The HEC program my child is in is:     Brookside Intensive Treatment Unit

5 Ramsdell Road

Great Barrington, MA 01230

 

My child’s Treatment Team is Team __________________________.

 

The program’s phone number is (413)528-0535

 

My child’s Clinician’s name is ______________________________________________.

 

His/her telephone extension is Extension_________________________.

 

His/her supervisor’s name is ______________________________.

 

His/her supervisor’s telephone extension is Extension ___________.

 

The Program Director’s name is ________________________________________.

 

His/her telephone extension is Extension__________________________.

 

The telephone extension for the Nurse’s Office is Extension _______________.

 

Our mission at Hillcrest Educational Centers is to facilitate the social, emotional, intellectual, and physical growth of our students through the development of new skills that will enable them to succeed in their home community.

Our Guiding Principals:

• Every student has the potential to succeed in life
• Every member of the Hillcrest community (students, families, and employees) is entitled to unconditional respect
• Every student is entitled to individualized treatment and education
• Students need our services because they have lacked the skills, resources, or support required to cope with their environments
• Families are an integral part of our students’ success
• We are committed to assuring that our students reach their full academic potential
• We are committed to continuous improvement and learning
• We are committed to fiscal responsibility
• We are committed to teamwork
• We are committed to excellence

The Highpoint program is located in Lenox, Massachusetts. It is a rural setting on 24 beautiful acres, surrounded by land preserved by the Massachusetts Audubon Society.

Highpoint is a trauma informed care residential treatment setting for males aged 11-21 with a variety of high-risk behaviors and mental health diagnoses. Highpoint provides specialized treatment for high-risk behaviors including, physical aggression, self-injury and suicidal ideation, substance use and fire setting. Highpoint also provides a specialized treatment program for males who demonstrate sexualized behaviors and have engaged in sexually abusive or intrusive behaviors towards others. Although many of our students present with a multitude of high-risk behaviors and dual diagnoses, Highpoint is designed to provide programming that is individualized to meet the needs of each student.

While at Highpoint, students reside with peers who have similar treatment needs and functioning levels. However, students with differing high-risk behaviors may be in the same academic class or participating in various residential activities together based on the academic performance and recreational interest of each student.

The students at Highpoint are engaged in an intensive curriculum focused on treatment for their high-risk behaviors that is provided in individual, group and family therapies as well as in the milieu setting. This treatment is heavily focused on understanding the nature and motivations of their behaviors, being accountable for their past, current and future choices, understanding how their choices impact themselves and other people, safety and relapse prevention planning, making repairs and engaging in restitution or mean making activities when appropriate.

We believe it is essential to have the student’s family involved in every step of their child’s treatment at Highpoint. This is achieved through consistent communication between the family and program staff, facilitating frequent visitation and contact with the student and their family as well as providing family therapy and skill coaching. Additionally, Highpoint hosts a monthly family event where students and their family can gather and engage in an activity facilitated by Highpoint staff.

Many of the students who reside at Highpoint have trauma histories involving past abuse, neglect, loss and bullying. While at Highpoint, the students are engaged in trauma resolution through intensive therapeutic services as well as by utilizing milieu interventions. Additionally, most of the Highpoint students are dually diagnosed with including but not limited to psychiatric disorders, learning disabilities, developmental delays, and Autism Spectrum Disorders.

In addition to the above-mentioned services, Highpoint provides an on-site year round educational program as well as a structured residential and milieu environment. Students are provided with vocational and independent living skills practices and opportunity during their course of treatment. Our medical services include routine medical care delivered by nurses on-site as well as psychiatric services and medication management.

Highpoint provides an intensely structured, therapeutic and nurturing environment with high staff to student ratios. This allows the students to learn new skills including coping skills, emotional regulation skills, mindfulness skills and interpersonal relationship skills to help them become more successful as they prepare for transition to a lower level of care or community setting. With the help of the Highpoint staff, our students are able to utilize these skills to allow them to make productive, healthy choices rather than engage in quick relief or high-risk behaviors.  The Highpoint Campus offers excellent recreational opportunities utilizing a soccer field and baseball diamond, an in-ground swimming pool, and a full size gymnasium. Students participate in camping, biking, skiing and other outdoor activities year round. The surrounding Berkshire communities offer a wide variety of educational, cultural and recreational resources that our students frequently access and utilize.

 

 

Welcome to the Brookside Intensive Treatment Unit, a unique residential program specializing in the treatment of girls. Students come here with diverse backgrounds and histories, but all are here to work on correcting problematic behaviors and learning new skills that will eventually help them return safely to the community.  Classrooms and dorms will have up to six students and at least three adults to provide supervision. With one-to-one staffing readily available as needed, the ITU ensures a safe, intensive, highly structured treatment program.

Students will receive both individual and group therapy here. Our DBT-based social skills groups can be bolstered by additional groups focused on specific high-risk behaviors if needed. The clinician will be the primary contact with your family or other supports as you progress through treatment.

Our five classrooms can meet a diverse range of educational needs, whether the student is college bound or is in need of specific vocational skills.   Nurses are on campus fourteen hours a day providing individualized care and treatment and are available on-call around the clock.   Our psychiatrist will work with students and families to develop an effective treatment regimen. The effectiveness of medications is reviewed as often as weekly.

The campus is a large facility in a rural setting with access to many recreational and cultural activities. We believe that an active, engaged student is more likely to succeed and encourage participation in diverse activities including hiking, theater, music, canoeing, and challenge activities on our extensive grounds. We expect our students and families to participate in the treatment with the guidance of our clinicians, who will help them through the challenging process. All staff members work actively with our students in order to meet all their educational and treatment goals.

If our students work hard in all of these areas and demonstrate safe behaviors they will earn opportunities for increased privileges and access to the community. We want our students to feel good about their progress on this campus. If students ever feel that staff are not treating them properly, students may ask to talk to a supervisor or one of our Human Rights representatives. The grievance policy is outlined later in this packet.  Any complaints will be taken seriously.

We hope that our students will find their time at the Brookside Intensive Treatment Unit to be a positive and rewarding experience.