Ellenhorn Announces New Adolescent Program

Ellenhorn's Innovative Adolescent Program is now accepting referrals.

Serving teenagers aged 14 to 18 years old, the Adolescent Program "is ideal for adolescents with multiple psychiatric issues who are often hard to reach with traditional outpatient models," says Carlene MacMillan, MD, Medical Director of the Adolescent Program at Ellenhorn PACT NY. Through the program, teens and their families receive intensive treatment within their own community.

"Using the same PACT team-based services delivery as we do with adult clients, we're working with young people within their family system and at school," says MacMillan. "As part of our work with teens, we also provide intensive family therapy."

The program is a "natural extension of the Ellenhorn philosophy of psychosocial reintegration into a person's community," says Christopher Mooney, LCSW, Clinical Director of Ellenhorn PACT NY. "Offering more support than standard programs, it helps teens stay in their homes and schools while they recover from psychiatric issues."

Adolescents and their families receive services from a multidisciplinary PACT team of licensed clinicians, whose members include a psychiatrist, nurse, psychologist, social workers and vocational/educational coach.

"There's a real need for this program -- there's nothing like it in the city," says Mooney. "We're working to address serious, complex psychiatric issues at their root in a way that avoids sending youngsters away for care. We love seeing teenagers restored to health and well-being where they live, and where they want to be."

Innovative Use of the AMBIT Therapeutic Approach

Adolescent Program clinicians are using AMBIT -- Adolescent Mentalization-Based Integrative Treatment -- an effective approach developed specifically for hard-to-reach adolescents at the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families in London, and widely used in Europe. A core component is the development of a trusting relationship between the teenager and a designated member of the treatment team. "Teens with complex problems tend to interface with many agencies, and treatment becomes fragmented," says MacMillan. Adds Mooney, "When that happens, the client isn't understood fully by any one person, and doesn't have a voice in their own treatment. AMBIT corrects that."

AMBIT incorporates principles and practices of Mentalization-Based Treatment (MBT), an evidence-based approach to addressing suicidality and self-harm, as well as other significant psychiatric disorders. AMBIT uses mentalization to "foster curiosity rather than a negative certainty about the motives and beliefs of others as they relate to oneself," says MacMillan.

Ellenhorn programs in NY and Boston are also implementing AMBIT with adults (called Adaptive Mentalization-Based Integrated Treatment in the adult version) who have difficulty trusting others or disorders of the self.

For more information or referrals, call us at 1-800-515-9972 or email us: info@ellenhorn.com.

Ellenhorn is a private psychiatric treatment and psychosocial rehabilitation program offering evidence-based co-occurring treatment. Our best-practice multidisciplinary mobile teams deliver individualized services to clients living in the community or in our residence, intensively supporting them in building connections and purpose in the real world.