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The children we serve at St. Vincent Home for Children most often come to us with histories of abuse or neglect. They are usually struggling with emotional, behavioral, learning and/or psychiatric disorders and deserve a safe and nurturing environment, opportunities to learn and a sense of trust and self-esteem.
We provide a structured, safe environment that facilitates healing through an individualized treatment plan. Our residential treatment program provides individual, group and family therapy, crisis intervention, behavior modification, case management, assessment and treatment planning, advocacy, medication administration, nutritional meals and snacks, trasportation, clothing and personal care supplies, 24-hour professional chidcare and recreation and leisure opportunities. .
The Recreation program provides recreation and leisure experiences for children at St. Vincent Home. The program is designed to meet the residents' physical, emotional and leisure needs. Activities are provided within a group setting.
The Activity Coordinator plans, facilitates and provides oversight for the recreation and leisure activities for the residents. Many of the outings and activities occur within a community-based setting. The activities provide the residents with an introduction to leisure resources, develops their interests and increases their overall quality of life. On-site activities include activities such as arts and crafts, cooking and pet therapy.
The Recreation program utilizes volunteers as coaches for athletic teams and for other special programs.
The Social Services Department meets the therapeutic and case management needs of our children. Each resident is assigned to a specific Social Worker/Primary Therapist. The Social Workers are either licensed or provisionally licensed clinicians. The Social Workers provide individual, group and family therapy as well as aftercare services to the residents and families assigned to them. They also provide crisis intervention, assessment and treatment planning, visitation scheduling, advocacy and discharge planning.
The Social Services department utilizes volunteers as Visiting Resources for the children who do not have family identified for visitation. These Visiting Resources commit to spend quality time with an individual resident during their placement at St. Vincent Home.
A critical component of the St. Vincent Home program is Spiritual Development. It is our belief that children need to be exposed to the virtues of a spiritual life and have their spirit nurtured. We do not emphasize only Catholic-centered or Christian-centered teachings. We believe it important that the children be exposed to spirituality and its healing powers and less important that we emphasize the teachings of a particular denomination.
During the academic year, seminarians from Kenrick-Glennon Seminary provide weekly interaction and guidance to groups of the residents. On Sundays throughout the year, the residents are provided with an opportunity to attend various community religious services. In addition, deacons from the Aquinas Institute for Theology volunteer their services on a bi-monthly basis to minister to the residents.
The Childcare Department provides professional supervision and care to the children 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The children live in units within our main building. The childcare worker essentially serves in the parenting role; i.e. assisting with homework, overseeing the completion of chores, caring for them when they are sick and supervising them when they aren't in school. The childcare professionals play an important role as they provide the majority of the skills training, such as conflict resolution, anger management and problem solving, to the children in our care. They serve as positive role models for the residents and are vital to their success and healing.
The childcare workers facilitate, monitor and participate in most of the recreation opportunities for the residents. As the "parents" at the Home, they also spend holidays and birthdays with the residents.
Our Family Focus services provide up to nine months of intensive therapy, case management and crisis intervention services to eligible residents and their families. These services are designed to expedite the child's successful return to the family of origin or another placement resource from residential treatment. The services include assistance in obtaining community resources, 24-hour crisis intervention, therapy, respite care and access to hard services.
The assigned Family Focus Specialist assesses the home setting, provides services within the home to stabilize and strengthen the family structure and assists the family to utilize community supports to reduce their dependency on Children's Division.
Family therapy is designed to address the issues negatively affecting the family structure. All children and families are eligible to receive family therapy while the child is with us and following the child's discharge. Therapy may also be continued after a child is returned to his/her family in order to ease the transition and ensure that the family structure can be maintained on a long-term basis. In addition, family therapy is available to individuals desiring to become foster or adoptive parents of a child in our care.
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