5 minute read
Bringing out the Best How Centerstone’s Intensive In-Home Services Are Changing Lives
Bringing
Out the Best
A lot has been written in recent years about adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). Kids who endure lingering traumatic situations—abuse, addiction, divorce, neglect, poverty, racism, etc.—have a higher incidence of physical, mental, economic, and social challenges as they age.
Ethan, a bright teenager who lives in Clarksville with his grandmother, Brenda, still remembers a traumatic event that happened involving his mom when he was four years old. Sitting at the top of the staircase at home, he saw her passed out on the steps below. “She had some issues, like a lot of young adults do these days,” Brenda says about her daughter. “Alcohol abuse. She’d had two pints of whiskey that day. When I got off work, Ethan met me at the door and said, ‘My mommy drank some brown stuff and she won’t wake up.’”
“I told her not to drink it, but she wouldn’t listen,” says Ethan. “And I’ve always wished she had listened because none of this would be happening. And it’s always made me kind of sad that she didn’t listen.”
Centerstone therapist Meghan Ocasek visits Ethan and Brenda.
But it wasn’t an isolated incident, and Brenda soon gained legal custody of Ethan. As a registered nurse, she knew her grandson—diagnosed with posttraumatic stress, oppositional defiant disorder, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder— would need consistent behavioral health counseling to process the emotions brought on by his experiences.
“He has been in counseling since he was five because I just felt like he needed an outlet,” says Brenda. “Therapists know how to draw things out of kids.” Ethan got connected with Centerstone’s schoolbased therapy services that allow a student the convenience of meeting with a counselor on campus. Over the years he has managed relatively well, working through his unique mix of ongoing personal and everyday childhood struggles. He now understands it was never his responsibility to take care of his mother. And with Brenda’s help, they all stay in regular contact with each other.
Still, new situations and environmental triggers can challenge a person’s progress, and the COVID-19 shutdown did that in many ways. Without a normal routine to follow, Ethan’s behavior began to change.
“Being at home was stressful for everyone,” says Brenda. “One day Ethan was having a meltdown. I was on a phone call with family, but he just wouldn’t leave me alone and let me talk. He kept on until I lost my patience. There were some Legos on the table that he hadn’t put away despite my asking. So I just scooped them all up. When I did that, he charged across the room and pushed me to the floor.” Brenda had to call 911 and was bruised from the altercation. Ethan had never done anything like that before, but police officers explained to him the real possibility of facing juvenile detention if it happened again.
“That’s when we learned about Centerstone’s intensive in-home counseling . . . and this lady has saved our lives together,” says Brenda.
She’s referring to Meghan Ocasek, an Intensive InHome Treatment therapist with Centerstone. For families with children or adolescents ages 3 to 18 who are experiencing acute emotional problems, this in-home intervention service provides an average of three counseling sessions per week for 90 days. Treatment includes individual and family therapy as well as teaching of skills such as behavior modification, anger management, parenting, and conflict resolution.
Ethan shows Meghan one of his inventions.
To quality for Intensive In-Home Treatment, the participant must have a primary mental health diagnosis; show little improvement after receiving less intensive services; have escalating behaviors or symptoms; have a key family member willing to take part in the process; and be at risk for out-ofhome placement or transitioning home from a previous placement.
Brenda recalls, “I was ready to give Ethan up to his dad and say, ‘You’re going to have to finish raising him.’ I’m past retirement age. To be thrown in the floor could have led to a big injury.”
“It was one of my worst moments,” says Ethan. “I have felt terrible about that ever since and been really angry at myself for doing that. Because that’s not something anyone should do to their grandmother. It was wrong.”
Meghan reminds Ethan, “You’ve made so much change though. You’ve never done anything like that again.”
To achieve that change, Meghan was intentional about getting to know Ethan. She learned about his adverse experiences—a parent’s addiction, school bullies, a close family member’s death—making him feel safe and empowered to talk about his feelings in each case. With a clearer understanding of Ethan’s emotional triggers, she addressed each one at his pace. “One of the most important things we’ve accomplished is Ethan opening up about his mom, talking about what happened, processing his feelings about it, and understanding that nothing that happened with her had anything to do with him,” says Meghan. “And he has learned to set boundaries with her while also loving her so much—she’s the moon, sun, and stars to him.”
Ethan says, “I know that it wasn’t my fault. I love my mom forever and nothing will ever change it. I love her more than all the matter in the universe. It has been good to free myself from some of those feelings that were locked away.”
Brenda says, “Meghan just has that way of bringing out the best in Ethan. She has been able to draw so much out of him that he’s almost like a different child now.”
Indeed, Ethan no longer requires intensive in-home counseling and has shifted back to less frequent therapy sessions. That gives him more time for coming up with remarkable ideas for new robotic inventions and figuring out how things work. He wants to be an engineer, and Brenda buys him old toasters and hairdryers at thrift stores to take apart and study.
“This family is amazing,” Meghan concludes. “Despite some tough experiences, they have gotten stronger together. And here we are with this intelligent, amazing, brave human being who is doing so great.” a
Centerstone’s Intensive In-Home Treatment is a lower cost alternative to repeated acute hospital stays or residential treatment centers and tends to have more enduring outcomes, including improved family interactions. For more information, please visit centerstone.org/intensiveinhome
