Residential Treatment Program for Sexually Maladaptive Male Adolescents in Missouri – Ages 9 to 17

Lakeland’s behavioral health clinic in Missouri offers a residential treatment program for boys ages 9 through 17 who have issues with poor sexual boundaries and sexually maladaptive behaviors. This includes individuals who have been involved in a behavior that has affected another child, adolescent or adult. These residents are considered a risk to society due to these behaviors/poor boundaries and in need of treatment and reintegration.

Lakeland’s Sexually Maladaptive Residential Treatment program is a 9-12 month program (average length of stay) utilizing a blend of the traditional medical, cognitive, behavioral, and psycho-educational treatment models. While in our residential treatment setting, residents will attend daily groups and an on-site fully accredited school. Through individual, family, group and recreational therapies, the resident’s life is explored to see how the resident functions in the family, with friends, at school, and in a public setting. The overall treatment goal is to provide treatment that addresses these problematic sexual behaviors and to create an applicable safety plan for discharge minimizing the risk of relapse and re-offense.

Ideally, these goals are met by the resident prior to transition into the community:

•  Full disclosure of all sexual behaviors
•  Demonstrate and understand the offense chain
• Understand triggers, thoughts, emotions and how they relate to behavior
• To take ownership and responsibility of actions and outcomes
• Identify thinking errors, road blocks, negative thoughts and dangerous fantasies
• Bolster healthy coping skills to manage and reduce relapse
• Identify age-appropriate relationships and boundaries
• Be able to utilize sympathy, empathy and impulse control
•  A formal apology to the victim(s)
• Creating a Relapse Prevention Plan for discharge

The Sexually Maladaptive Residential Treatment program at Lakeland’s treatment clinic provides opportunities for residents to not only halt and correct their sexual behavior, but also improve personal relationships with family, peers and adults. Through professional group experiences the individual will increase self-worth, recognize talents and abilities, enhance recreational skills and increase their positive societal impact.

Treatment Groups include:

• Daily Planning—Staff will the plan for the day including any changes to the normal schedule.
• Currents Events—This is a time to watch the local, national or global news and discuss what is happening and how it affects us.
• Nursing—Ran by an LPN or an RN, this group is a great time to learn about medicines that residents may be prescribed, side effects of the medicine, uses for the medicine, or to ask the nurse other questions about medical issues, changing bodies, illnesses, etc.
• My Body—Topics such as hygiene, good hand-washing, puberty, exercise, eating well, disease and sickness, etc. are discussed.
• Coping Skills—Alternative coping strategies are explored, developed and enhanced to appropriately react to the emotional response of a given situation. These coping strategies are encouraged with arts and crafts, music, sports, isometric exercises, poetry, journaling, breathing exercises, games and stretching.
• Learning to Live— Activities range from sorting laundry, balancing a checkbook, cooking classes and the navigation of daily activities are covered in this group. The resident’s input, interest and skill level are utilized to identify interesting topics and educations.
• Relationships with Others—Friends, teachers, moms, dads, siblings, neighbors, strangers, step-family, death, moving, starting a new school, dating, marriage and divorce are some of the topics that we talk about in this group.
• Relaxation Techniques – Deep-breathing, walking, listening to others read to us, singing, listening to music, drawing, positive imagery exercises, prayer and meditation are all techniques discussed and taught as a way to cope with stress.
• Sexually Maladaptive Behavior Therapy—This group is held daily with the focus on relapse prevention, thinking errors.
• Recreational Therapy—Daily recreational therapy is an important part of reintegration into society and can include playing a team sport or an individual sports, participating in an outing to the movies or bowling, going to the craft room to paint pottery, swimming outside in Lakeland’s pool and/or playing a video game.
• Cooking—Cooking group is offered weekly. Residents learn to prepare meals from start to finish and eat their meals in a special kitchen area.
• Process—Half-way through the day the unit processes problems that may have occurred at school, during group, at meals or in therapy so residents can “get back on track” with their day.