Phoenix House

Program Director:  Howard Friend
                         (714) 953-9373
                         hfriend@phoenixhouse.org

Admissions:    James Hunter
                         (714) 953-9373
                         jhunter@phoenixhouse.org

The goal of treatment at Phoenix House Academy Orange County is to enable each adolescent to achieve developmental and emotional stability and behavioral change in a safe structured environment, leading to a new lifestyle independent of self-destructive and/or addictive behavior. The adolescent can learn the skills to function from individually-tailored levels of care: the residential Therapeutic Community; outpatient day program with school or after school and/or evening services; and ultimately at home, in school and in the community at large. Each component of the program is designed to incrementally increase responsibility, self-respect, and self-control.

Clients presenting with co-occurring mental health and substance abuse disorders will learn how those disorders interact and exacerbate the effects of the other. Our primary goal for these clients is to foster a self-understanding of their emotional struggles and to recognize the connection between such interpersonal difficulties and alcohol and other drug abuse. Because these adolescents are both emotionally disturbed and substance involved to a serious extent, a major goal of treatment is sobriety, a drug-free lifestyle, and avoiding serious organic damage or death. The program is designed to reduce repeated hospitalizations, juvenile hall recidivism, academic failure, as well as interpersonal and intra-personal conflict and dysfunction.

The program will assist the adolescent’s family in gaining the skills to function effectively and to meet the needs of each family member.  In addition, the family is assisted to use community resources to help meet the variety of needs they usually have.The specific service delivery objectives for the participants are:

1. assessment and stabilization of emotional, behavioral and psychiatric symptoms;
2. abstinence from all non-prescribed substances;
3. compliance with medication regime if prescribed;
4. development of suitable educational goals;
5. achievement of appropriate educational gains;
6. enhanced family communication and problem-solving;
7. family integration plan (either traditional, foster care or emancipation);
8. improved relationships with peers, staff and teachers;
9. participation in appropriate support groups and individual/family therapy;
10. successful program completion; and
11. development of a reentry and continuing care plan.

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Program Overview
Admission Criteria and Payment Options
Treatment Activities and Educational Services