior to admission
- We anticipate co-morbid intellectual disability in most clients, but this is neither an admission criteria nor an exclusion criteria.
- We anticipate that many clients will have other Axis I disorders co-morbid with autistic disorder, but these are neither and admission criteria nor an exclusion criteria.
Goals, Objectives, and Expected Outcomes
The purpose of the Pinewood Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facility is to create the changes in both child and parent behavior via therapeutic intervention that will enable a child to return to life in the family home. Ultimately, the only socially valid measure of program success is whether the children return to their homes.
Our specific program objectives are:
- Through therapeutic intervention, reduce the rate of identified target behaviors that functionally serve as barriers to placement in a less restrictive setting.
- Instruct parents in the therapeutic strategies developed by the treatment team.
- Place the child in the family home with supports sufficient to enable the child’s continued placement in that setting.
Of course, while the overarching goal of family reunification is the primary goal for all children in treatment, the objective steps the child and family take to achieve that goal will be individualized based on the behavioral presentation and needs of the child and/or family.
Treatment Approaches:
- Evidence-Based Behavior Therapy
- Environmental Modification
- Psychiatry
- Individual, Group, and Family Therapy/Parent Training
- Occupational, Physical, and Speech/Communication Therapy
- Recreational Therapy
- Health Services
- Educational/Vocational Services
START Clinical Team:
- Clinical Program Director
- Medical Director
- Board Certified Behavior Analyst
- Psychiatric Social Worker
- Certified Special Education Instructor
- Registered Nurse
- Occupational, Physical, and Speech Therapist
