• Cottage Life
• Therapeutic Recreation
• School
• Counseling/Therapy
• Spiritual Awareness
• Peer Congress
• Work Experience
• Theoretical Foundation for Behavior Management Program

Our adolescent clients reside in one of eight ranch-style cottages, set on a rural 60 acre co-educational campus. A warm, supportive environment is coupled with a highly structured daily program to engage our clients to make the changes they need for success. An extensive array of treatment services are provided by our multi-disciplinary team of qualified and caring professional staff.

The predominant model of mental health treatment is the residential milieu, in which Kemmerer Village employs a broad range of treatment approaches. The residential milieu encompasses all facets of the client's life space and daily activities. It is designed to provide both experiential and didactic learning opportunities in a variety of modalities that complement and reinforce one another. The emphasis on what those learning opportunities are for each client is driven by the client's Individual Treatment Plan (ITP). Each client is assigned a multidisciplinary Treatment Team whose responsibility is to develop an ITP that focuses upon the client’s strengths, and how the milieu and other treatment services can be used to support those strengths.

The primary components of the milieu and their role in the overall treatment of the client are as follows:

Cottage Life

Clients reside in one of eight cottages and are grouped according to gender, similarities in age, developmental level and presentation problems. The Child Care Counselors assigned to each cottage are responsible for helping clients obtain all daily basic needs, providing supervision throughout the day, and being knowledgeable of each client's treatment plan goals (along with the implementation of any specialized programming for the client). The Child Care Counselor is trained to seize opportunities as they occur within the routine of daily activities, to help clients gain a mastery over those skills or behaviors that required the intensity of residential care. Cottage activities, some of which are as routine as daily chores, are used as opportunities to instruct clients on issues such as effective communication, social skills, staying on task, anger management, conflict resolution, etc.

Therapeutic Recreation

Clients attend daily group recreation activities, as well as having a weekly individual activity with a Therapeutic Recreation Specialist (TRS). A TRS is also assigned to each client’s Treatment Team. All group and individual activities are carefully designed to address the specific treatment needs of the client, such as anger management, self-expression, social skills, etc. While clients are given some degree of choice in which activities they will participate in, their choice is limited to those activities that match up with a goal(s) on their treatment plan. Individual activities are solely determined based upon the client’s primary treatment goals.

School

The majority of clients attend school on-grounds at Kemmerer, although attendance at the community schools is available depending upon the client's educational needs and abilities. The on-grounds school staff is comprised of teachers who are part of the local school district (Central A&M) along with educational staff employed by Kemmerer Village. The district and Kemmerer Village have developed a highly cooperative working relationship. The school staff participate in treatment staffings and Kemmerer staff participate in educational staffings for each client. Wherever possible, school and Kemmerer policies and procedures are designed to be complimentary to one another so that the school environment is included into the overall therapeutic milieu. Kemmerer Village staff also assist the teaching staff in the behavior management and crisis intervention of clients in school.

Counseling/Therapy

Each client is assigned a Primary Therapist whose office is located in the cottage, making them easily available to both the clients and staff. They are clinically trained professionals with Master’s Degrees in psychology and/or counseling. Individual and Group Therapy is used to address the client's specific mental health issues, using incidents that occur in the milieu's other components to accentuate learning opportunities in those areas. The Primary Therapist also communicates pertinent information about the client's progress in counseling sessions to treatment team members and consults with them to adjust elements in the client's milieu to improve their effectiveness for the client. The Primary Therapist is the main point of contact for information between other out-of-agency providers working with the client and their family. The Primary Therapist also provides the family therapy for each of their clients.

Spiritual Awareness

Kemmerer Village supports the right of the client to individual religious beliefs, and encourages but does not require participation in formal religious training as part of the residential program. Clients are given the opportunity and encouraged to attend off-campus services at the church of their choice.

Kemmerer Village employees a campus Chaplain for ten hours a week. The Chaplain provides spiritual support and guidance for interested residents through: a Sunday worship service at the on-grounds chapel with a social activity hour afterwards, weekly Bible studies, and special worship services for holidays. The Chaplain is also available for one-on-one spiritual counseling for interested residents.

Peer Congress

Clients have the opportunity to participate in a Peer Congress, which meets on a weekly basis and is facilitated by clinical and administrative staff. The Peer Congress gives input regarding Kemmerer's policies, procedures, campus rules and activities for clients. It is a method for teaching clients how the legislative process works, good citizenry, problem-solving and appropriate advocacy of one's rights.

Work Experience

Kemmerer Village provides a limited number of on-campus, paying jobs for our older clients; or those clients who have Life Skill Training goals as a part of their treatment plan. Clients who have demonstrated a higher level of progress on their treatment goals are given first consideration for any available on-campus jobs.

Theoretical Foundation for Behavior Management Program

Due to the complexity of the behavioral, emotional and psychological issues presented by our clients such an eclectic approach is necessary to provide an optimal level of individualized treatment to each client. Cognitive Behavioral theory is the foundation upon which most of Kemmerer's behavior management procedures are based.

A commonality among the clients that are admitted is that they have difficulty in accepting responsibility for their behavior and often fail to perceive the connection between their behavior and consequences. As clients are taught to see the link between thoughts and feelings to behaviors, and that all behaviors have consequences, they begin to accept responsibility for their behavior. As a client accepts responsibility for his or her behavior they then gain a greater sense of control over their behaviors and lives.

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