MOUNT ST VINCENT HOME INC
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Mission Statement
Mount Saint Vincent has transformed the lives of thousands of abused, neglected, and traumized children. We provide kids with a safe haven, individualized treatment, and education for the youth and their families. Using the most advanced therapeutic techniques — including the groundbreaking Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics — our innovative programs help heal these special kids. Alternative therapies such as art, animal-assisted, and dance/movement help us to gently uncover the trauma stories that young children often cannot verbalize. With treatment, patience, and nurturing care, we help these children grow to lead full and productive lives within their communities. Mount Saint Vincent. Changing young lives by providing help and hope, one child at a time.
About This Cause
Mount Saint Vincent was originally founded in 1883 as an orphanage by the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth, Kansas. With the advent of the foster care system, the agency ceased being and orphanage and began offering residential treatment in 1969. It now provides advanced clinical care for children aged 5 through 12 who suffer from the effects of severe physical or sexual abuse, long-term neglect, trauma, or mental illness. The agency houses a K–8 facility school on its 16-acre campus. In addition to the 36 residents, the school provides education and treatment for an additional 36 children from the surrounding area who require more intensive care than public schools can provide. The agency rounds out its continuum of care with parent education, in-home therapy, and individual and group therapies. Because of their past trauma, the children in treatment suffer from such severe emotional, behavioral, and social problems that they cannot function in a family setting. The average child — typically male — has been in 12 failed foster home placements. He suffers from depression and has extremely low level of self-esteem. He believes that he is responsible for the abuse or neglect he endured and that he deserved it. He lacks relational abilities and self-control. Physically, he has poor motor skills, multiple behavioral and psychological diagnoses, and developmental delays. He is fearful to the point of terror and in a constant state of hypervigilance, with a resting heart rate of over 100 beats per minute. He is, on average, just nine years old. The recent tragedies in Colorado and elsewhere in the country highlight the need to address mental illness in our society. Research shows that untreated childhood trauma can adversely affect neurodevelopment, the formation of social values, and the capacity to form healthy, positive relationships. These adverse effects are not only felt by the child, but can pose problems for the broader community. Poverty, unemployment, crime, substance abuse, and the propensity to continue the cycle of abuse are likely outcomes when a child’s mental health issues go untreated. Many youth are not receiving the care they need. Shortages of mental health specialists and effective treatment options have been exacerbated by cuts in government funding in recent years. Mount Saint Vincent is uniquely qualified to deliver proactive, impactful treatment before the child’s trauma becomes permanently debilitating. Through the use of alternative therapies, and in particular the application of the Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics, the agency has seen documented success in raising the children’s Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale for Children (BPRS) and Children’s Global Assessment Scale (CGAS) ratings. Traditional “talk” therapies, where a client discusses his or her thoughts and feelings with a trained therapist, are only moderately effective in the treatment of traumatized children. It can be extremely difficult for a young child to verbally express to a therapist the details of his or her abuse or neglect. It is for this reason that Mount Saint Vincent employs alternative therapies such as play, dance/movement, animal-assisted, art, and music. The Creative Arts Therapy department uses these alternative therapies to offer a more indirect and gentle therapeutic experience. Creative arts therapies help children use nonverbal expression to relate their thoughts and feelings, enabling therapists to tease out events of the past, so the child can work through the trauma and begin the journey toward healing. Dance/Movement Therapy Dance/Movement therapy focuses on body-centered awareness, developing children’s capacity for self-awareness, self-regulation, interpersonal skills, and impulse control. It values the inherent wisdom of the physical body as a structure housing all the workings of the mind. Experiences of abuse and neglect are not logically understood by the child, but rather deeply “known” by the body—the vessel sheltering all pre-verbal experiences. Dance/movement therapy techniques and interventions provide a direct conduit into accessing material stored below the intellectual workings of the mind. Tools such as parachutes, trampolines, tunnels and jump ropes are used to facilitate movement, providing a sensory-rich experience that fosters imaginative exploration and expression. The child experiences new ways of moving in the world