This is part of a series of conversations with key Shortridge Academy leadership team members by Alumni Parent, Frank Anthony.

Frank recently had a chance to sit down with our Clinical and Health Services Director, Kay Patch, M.S., C.S., APRN. Kay holds a dual ANCC Board certification as a clinical specialist in adult and child/ adolescent psychiatric mental health nursing. She serves as full time Clinical Director and Head of the Health Center at Shortridge Academy, which is fully licensed by the State of New Hampshire Dept of Health and Human Services. We thought you might find this short interview helpful and informative as well.

Frank: Kay, What brought you here to Shortridge Academy?

Kay: I was working in a group practice, and Adam Rainer was looking for someone to come in a couple of days per week. That's how we started about six and a half years ago, but we found that I could be far more effective by being on campus full time. Managing medications has become a huge deal recently, as we learn more about optimal dosages for teenagers and how medications interact with each other. Being at school all the time, I see how each student is doing and hear from them on a real time basis about what's going on. It's also important for me to be on site as Head of the Health Center. But the biggest draw for me to be at Shortridge is the opportunity to work with students holistically. It's far more comprehensive than what is possible in typical weekly private practice sessions. While we do plenty of work with the students in counseling sessions, that work extends to the rest of their lives here, from mealtime, to classes, to dorm life, and even to off-campus excursions. The Shortridge Academy experience is grounded on deep relationships with and among the students that can only be fostered in a fully immersed and consistent residential setting.

Frank: We've been hearing a lot about the introduction of personalized Positive Development Plans for each student. Perhaps you could talk a little about how you see them working, since you are the point person for this initiative.

Kay: As we set goals with our students and families, I see the Positive Development Plans as the next evolutionary step in the work that our counselors have been undertaking with students for many years. It's a means of explaining what we do and provides a universal curriculum that we personalize for each student by incorporating evaluations from Wilderness Counselors, Educational Consultants, and other professionals with whom the students have previously worked. Each individual plan begins with a clinical review of prior professional documentation and information offered by parents and the students themselves to illuminate specific strengths, concerns, and individual coping strategies. I finalize each preliminary plan by writing the clinical narrative, and the Academic Director may prepare an academic portion for relevant needs identified for students as warranted.

This sets the stage for counselors to work with each student and his or her family on identifying how best to approach each of our 7 fundamental long-term development goals. While the goals are universal at Shortridge Academy the strategies and activities are personalized and we actively collaborate with families, since their historical perspective and insights are critical. After all, nobody knows the students better than their families.

Frank: What are these 7 goals, and where did the underlying concepts come from?

Kay: They are grounded in the principles of Positive Youth Development and on the body of evidence that researchers such as Dr. Kristine Baber and Dr. Richard Lerner have uncovered. While we will be providing much more detail as we work on the plans with families and students, the overall goals are to:

1. Build positive decision-making skills.


2. Establish and maintain trusting relationships.


3. Embrace and implement healthy lifestyle changes.


4. Recognize and develop individual leadership potential.


5. Create personal goals and identify the resources and strategies to attain them.


6. Develop resilience and self-efficacy.


7. Understand, navigate, and enhance family relations.

Frank: When we finalized our Transition Contract for my daughter in preparation for her graduation, we were struck by how these plans dovetailed nicely and continue beyond Shortridge, often with regular updates.

Kay: The reality is that our work with students on long-term emotional health is really part of a continuum that started with their parents, early teachers, and counselors, and then continued with wilderness therapists before they enrolled here. I hope that our work at Shortridge and subsequent student progress will continue well beyond Shortridge. Much of the benefit is evident while the student is still here, but we are also "planting seeds" that will germinate and emerge several years down the road, since the nature of all this work is cumulative. I am reminded of this every time a former student calls to say that they just had an "Ah-Ha" moment when they really understood an aspect of themselves that they had started working on years earlier at Shortridge. I can't tell you how fulfilling that is.

Frank: I wish our readers could have seen how emotional you just got, and I want to thank you on their behalf for bringing your whole self to your commitment to our daughters and sons.

Shortridge Academy is a year round, college preparatory, therapeutic boarding school in Milton NH for young men and women ages 14-17 years old at enrollment, grades 9-12. Shortridge Academy is one of only a few therapeutic boarding schools in the Northeast accredited by the rigorous New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) and the only school of its kind that explicitly utilizes the evidenced-based Positive Youth Development (PYD) curriculum to guide the individualized therapeutic programming for students. Since 2002 Shortridge Academy has been helping students and families who are struggling with academic performance, loss of interest in activities and increased conflict in family or peer relationships. For more information call 877-903-8968 or visit www.shortridgeacademy.com.