ST. MARY'S HOME FOR CHILDREN

A residential facility that provides habilitation services and other care and treatment to children diagnosed with mental health illness, behavioral issues, and intellectual disabilities and are not able to live independently.

A residential treatment facility (RTF) is a facility or distinct part of a facility that provides to children and adolescents, a total, twenty-four hour, therapeutically planned group living and learning situation where distinct and individualized psychotherapeutic interventions can take place. Residential treatment is a specific level of care to be differentiated from acute, intermediate, and long-term hospital care, when the least restrictive environment is maintained to allow for normalization of the patient's surroundings. The RTF must be both physically and programmatically distinct if it is a part or subunit of a larger treatment program. An RTF is organized and professionally staffed to provide residential treatment of mental disorders to children and adolescents who have sufficient intellectual potential to respond to active treatment (that is, for whom it can reasonably be assumed that treatment of the mental disorder will result in an improved ability to function outside the RTF) for whom outpatient treatment, partial hospitalization or protected and structured environment is medically or psychologically necessary

A social worker who holds a master's or doctoral degree in social work from an accredited school of social work in addition to at least two years of post-master's supervised experience in a clinical setting. The social worker must be licensed, certified, or registered at the clinical level in the jurisdiction of practice. A clinical social worker provides direct services, including interventions focused on interpersonal interactions, intrapsychic dynamics, and life management issues. Clinical social work services are based on bio-psychosocial perspectives. Services consist of assessment, diagnosis, treatment (including psychotherapy and counseling), client-centered advocacy, consultation, evaluation, and prevention of mental illness, emotional, or behavioral disturbances.

A psychologist is an individual who is licensed to practice psychology which is defined as the observation, description, evaluation, interpretation, and modification of human behavior by the application of psychological principles, methods, and procedures, for the purpose of preventing or eliminating symptomatic, maladaptive, or undesired behavior and of enhancing interpersonal relationships, work and life adjustment, personal effectiveness, behavioral health, and mental health. The practice of psychology includes, but is not limited to, psychological testing and the evaluation or assessment of personal characteristics, such as intelligence, personality, abilities, interests, aptitudes, and neuropsychological functioning; counseling, psychoanalysis, psychotherapy, hypnosis, biofeedback, and behavior analysis and therapy; diagnosis and treatment of mental and emotional disorder or disability, alcoholism and substance abuse, disorders of habit or conduct, as well as of the psychological aspects of physical illness, accident, injury, or disability; and psycheducational evaluation, therapy, remediation, and consultation. Psychological services may be rendered to individuals, families, groups and the public.

The speech-language pathologist is the professional who engages in clinical services, prevention, advocacy, education, administration, and research in the areas of communication and swallowing across the life span from infancy through geriatrics. Speech-language pathologists address typical and atypical impairments and disorders related to communication and swallowing in the areas of speech sound production, resonance, voice, fluency, language (comprehension and expression), cognition, and feeding and swallowing.

A psychologist whose specialty is concerned with the science and practice of psychology with children, youth, families; learners of all ages; and the schooling process. The basic education and training of school psychologists prepares them to provide a range of psychological diagnosis, assessment, intervention, prevention, health promotion, and program development and evaluation services with a special focus on the developmental processes of children and youth within the context of schools, families and other systems. School psychologists are prepared to intervene at the individual and system level, and develop, implement, and evaluate preventive programs. In these efforts, they conduct ecologically valid assessments and intervene to promote positive learning environments within which children and youth from diverse backgrounds to ensure that all have equal access to effective educational and psychological services that promote healthy development

Source: NUCC, CMS