Friendship House - Services

Friendship House offers a full range of care and mental health services for boys and girls with emotional and behavioral difficulties-toddlers to teens-and their families.

Treatment Services are provided by credentialed mental health professionals. A psychiatrist supervises all treatment plans and reviews the child's progress.

The Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations has accredited Friendship House to provide these services to children, both living at home and those who need out-of-home care.

Programs vary by intensity and structure. Child and Family Counseling is generall the least intensive level of care, while the most intensive is on campus residential care. Each program may be considered a step-down or a step-up in a full continuum of care. Staff work with the family and other professionals to determine which programs best meet the child's complete needs for health and well-being. Always, children are placed in the most appropriate setting, based on their individual needs.

The Friendship House goal: to return a child to living within his or her community with an improved appreciation of self, enhanced social skills, and a functional loving family or other caring support system.

Listed below are descriptions of our programs from the highest level of structured care to counseling services received while at home…

Residential Care is a highly structured program for children six to 16 who are unable to live at home due to serious emotional problems which interfere with family or community life, or an unstable family situation. Residential care offers a safe, nurturing living environment. Children in residential care are also enrolled in the Friendship House Day Partial Hospitalization Program where they receive clinical services and therapeutic activities. They also receive a prescribed program of psycho-educational treatment through the Friendship House Special Education Program. These supportive interventions improve the child's well-being and prepare him or her to return home, or be transferred into another stable permanent living situation following treatment. (Residential care is available in Scranton.)

Trauma and grief counseling includes individual, group, and family counseling, education and training, consultation and resources. As needed, these services are provided to children and families already involved in the Friendship House continuum of care, as well as those children referred from the community. Children who may benefit from these services:

Group Homes offer children a neighborhood living situation when they are unable to live at home for reasons of safety or well-being. Group homes may also serve as a supervised step-down program from a higher level of care. Friendship House maintains group homes for males ages 9 to 18 years old in Philadelphia and Pottsville. These boys attend community schools and participate in community programs.

The purpose of foster family care is to provide healthy and supportive homes for children, ranging in age from infancy to adolescence. These children are currently unable to live with their biological family due to emotional or social difficulties, or the biological family's inability to provide a living arrangement conducive to rearing emotionally and physically-healthy children. The goal of foster family care is to place each child with a loving and caring family who will assist Friendship House in meeting his or her emotional and physical needs, and provide daily care. The ultimate program goal is to prepare children and biological parents for successful reunification whenever possible.
Children and foster families are matched carefully. Foster parents are key members of our "team". Friendship House offers training, financial reimbursement, case manager support and referrals to community services, with round-the-clock access to an "On-Call" case manager.

Kinship Care is a 24 hour out-of-home living arrangement providing care and supervision for a child in an approved home of a relative or family friend. Kinship Care homes must meet the same criteria for approval as a foster family home.

Partial Hospitalization services are offered to children who need more intensive and comprehensive treatment services than outpatient therapy alone. Children admitted to Partial Hospitalization programs at Friendship House are between the ages of three and 15. Children in Lackawanna and Wayne Counties receive transportation to and from the program and also receive one meal while at Friendship House.

Children in this program require intensive services and need a psychiatrists' recommendation to receive this level of care. These children typically display a variety of emotional and behavioral problems including: depression and mood disorders, anxiety disorders and phobias, thought disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), trauma reactions and oppositional defiant patterns of behavior.

The program's primary goal is to decrease a child's symptoms, teach healthy and socially acceptable behavior and forms of expression so that he/she can effectively transition back into the daily routine of home, school, and community, behave appropriately and manage emotions.

A variety of services are available to each child depending on individual need. These include: individual and family therapy, diagnostic assessment, medication and community support programs.

Friendship House delivers three distinct Partial Hospitalization Services to meet the needs of children in our community. The three services are:

Children in the Day Partial Program attend the Friendship House School, a private residential rehabilitation facility licensed by the PA Department of Education for children in kindergarten through secondary grades.

