Academics play a huge role in a teen’s life, especially since school is often their biggest commitment at this age. Due to its significance, continuing education while receiving mental health treatment is key. This helps provide structure, balance, and even support in the teen’s life. Academic support can positively impact a teen’s healing and progress while in treatment.
At Destinations for Teens, we promote the continuation of education while in mental health or addiction treatment. This is part of the holistic approach to care. Education falls into this approach as it works not only to support recovery and healing but also to promote a healthy lifestyle overall. For example, teens attend three hours of school per day in residential treatment and the partial hospitalization program that is tailored towards the curriculum they are learning at their school. Tending to all of the client’s needs is crucial in creating a fulfilling and prosperous life.
How Does Academic Support Positively Affect Healing?
Mental health can sometimes have a negative effect on a teen’s academic career. For students struggling with anxiety and/or depression, study skills often deplete and cause a barrier that hinders students from academic achievements. This is because mental health impacts how one copes with stressful situations and how one makes healthy (or unhealthy) decisions. Because school is such a central element of a teen’s life, it is natural for their academics to suffer when struggling with mental health.
However, this does not need to be the case. When anxiety, depression, stress, or burnout are present, it is important for teens to have a sort of structure or guidance to keep them on the right track. This can be implemented into mental health treatment through treatment routines as well as academic support. Structure is key in mental health treatment as it encourages healthy habits and routines that clients can continue post-treatment.
These healthy habits can then produce healthy lifestyle changes. Since teens return to their school environment post-treatment, it is crucial to keep academics as a central part of their lives. Continuing academic support can not only improve their lives in school but also help teens put their energy into something productive. Improving productivity, intelligence, and structure/routine is important in keeping teens on the right path post-treatment. It can be difficult to balance school and mental health treatment simultaneously, but with the right tools, it is possible.
Continuing Academic Support With Destinations for Teens
At Destinations for Teens, we value a whole-person approach to care that helps clients create a well-rounded sense of health. In other words, we promote healing on all levels, not exclusive to mental health. For teens, this includes improving and staying on the right track in their academic careers.
While some teens may or may not be struggling with academics due to their mental health, it is important to maintain an academic structure in their lives while going through treatment. This is because academic support can provide this structure, as said before, as well as keep teens connected to their lives outside of the facility.
At Destinations for Teens, mental health treatment plans are designed for the teen on an individual level. Their needs are tended to beyond mental health struggles, and this can include their academic careers. Therefore, the educational program is implemented as part of their treatment plan in order to maintain structure and healthy habits to make their post-treatment transitions smooth.
The Educational Program
This program is designed to keep teens on the right academic path to ensure a smoother transition outside of treatment. The internationally approved Edmentum K-12 A-G curriculum is implemented to assist all clients in the program. Support for teens in Advanced Placement courses is offered as well. Other elements of the educational program include one-on-one academic support with a specialist, transferable credits, SAT preparation, and vocational skill exploration. They also receive their own computer and workspace to support their academic journeys while in recovery.
Scott Decker is the Director of Education at Destinations for Teens, who works in the academic program to ensure teens are in a therapeutic and nurturing space for their academic success. The instruction is guided by content specialists who assist the students with the Edmentum curriculum. This program gives teens the space to grow academically and reflect on their growth on an individual level rather than compare themselves to the students around them. The design of this program helps teens focus their energy on something productive while also improving their academic careers. It also minimizes the academic stress that may be felt in their usual school environment as the program is designed for the individual.
The educational program is completed with an educational exit exam. This exam is the pathway from treatment into their regular school system. Destinations for Teens also offers its own curriculum and teens can receive a credited high school diploma from this education. The educational program not only keeps students on the right path but allows for an easier reintegration into their academic environments.
Take the First Step Towards a Brighter Future Today: Call Destinations for Teens
Here at Destinations for Teens, we understand that school is a critical part of a teen’s life. That is why we offer the educational program as part of our whole-person approach to ensure that academics remain a central element of their lives. The educational program follows the Edmentum curriculum and is instructed by content specialists who work with students through their coursework. This coursework can range from Advanced Placement content to vocational content to ensure that each student is receiving the academic support they need to succeed. The program also helps ease teen’s anxiety as they transition out of treatment and back into their normal academic environment. For more information, please call Destination for Teens at (866) 678-8123.