(no subject)
The Italian Home for Children is "the home of last resort" for the most severely abused, neglected, and emotionally disturbed children of our region. During their short lives, most of these children have been so traumatized by sexual, physical, and emotional abuse that they can no longer function in everyday childhood settings.
The Home offers these boys and girls a safe haven and a chance to put the pieces of their lives back together. With individualized therapies and around-the-clock nurturing, we help them to rebuild their lives, and hopefully, their fragmented families. Our goal is to reintegrate them back into their schools, families, and communities by giving them the tools to cope with their emotional scars.
The crucial services administered by the Italian Home are the last and only link between these emotionally disturbed children and the lives they so desperately wish to live. The last resort.
Boston Center (Acute Residential Treatment)
The Boston Center provides acute residential treatment and comprehensive assessment services for 30 children, ages 4 to 12, in 3 co-ed units. Admission is available 24 hours a day on an emergency or planned basis. The goal of the Boston Center is an average length of stay of 14 to 21 days. Each child participates in an intensive short-term program of individual, family, group and milieu therapy as well as daily educational tutoring. Treatment is coordinated by a primary clinician in conjunction with milieu staff, nursing staff, educational staff, and a child psychiatrist.
The Boston Center accepts children who are experiencing a range of psychiatric, emotional and family problems. Children in need of a structured, voluntary placement benefit from our intensive evaluation and short-term treatment model. The Boston Center Acute Residential Treatment (ART) program offers a diversion to hospitalization or helps in shortening hospital stays when the child is able to step down to a more open setting.
In addition to our hospital diversion program, the Boston Center offers Acute Short-Term (AST) residential programming. This 30 - 45 day placement offers children an intensive evaluation and stabilization service that responds to more chronic difficulties at home and in school. The program focuses on the assessment and stabilization of high-risk behaviors, family intervention, intensive case management, and successful integration into community settings.
Long-Term Residential Services
The Italian Home for Children offers long-term residential programs for children between the ages of 4 and 12.
Long-term residential services of 6 to 24 months or more are provided for 30 children in 3 separate co-ed and single gender units. These services are appropriate for children with significant emotional and behavioral disorders irrespective of family resources or family involvement. Services offered include milieu treatment, individual therapy, psychodynamic group participation, aggressive family treatment, family preservation services and special education.
Group Home services are offered for children who do not require placement in our special education school. To help maintain appropriate school placement for these children, our staff offers support to their respective public schools.