as the nonverbal is remembered, reenacted, and brought into expression within a secure relational space. Art Therapy Research suggests that preverbal traumas cannot be expressed through verbal means, but must be resolved through nonverbal modalities, especially for children who suffer from insecure attachments and maltreatment in early life. Consequently, images and working with the imagination is at the heart of art therapy. When young clients draw, paint, or create, the images that emerge carry the events of the past, the meanings attached to the events, and the seeds of healing. As the images are expressed, the conscious mind is able to take in the information conveyed and rework the meaning, even without any verbal processing of the experience. The imagination is also exercised as it can act upon the past events, changing them into preferred outcomes and/or practicing new ways of being. This provides the child with an experience of having power over an event in which they were powerless. Repeated empowering experiences help rebuild a sense of safety, the ability to protect themselves, and feelings of competence. Music Therapy Music therapy is led by a board-certified music therapist, who works with the children on skills such as frustration tolerance, emotional expression and regulation, and social skills. The therapist uses music listening, instrument playing, singing, songwriting, and movement when working with the children. Because the brain develops in a patterned, repetitive way, many of the music interventions are highly rhythmic. This rhythm can stimulate brain development and regulation, improve body coordination, and help with integration of verbal information. Music therapy provides opportunities for children to: • Express thoughts, feelings, and personalities through songwriting and instrumental improvisation • Learn coping skills through songs and music experiences created by the therapist • Improve social skills by making music with others and participating in prescribed music tasks • Develop motor coordination and brain regulation through rhythmic music and movement activities • Increase frustration tolerance by learning challenging new skills in a supportive and motivating environment • Improve learning by chunking important information in an organized way to support memorization and understanding Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics The modalities used within the Creative Arts Therapy department falls within the realm of the Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics, or NMT. NMT is a groundbreaking, cutting-edge model of treatment that is changing how trauma victims are being treated. When a child suffers from longtime abuse or neglect, his or her brain begins to organize in a disorganized fashion. This affects the child in every way possible: physically, emotionally, socially and cognitively. These children need more than cognitive “talk” therapies. NMT — the Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics — offers a developmentally sensitive approach to their trauma treatment. This intuitive approach expands on innate human instincts and skills, including rhythmic and relational activities like rocking, soothing, and praising kids. These actions are simple to do, but have profound impacts on brain development. As the kids begin to feel comfortable in a safe and stable environment, they can begin to develop social skills and learn impulse control, eventually integrating back into society. The NMT model was developed by Dr. Bruce Perry, a leading authority on children in crisis and founder of The ChildTrauma Academy, a nonprofit organization working to improve the lives of high-risk children through direct service, research and education. The ChildTrauma Academy granted its Flagship Program designation to Mount Saint Vincent in July of 2012, making it only the fourth treatment facility in the world to earn the distinction. Not only does NMT help heal the child, it is a preventive tool for the broader community in that it helps break the cycle of child abuse and neglect. As children learn to control their behaviors and come to understand their self-worth, they are less likely to grow up to continue the cycle of abuse. Instead, they learn to value, appreciate, and respect people, including themselves. The staff at Mount Saint Vincent is committed to the NMT model because of its proven effectiveness, but that commitment comes at a cost. The agency provides 14 hours of in-depth NMT training to all staff members. With an average of 175 employees per year, the number of hours devoted to training equals 2,450. Clinicians are given additional training, and all staff attend refresher courses. The time that therapists spend with nonresidential children, in their efforts to prevent out-of-home placements, is more than 3,500 hours annually. Those hours are not billable All told, Mount Saint Vincent absorbs the cost of tens of thousands of unbillable hours annually because of its commitment to provide the best possible care to its fragile population of abused and neglected children. It is our hope to use the funds we receive to offset these losses and purchase much-needed specialized NMT equipment, so we can continue to provide world-class clinical treatment to the children we now serve, and to those who will walk through our doors in the future.