Family Based Mental Health Program

Southwood Hospital offers comprehensive programming for children and adolescents struggling with mental health disorders and any co-occurring disorders.

Understanding that the emotional, behavioral, and cognitive concerns that plague children and adolescents often affect their loved ones as well, Southwood Psychiatric Hospital is proud to offer intensive, home-based crisis stabilization services through its Family Based Mental Health Services program.

Within this program, our team of Master’s level clinicians and mental health workers are available 24 hours a day, 7 days per week to provide crisis stabilization services, therapeutic interventions, family support, and case management for youth and their families if the young person is deemed at-risk by professionals within the following counties:

  • Allegheny County
  • Beaver County
  • Fayette County
  • Green County
  • Washington County

At-risk youth are defined as those young people who are at-risk for placement in a psychiatric program or those who have been recently discharged from an intensive mental health service (e.g. inpatient care). When these young people are considered at-risk, a referral to our program is made and caregivers have the option of partaking in the care offered in this program.

These services are intensive in nature and are designed to care for the needs of the whole family, not just the symptoms of a youth’s mental illness. Our team of professionals, who possess clinical expertise in facilitating these services, are on call for those who are engaged in this program so that the families receiving this care have ample support for the duration of treatment.

The goals for this program are to stabilize the family unit, provide ongoing treatment as a way to prevent the need for more intensive care in the future, and improve healthy functioning within a youth’s family so that a youth’s primary support system operates well as a unified whole.

At Southwood Psychiatric Hospital, we strive maintain our position as a leading mental health treatment provider by offering these invaluable services for young people and their families.

We provide care through this program for children and adolescents from birth to 18 years old who have a primary mental health disorder diagnosis. We can also address substance use if a young person is coping with these symptoms in conjunction with a primary mental health disorder diagnosis. 

In order to receive familybased services, a child or adolescent must undergo a psychological evaluation from a licensed psychiatrist or psychologist recommending the service or obtain a prescription letter from a physician who has cared for the child. Once our family-based therapists receive the referral for services, they will work with the referring provider to complete the intake process and begin services, if appropriate.  

I learned a lot during my stay here which helped me in my longer journey.

– Former client