Program REACH offers alternative intervention for at-risk youths
Tim Pappa, Athens NEWS Special Projects Contributor
April 28, 2005
It seems as if many kids are concerned with predicaments such as whom to go to the basketball game with or what new videogame to buy or what time Spongebob is on TV. However, for the children of REACH, a relatively unknown youth program, their stories are much different.
"I worry all the time that my mom's boyfriend is going to try to kill her because he has (tried to) before and he's getting out of prison," one teen acknowledged.
Another said, "Everyone in my family keeps telling me I'm just like my dad. I'm no good, I'm a thief, I'm a rapist."
"They'll surprise you," said Sue Ellen Schuyler, director of REACH, when speaking of the children whom her organization attempts to help.
REACH, a Tri-County Mental Health and Counseling Services youth program located on 434 W. Union St., was created by a group of Tri-County counselors who wanted an alternative to sending troubled children back to unsafe environments. REACH was unofficially named by the children it serves.
"They're not shy," Schuyler said, but they are angry, confused and hurt. Some children have dropped out of school, a few have tried to commit suicide, whereas others have gotten into drugs and fights, she acknowledged. Others were just hit too much, or touched in the wrong places. Also, some children were harassed or cast as outsiders by their peers.
"Quite often kids are victimized themselves," said Keith Thomas, a REACH employee. He said troubled kids are constantly picked on at school and generally seen as the outsider.
"That's the big thing these kids deal with," Garcia said. "Other kids say, 'You're crazy, you go to that school,' People are just afraid of mental illness because they don't understand it."
Unfortunately, for the children who need help, their time at REACH is limited. Without improvement after four to six months, most youths are sent to the last stop: the juvenile court system.
"We don't just cut them loose right away," said Janie Garcia, a four-year REACH employee; it's a slow process. It takes time to work through anger and sadness with each youth, she said.
REACH is structured so that five days a week, for six hours each day, about 20 youths participate in various activities every 30 minutes. Most activities are group-oriented, focusing on goal setting, social-skills development, teamwork, family issues, conflict resolution and stress management, among others.
REACH employees want to get youths "to the point where everything isn't dramatic, to the point where they can function socially," Garcia said. Many times at REACH, frustrated kids will cry, or pound the walls, or sit disturbingly still.
"Even to the point of getting through an hour of education (is) hard for them," she said. "These kids are extremely needy. It takes time to open up. There's no overnight success."
The long periods of time that are sometimes needed is evidenced by a 15year-old youth who was hospitalized for depression, attempted suicide, drug use, and violent acts in school. He entered REACH last year, Schuyler said, where interventions initially failed.
"He had a hard time believing anyone cared about him," Schuyler said. "He would say to me, 'You just come here for the money.'" Shortly after entering the program, the youth's home burned down, and as a result, his family was homeless for a period of time.
At REACH, everyone is the same, Schuyler said. No one is stigmatized. Individual and group discussions continue daily to break a youth's defense and to reveal the root of the anger. For example, the 15-year-old teen resented his parents because - in his view - they failed to raise him, Schuyler said. His admission was critical.
Following the lowering of the children's defenses, it is necessary to teach them that life is worth something, Schuyler said. This past week, she said, the 15-year-old - now back in school - returned to share the good news: he got a summer job roofing.
Months ago, another suicidal youth was referred to REACH. She couldn't think straight, her speech was slurred, she was easily frustrated, and often she would break down sobbing. The problem: overmedication. REACH corrected it with the help of a doctor who visits weekly. The girl "totally turned around," Garcia said, as evidenced by her improving in school.
REACH is designed to connect youths to numerous health-care professionals to ease adjustments and recovery. Psychiatrists will prescribe them medications, if necessary. Counselors will work one on one with them. Case managers will chart their progresses. Nonetheless, self-help and selfimprovement remain core to REACH.
Importantly, psychiatrists, counselors, doctors and REACH workers aren't the only ones who instruct and discipline the children. Older REACH youths know the rules as well. So, when a new arrival misbehaves, Garcia said, the older youth might say, "Look, you shouldn't do that stuff, you'll get in trouble."
"They become part of the process. They step up. They build confidence," he added. "Kids take direction better from other kids."
Also, "if someone says something inappropriate in a group - and there's always one - someone else says that that was inappropriate," Schuyler said. "They're the ones to shut that down, not us."
Direction at REACH is everywhere, not just from REACH's five full-time employees, but also from numerous parttime and intern employees and older youths. Poster boards, for example, remind youths: Clean Up After Yourself. Walk Away From Problems. No Arguing. Think Before Speak. Model Good Behavior. Also, therapeutic movies such as "Men of Honor" are shown to portray a person overcoming odds and beating adversity. Points are also awarded for good behavior.
Every youth at REACH begins on Level One. Points for good behavior or bad behavior - such as destroying property, engaging in inappropriate sexual conduct and being physically rough - dictate whether a youth will reach Level Three, Schuyler said. Maintaining that level for three continuous weeks allows discussion of future placement of the youth. Some start going to school again for just a few days each week, whereas some move on to new foster parents or return home.
"We try to be an intervention," Schuyler said. "Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't."
In a sign of their achievements, each youth who completes REACH leaves his or her handprint in paint on the office's white walls. Between 30 and 40 handprints - some aqua green, some deep-sea blue - adorn REACH's rooms. Below each palm is the name and date for when that youth finished - a show of each child's success.
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