Happy Holidays From The Camino a Casa Family To Your Family
Camino a Casa has been focusing on ways to give back to our community while incorporating fun activities that our youth can experience with their family during the holiday season. There are still ways to celebrate the season with your loved ones in treatment and we have integrated many new traditions in our Families Engaging Actively Together (FEAT) program, while practicing social distancing.
“It’s such a blessing to have this program.”- Camino a Casa Parent
Family engagement is an important component of the Camino a Casa Program. It encourages the parent/guardian(s), as well as the entire family, to participate in the youth’s treatment to support transfer of skills that will be essential when the youth transitions home. Camino a Casa supports the enhancement of the family relationship through visitation, family therapy, and family activities (virtually or in-person).
Ongoing Family and Alumni Support
Family programming focuses on supporting the youth and his/her family. There are three main components to the program:
- Families Engaging Actively Together (FEAT)
- Parent DBT Skills group
- Family Therapy
Families Engaging Actively Together (FEAT)
During this time of COVID, Camino’s FEAT program has been meeting monthly with virtual family activities, via ZOOM. To celebrate the significance of Thanksgiving, our youth wanted to give back to others less fortunate and spent time wrapping gifts with loved ones (see pictures) and identify ways to be grateful for what they had. Our most recent activity entailed making and decorating Gingerbread houses, decorating holiday cookies, enjoying holiday music, and sipping hot cocoa. To enjoy the experience together, we asked parents to participate in this activity by gathering supplies to make their houses and cookies and be connected virtually, while in the comfort of their own homes.
Parent DBT Skills Group
Camino a Casa has developed an 8-week skills training for parents/guardians (see below). The parent groups are available to current youth’s parents/guardians as well as alumni parents/guardians who want to continue to learn the skills to support their child and family in the home environment.
8 Week Parent DBT Skills
Week 1: Orientation to DBT and Mindfulness
Week 2: Parenting Dialectics and Principles of Behaviorism
Week 3: Validation
Week 4: Maintaining Safety, Emotion Model and Introduction to Distress Tolerance
Week 5: Distress Tolerance Skills (Crisis Survival Skills)
Week 6: Radical Acceptance and Emotion Regulation Skills
Week 7: Emotion Regulation Skills and Introduction to Interpersonal Effectiveness Skills
Week 8: Interpersonal Effectiveness Skills
“Showing the DBT video and being part of the break-out group was very helpful.”- Camino a Casa Parent
Family Therapy
We understand that the youth in the Camino a Casa Program will be returning to their families and their communities and we strive to help youth maintain connections and preserve relationships with family members. Weekly family therapy is provided to support the youth and family while in treatment.