Since 1986, the Early Childhood Partial Hospitalization Program has treated boys and girls ages three to five who are at high risk for emotional disorders due to economic hardship, social stresses and developmental delays. The program at Friendship House helps such children develop age-appropriate skills critical for their continued growth and learning. Each child's treatment plan has a component to help bring him or her on par with other children entering kindergarten.

Friendship House provides transportation to and from the facility locations in Scranton and Honesdale as well as breakfast and lunch

This Partial Hospitalization program is offered for children ages 5 years to 15 years who attend community school daily, but still require supportive mental health services in a structured program, as documented by a psychiatrist. Children attend the program three to five times per week depending on their need for this level of intervention.

Staff provide professional intervention to reduce levels of impairment in social, emotional, psychological and behavioral areas in the life of a child or teen. While attending the program, children are presented with a variety of safe, therapeutic activities on a daily basis. Activities include a variety of athletic games and craft projects focusing on developing anger management and coping skills, self-esteem, following directions, expression of feelings and family relationships.

Children enrolled also receive meals and transportation to and from Friendship House Treatment Center in Scranton.

Growing up can be difficult, and family life can be trying, for parents and children. You and your child can experience stressful times due to pressures in today's society, personal issues, adjustment to change, relationships, and a variety of other causes. Children can have difficulties finding success in school, and in their peer and family relationships. Friendship House can help!

Through Child & Family Counseling, Friendship House offers children and parents a therapeutic opportunity for growth and change in a convenient, pleasant setting. The service is designed to focus on realistic goals and objectives, to reduce problematic symptoms and stressors, and to improve daily functioning for the child, parent and the family, without the need for further intervention.

Has trouble concentrating
Fails to complete tasks
Talks back to adults
Doesn't get along with others and fights a lot
Doesn't accept responsibilities and blames others
Has no respect for adult authority
Doesn't try
Lacks self confidence
Has poor grades
Gets in trouble at school often

Counseling services include Diagnosis & Comprehensive Psychiatric Evaluation, Individual & Family Counseling, Psychological Testing and Medication Management. A psychiatrist clinically supervises all treatment plans and reviews progress.

Friendship House mental health professionals see children and families as partners. The collaboration between staff and child is goal-directed to help overcome adversity in everyday life. The staff are professionally trained and offer the child and family a sense of realistic hopefulness.

Through commitment and cooperation, staff can provide professional intervention to reduce levels of impairment in social, emotional, psychological and behavioral areas of a child's life.

The Northeast Regional Center for Autism Spectrum Disorders is the only one of its kind in Northeastern Pennsylvania. The Center's Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention (EIBI) progam offers toddlers from eighteen(18) months to age twenty(20) state-of-the-art intensive, comprehensive Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA), shown to be the most effective treatment for this neurobehavioral disorder.

Communication issues are the leading reason behind difficult behaviors exhibited by children on the autism spectrum. The focus of this program is to teach communication and learning readiness skills by immersing children in a language- and communication-rich environment emphasizing social interactions, sensory stimulation, and play.

The goal: As age appropriate, to maximize young children's abilities at a critical stage in their development, when their brains are most responsive to acquiring and generalizing adaptive skills. Adolescent goals would include soicalization, job readiness lifeskills and community integration.

Children, and adolescents who are candidates for Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention (EIBI) have been diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) including Pervasive Developmental Disorder, Asperger's Disorder, Rhett's Disorder and Childhood Disintegrative Disorder.

Autism services are provided to children ranging in age from early childhood to twenty-one, using a tiered approach. Services are delivered as prescribed by a psychologist and may consist of a combination of school, home, center, and/or community settings.

Friendship House is a private Residential Rehabilitation Institution licensed by the PA Department of Education. The program's psycho-educational specialists work with the clinical staff, family, and public school personnel to devise an individualized education plan (IEP) for each child.

Where reunification of the child and the biological family is not possible, adoption becomes the permanent goal. This program prepares interested and qualified families to become adoptive parents for children identified by the State-Wide Adoption Network (SWAN). As a SWAN affiliate, Friendship House offers all components of the adoptive process including family and child profiles, child-specific recruitment, child preparation and post-adoptive services.