Children & Adolescent Programs

We offer the following services:

• Counseling - For children and their families to help address school problems, learning challenges, aggressive behaviors, adjustment to divorce, etc.
• Child Sexual Abuse - Compassionate, specialized care for children who are victims of sexual abuse, including advocacy, counseling and assessment.
• Parenting - Offering professional expertise in parenting skills for new parents as well as intensive in- home services for parents and infants where there may be mental health issues in the family.
• Children's and Adolescent Outreach - Case management services for children and families.
• Co-Occuring Adolescent Program (CAP) - Services for adolescents with mental health and substance use disorders.

Counseling and Assessment Services

Community Healing Centers' psychologists and social workers provide a wide range of mental health evaluation, counseling and therapy services to children, families and adults, both at the at the Elizabeth Upjohn Community Healing Center and in schools.

Kalamazoo - The Elizabeth Upjohn Community Healing Center, (269) 343-1651.

Child Sexual Abuse

The Children's Advocacy Center is a caring, child friendly, safe place for children who have been sexually abused to go for help. If a child has been sexually abused, or an adult suspects that a child has been sexually abused, he or she is referred to the Children's Advocacy Center at the Community Healing Centers by Protective Services workers or the police, or concerned adults in the child's life.

The Children's Advocacy Center is a community-based program that offers a continuum of care from the child's initial disclosure of sexual abuse through the community investigation and prosecution, to the child's eventual recovery.

A Multi-Disciplinary Team comprised of Children's Advocacy Center (CAC) counselors, doctors, police, prosecutors and victim advocates work together to help the child and the child's family through the legal process. The child may be interviewed for the purposes of law enforcement. The interview takes place in a caring environment, by a specially trained counselor. The interview is taped and used for the purpose of prosecuting the perpetrator.

Children who have been sexually abused and their non-offending family members receive counseling and support services, at no cost, by caring CAC counselors who are specially trained to treat sexually abused children. Individual and group therapy in a child friendly environment are part of the healing process for children who have been sexually abused.

The goals of the Children's Advocacy Center are to protect children who have been sexually abused and prevent further abuse; to preserve and improve the child victim's mental health through supportive and responsive services during the time of disclosure and thereafter; to maintain and reconstitute a healthy family by healing the scars of sexual abuse and helping the child and family redirect their efforts toward positive growth and development; to enhance community safety by preventing the perpetration of sexual abuse; and to provide a continuum of care and service to sexually abused children and their non-offending family members.

Kalamazoo - The Elizabeth Upjohn Community Healing Center, (269) 343-1651.
Three Rivers - Community Healing Center, (269) 279-5187.

Parenting

The Early Intervention Program works specifically with families where someone in the home has one or more of the following risk factors: a mental illness, developmental delays and mental retardation, extreme poverty, unstable housing, domestic violence, addiction, or the parent experienced physical or sexual abuse as a child. For many parents, particularly those suffering from mental illness and addiction, they must first learn to take care of themselves before they are able to parent their children. Early Intervention provides case management, medication management, nursing assessments, clinical assessments and treatment plans, linking and coordinating with other service providers, and parent support groups for our clients. The goal of the program is to help parents establish a safe and stable home environment so their children can grow and flourish.

Parents as Partners is a program designed to assist new parents with the knowledge and skills that are needed to effectively parent their children. The goal of this program is to strengthen the family unit by helping to support, educate and nurture new parents in their parenting role. Referrals are made from Bronson and Borgess hospital as well as other health care and social service organizations. Risk factors that may be present are: teen parent, unstable housing, history of alcohol or other drug use, poverty, lack of family support or lack of knowledge of infant growth and development. This program's services are available at no cost to the family and take place in the client's home. The program is designed to promote optimal social, emotional, cognitive and physical development to at risk infants and to help maintain the family unit.

The Child and Adolescent Program: CAP

Community Healing Centers and Kalamazoo County Community Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (KCMHSAS) partner to provide intensive home-based services to families with children 7-17 years of age who have mental health or co-occurring disorders.  The goal of the program is to enhance or restore social and psychological functioning of individuals, couples or families.  CAP workers promote healthy functioning and normal development utilizing strength based approaches. These interventions emphasize the role of both the child and the family in the home and community.

 Services are provided a minimum of 2 hours per week:

•   Family therapy
•   Parenting education
•   Individual therapy
•   Marital therapy
•   Case Management
•   Linking and Coordinating with an array of mental health services

Kalamazoo - The Elizabeth Upjohn CHC, (269) 343-1651  

The Children’s Outreach Program:  COP

The Community Healing Center staff works closely with KCMHSAS to offer families who have difficulty accessing services, mental health supports in their home and in the community.  Families who meet eligibility can receive outreach services and/or case management services.  The case management component offers linking and coordination of an array of mental health services.  The case manager can also be a partner in managing crisis and building skills.  The Outreach therapist provides individual and family therapy in the family’s home and in the community.

 The services include:

•   Person centered planning
•   Implementation of the individual’s plan, including supporting their dreams, goals and desires for the future.
•   Optimizing independence, promoting recovery and assisting in development of natural supports.

Kalamazoo - The Elizabeth Upjohn CHC,  (269) 343-1651

The Children’s Out Patient Program: COP 

The Community Healing Center offers outpatient services to all children between the ages of 7-17.  Utilizing a strength based approach, therapists can offer assessment, therapeutic intervention and counseling to individuals who do not need hospitalization.  This service is ideal for families who need brief support while overcoming the challenges of day-to–day life.  Outpatient services are tailored to the individual and include the utilization of natural supports.

The services include:

•   Comprehensive mental health assessments.
•   Person centered planning focused on achieving the individual’s dreams, goals and desires for the future.
•   Implementation of the individual’s plan, including linking consumers with community resources to foster growth outside of the office.
•   Individual and family therapy sessions.
•   Transition & discharge planning to develop ongoing natural supports once services have ended.

Kalamazoo - The Elizabeth Upjohn CHC,  (269) 343-1651