Family Support

One unique feature of the Sandhill Center program is the extensive training and support we provide to family members.  This support is offered throughout the course of treatment, as well as during and after the transition back to the family home.

Family relationships may be strained prior to placement, making relationship repair a crucial goal of our treatment program.  We encourage frequent family contact by telephone and visit, with phone calls beginning immediately after admission. Additionally, we offer on-site guest quarters to parents, and warmly welcome parents to join us as part of our “treatment family.”

While visiting Sandhill Center, we encourage parents to spend time side-by-side with our experienced staff members to watch and learn as they implement intervention strategies, activities, and facilitate other aspects of the children’s’ daily routine.  This “co-parenting” training technique demonstrates to parents how the staff sets are able to set children up for success and helps teach parents how to make more effective choices. Parenting children with attachment-related issues is often a counter-intuitive process.  Our staff help parents become attune to their child’s needs and respond in a manner that is productive and therapeutic, in order to help build healthy and durable relationships between children and families.

In addition to offering ongoing family therapy and co-parenting training, the Sandhill Center offers a home-based service component titled Connections.  In conjunction with our residential treatment plan, our staff may also travel with the child to his or her home environment to assure that the transition to the family home is seamless and that family members feel capable of managing any problems that may emerge.  We may offer support, advice, and training for a period of several days or even several weeks if needed, with parental confidence and competence as our overall goal.