Jul 03 2008
Systems for Troubled Teens: Crisis Shelter
As promised long ago, I do want to do an occasional series on the systems that troubled teens may become involved in or utilize. I have a great deal of professional experience with these systems (aha! A benefit to the job-attention-deficit of my 20s!) and I hope my knowledge can be reassuring to parents dealing with these issues. One of my first jobs (and hardest!) out of college was working at a teen crisis shelter. I’ll admit to being unaware of how many of these there are throughout the country but the professional jargon for such places is usually “sheltercare.”
The crisis shelter I worked for was somewhat unique, though I hope lots more like it exist across the country. At this shelter, while we took referrals from professionals, we also targeted teens themselves and their parents.
The major selling point for both teens and parents: use us as a break from each other. Rather than Mom/Dad/Guardian getting so frustrated with the teen that they try to sign them over to the county or state (yes, people do this), we asked parents to voluntarily sign them in to our facility for a time-out period. Our shelter operated on a “roughly two weeks” schedule but this could be drastically reduced or increased, depending on the teen and family’s needs.
For teens, we could typically sell them on, “instead of breaking the law by running away and risking getting into more trouble, causing your family a lot of worry and heartache, and not being sure if you’re safe, come stay with us for awhile.” Sometimes this was still a difficult sell because coming into our facility was not like coming into a college dorm. These teens were not allowed to come and go as they pleased. They still had responsibilities and rules to follow that were usually more strict than what they had at home.
What sheltercare is not: babysitting. We did have parents who wanted to dump their kids off for the weekend while they ran out of town. Not acceptable. Don’t abuse non-profit facilities in this way. I can’t speak for other shelters but ours only charged other agencies, such as Department of Child Services or probation services. There was no charge to the parents, which means we relied heavily on grants and donations.
So if you and your teen are going through a struggle and need a time-out, try locating a teen shelter in your region. Oftentimes you can make an anonymous call at first, just to get information. You can also give the information to your teen in case they are threatening to run away and you’re worried sick about where they’ll end up.
