ITU Program Overview

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.