| New
Perspectives
- Apr, 1992 Issue |
Circle S Recovery
Ranch
Leavenworth, Washington
800-533-3046
Larry Stednitz's Visit
Western Youth Network
800-533-1877
A
Two-Month Substance Abuse Treatment Alternative
I arrived at Circle
S Ranch early Friday morning. When visiting and evaluating
treatment programs, I find attending staff meetings to be
a quick way to understand the attitudes, basic structure,
and comprehensiveness of a program. The Circle S has a staff
meeting daily to discuss the events of the evening, communicate
vital information, and to plan the day. The first information
I received was that staff was highly invested in their charges.
The staff was experienced, caring, and were obviously dedicated
to their work. Not only were they focused on the program for
the day, but were organizing trips for residents to see psychologists
for assessment, attend individual therapy sessions, and to
complete their physical examinations. This meeting was an
informal but effective clearing house to attend to comprehensive
assessment, individual and group treatment planning, and overall
clinical management of programs.
As the staff meeting
was winding down and the direction of the day set, the boys
gathered for their "Big Book Study" after cleanup and breakfast.
There was high anxiety today because the boys were anticipating
the ROPES course work that was to immediately follow. I was
able to participate in and observe the ROPES course for the
better part of the morning with the staff and the boys. This
experiential approach was extremely effective as virtually
all significant issues that the boys brought to program came
up within a very short two or three hours. Support, team work,
patience, personal trust issues, impulse behavioral problems,
and countless other issues were unfolding before our very
eyes. I personally learned on the log walk that I tried to
do too much on my own!
These activities
as well as the traditional Twelve-Step Minnesota Model elements
are key to the Circle S treatment of substance abuse among
young men ages 14-24. These elements require a high degree
of cooperation among multidisciplinary staff members, traditional
confrontational interventions and techniques, and focus on
the Twelve-Step Alcohol Anonymous Program. The more traditional
approaches involve process meetings, attendance at alcohol/narcotics
anonymous meetings, therapeutic work tasks, recreation, meditation,
and alcohol and drug education. These techniques are interwoven
and enhanced by the ROPES course work as well as wilderness
trips. All residents attend a 16-day wilderness program approximately
thirty days into treatment.
A careful integration
of all these components make Circle S an ideal short term
substance abuse intervention for adolescents who are chemically
dependent. It is my belief that all professionals working
with adolescents and young adults need to be aware of these
effective alternatives to traditional treatment of adolescents
who suffer from alcohol and drug abuse. The Circle S Ranch,
situated on 310 acres outside of Leavenworth, Washington,
is a model for this approach.
Copyright
© 1992, Woodbury Reports, Inc. (This article may be reproduced
without prior approval if the copyright notice and proper
publication and author attribution accompanies the copy.)
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