New Alternatives, Inc.
"ONE OF A KIND" New Alternatives, incorporated (NAI) is a private, nonprofit California corporation that was founded in San Diego, California in 1978. The mission of new Alternatives is to provide culturally competent and family focused services to child victims of abuse, neglect and abandonment. The population served by this agency are some of San Diego and Orange Counties'' most vulnerable children. These victims frequently suffer from a variety of emotional and psychological disorders due to family histories of child abuse, substance abuse, family violence and mental illness. With treatment, many of these children will be able to break generational cycles of child abuse, substance abuse, family violence, homelessness and poverty.
Since it's inception in 1978, NAI has developed an array of services designed to stop this generational cycle of abuse. The core of this system of care is a variety of residential treatment settings that range in size from 6-48 beds. Each of these programs has been developed in response to a community need for specialized services for at risk children and adolescents. Each is therefore unique in it's services to children and their families. However, all NAI programs provide their services within the Agency philosophy that "children have a right to grow and develop as happy, successful and contributing individuals." Each program is dedicated to achieving this goal for every child. In addition to this core of residential treatment programs, NAI has developed a continuum of care that includes in-home prevention services, mental health programs, school-based services, a wide variety of residential programs, and foster care.
Foster Care: NAI's Foster Family Agency (FFA) provides foster care for difficult to place children and adolescents. The program offers foster parents ongoing training and supervision, support groups, crisis intervention, assistance with transportation, regular weekly contact and sometimes daily phone contact with NAI staff.
In-Home/Preventive Services: NAI has provided in-home support and prevention services since 1983. This program originally started as an in-home service to children at risk of being removed form their homes. However, today the program has several different contracts that provide an array of services designed to either keep children at home or to shorten the time they spending out of home care. Transitional residential services, parenting classes and emergency intervention services, are provided throughout San Diego & Orange County to high risk families.
School Based Programming: NAI provides specialized day treatment, classroom support and counseling services for the Cajon Valley and La Mesa/Spring Valley School Districts. The program's day treatment program is located on the Cajon valley Middle School campus and is considered an early intervention program that is designed to prevent the need for non public school placements. In total, 11 Cajon Valley and 2 La Mesa/Spring Valley School district campuses receive NAI services.
Mental Health Services: NAI currently operates 9 separate mental health programs that serve a wide-range of children and families in a variety of settings. These services include the following:
Day Treatment: The day treatment intensive program provides services to 20 elementary school children and their families. The program provides an intensely structured environment that is designed to stabilize those behaviors that prevent mainstreaming back to the child's home school. The program provides medication monitoring, psychiatric services, individual, group and family counseling, as well as parent education.Emergency Screening Unit: NAI provides crisis consultation services during after hours, weekends, and holidays. The County of San Diego, Mental Health Services provides the services Monday through Friday, except on holidays. The Emergency Screening Unit determines a child or adolescent's immediate need for psychiatric hospitalization. The evaluation process includes crisis intervention, stabilization and alternate resources.
Transition Team Services: NAI's transition team provides intensive case management services to children and adolescents who are receiving in-patient psychiatric hospitalization. The program helps to ensure consistent clinical and procedural protocols between all part of the county's managed care system, UCSD, contract hospitals and outside agencies.
Spectrum Services: This mental health program provides culturally sensitive mental health and drug and alcohol services to minors in Juvenile Hall as well as all other San Diego juvenile detention facilities. Spectrum's mental health staff provide individual group and family counseling services in English and Spanish, Vietnamese, Cambodian and Laotian. Minors being released into the community are provided with a wide range of referrals to community based chemical dependency and/or mental health organizations.
Short-Doyle Patches: Three of NAI's high level residential treatment programs have mental health patches that augment psychological and psychiatric services to severely emotionally disturbed adolescents. These mental health patches provide SED youth in residential care with a day treatment program that significantly increases the mental health services available to each child, hence increasing their chances of successful placement in a lower level of care.
Community Intensive treatment for Youth (C.I.T.Y.): CITY is an intensive case management program for 20 of San Diego's most severely disturbed children and adolescents. Children receiving these services might other wise require State hospitalization due to their chronic psychiatric problems. The program provides long-term case management services that follow the children throughout the program regardless of the child' placement needs. The program is staffed with licensed mental health clinicians and bachelor's level childcare staff. The program is designed to stabilize the child in the most appropriate community setting and to minimize the need for future psychiatric hospitalization.
Cabrillo Assessment Center: The Cabrillo Assessment Center provides comprehensive assessments and in-home support services/resources designed to maintain the child in a home environment. The program's goal is to prevent children from entering, or staying in detention facilities. Services include comprehensive assessments and "home-based services" which include:
- Transition from detention bed
- Support/case management
- Parent education
- Transportation
- Access to resources
- Referral/coordination with mental health treatment
- "Anything it takes" to make a successful "home" placement
- School program (elementary to high school)
- Day Treatment Program at Cabrillo, which includes tutoring, psycho educational groups and respite 8am-9pm.
Therapeutic Behavioral services (TBS): this mental health program provides SED youth with one to one interventions that target very specific behaviors. These interventions are designed to help maintain the child in the least restrictive community setting. A trained mental health specialist is assigned to a single child/youth for as many hours per day as needed. TBS takes place in a variety of settings such as the child's home, foster home, relative's home, residential program or any other out of home placement.
Throughout NAI's 22 year history, the Agency has remained committed to meeting the needs of abandoned, neglected, abused and seriously emotionally disturbed youth and their families. All program development is based upon the changing needs of the communities we serve.
North County Assessment Center: New Alternatives, Inc. in conjunction with the Green Oak Ranch has established the North County Central Assessment Center. The purpose of the assessment center is to accept north county children and adolescents being taken into protective custody by law enforcement and Child Protective Services. These children would otherwise be taken to the Polinsky Children's Center which is the county holding facility located in Kearny Mesa. The program is staffed with licensed and unlicensed mental health clinicians and bachelor's level staff. The program is designed to assess, place and refer services on behalf of the child so that they remain in the north county.
The assessment Center relies heavily on foster family involvement in support of the Assessment Center process. New Alternatives has two certified FFA foster homes on the campus of Green Oaks Ranch whose beds are solely dedicated for use by the Assessment Center.
Early Periodic Screening, Diagnosis and Treatment Program (NAI-FFA EPSDT):
The EPSDT program allows for a variety of mental health services to be offered to our youth in addition to the services provided to the familiies by the FFA program. These services are designed to augment and further enhance the success of our youth and their families. Goals of the program include linking youth to services in the community, stabilizing youth in placement, fostering relationships with biological family members, and assisting youth in skill building in various arenas.
The services we are currently providing include the following:
* Individual Therapy
* Family Therapy
* Independent Living Skills/Emancipation Services
* Developmental Rehabilitation
* Sibling Rehabilitation
* School Rehabilitation
* Social Skills
* Reunification Transitional Services
* Adoption/Guardianship Transitional Services
In addition, the EPSDT program provides for medication evaluations and ongoing treatment for our clients. The flexibility of these services allows for a more complete treatment plan specific to the needs of each identified child. Finally, a multi-disciplinary team apprach is utilitzed in order to ensure that the services remain appropriate and to increase the positive outcomes for our youth.