Christmas Time At Turning Point!

This past week was a great one for us at Turning Point. On the 21st we had a family day. In the past the school had a play and a great feast after. This year we decided to change things up by doing a group family therapy. The group went great. We spent time talking about communicating with each other and talking about sex, and some of the other "hard stuff". We then had a communication exercise which was very telling for many families. It was interesting to see because in many ways we could tell the families that communicate well and those that don't communicate as well. The parent involvement in the group was great also. We had a lot of parents give great insightful comments and they took the group serious. After group we had the Christmas Feast that all of our youth who are in the cooking class prepared. The food was amazing! In the afternoon each family was also able to sit down with their child's therapist and have a family session  Youth were also allowed to spend a lot of time with their family. It was a very great day.
On Christmas Eve, Rick held a group that was an auction. Over the past month the youth were able to earn tickets that they would be able to spend at this auction. As an administration we decided to buy gifts for this auction instead of gifts for each other this year. The auction was a big success and all the youth seemed to really enjoy it. Many youth walked away from the auction with candy, chips, pop, t-shirts, games, anything the youth would like or enjoy.
Overall the holidays were great for the youth. It is hard to be away from their families, but we do our best to make certain the youth have some fun.

Thanks for reading.

The Next Step

The Next Step

      I'm a youth that lived at Turning Point for about a year and 5 months. While I was in Turning Point, I learned a lot about myself that I never really looked deep enough to know. I really am glad for the time I spent at Turning Point though, because it helped me to become a better person and has given me the opportunity for a better life. Leaving the facility isn't the final step though. I'm now to a very vital step for being able to live a successful life: Going into proctor care.

     Going into proctor is a huge deal for kids in the facility. You have 6 levels for treatment, and you usually head into proctor around the end of level 4 or the beginning of level 5. Each level can take anywhere between a month to 4 months, usually, so after working hard for so long, going into proctor is like winning the lottery. Every kid in the facility looks forward to hitting that point of going into proctor. 

     Even though going into proctor is such a great thing though, it comes along with a lot of responsibility. You have to make sure and set down good boundaries with yourself and others so that you don't end up getting into trouble again. You also have to start learning all sorts of different skills so that when you get to the point, you can either transfer home or into independent living. All in all, when you get into proctor, you have a lot of responsibility, but for pretty much everyone, it's a fair trade for getting out and back into the community.

     I'm really glad for the opportunity Turning Point has given me. They have helped me to learn many new lessons that are going to help me to succeed in my future, and for this, I am forever grateful. I am also thankful for the many amazing proctor parents, therapists, and staff that have and are giving their time and love to help us youth get back into the mainstream of life.

The Upcoming Month

The month of November has been a little slow.  We had a Thanksgiving Dinner that the youth prepared. At times the holidays can be very hard for the youth that are far from home and their parents cannot visit. We try to do our best to understand the youth and make them feel better.
Today we held a therapy group day in which we held groups on the book "Leadership and Self Deception." It is a great book that encourages us to look at how we view others and ourselves. We are encouraging all our youth and staff to read this book to gain a better insight into how we treat others.

We are really looking forward to the month of December and all that it brings.

A Youth's Perspective on Treatment

This is written by a youth that is preparing to transition out of our program and move on to bigger and better things in his life. He has made some great changes and we are very proud of the what he has done.

"Hi, I am a kid with sexual issues and I was recently getting treatment at Turning Point Family Care. The person that I was and the person that I have become since coming here  are two different ones, I have been gaining more knowledge by Internalizing and Externalizing every aspect of my treatment. I have been learning to engage with new people and be able to have healthy relationships with them too. Before I came to treatment I wasn't able to to recognize my mistakes nor to take responsibility.  A lot of times I hurt people, the people that loved me the most as well as my victim but unfortunately by that time I was such a careless person who wasn't able to feel some empathy for my victims nor to recognize that I had a problem and that I needed help. But fortunately I came to Turning Point where I had and still have a lot of support from my therapist and some staff members. While I was in treatment I learned that I wasn't a bad person like myself and my family thought I was; but that I make a lot of mistakes like any other person and that I could change if i really wanted to. Which I really did. Empathy is the most important value that I learned and felt while I was in treatment. Now I am able to look at my victims' faces and say sorry and actually mean it which is even more important than just saying sorry. Also I was able to forgive myself and to forgive those that had done bad things to me.  It was very hard for me to forgive myself as well as those who hurt me before but eventually I learned that in order to succeed in life I needed to put the past in the past and start living in the present and so i did. Treatment has helped me to change the way I see females and to build healthy relationships with others. It also helped me to open my eyes and see all the good things that I have been missing out since the day that I made the choice that got me into trouble. I feel like a new person and that is because I don't think the same way I used to, I also don't have to follow negative influences and get into trouble anymore. Since I moved out of the program into a proctor care home I always think of all the people the believe in me and how far I have come since I came to Turning Point every time that I am about to make a risky choice that might get me into trouble which has helped me a lot. I am going to read my relapse prevention plan at least once a week for some time and apply it to my day to day life so eventually it can become a habit, a good habit that I could keep for the rest of my life."

Pictures

Recently we had our pictures taken. So here they are. All of our smiling faces!

 Necia, Beth, and Crystal

 Rashell

 Dan

 Rick

 Kelly

 John

 Joe

 TJ

 Gordon

Longest Day Ever, Ever!!!!

Each month here at Turning Point we try to have what we call "The Longest Day Ever". This day is a day in which we spend as much time as we can with the youth in therapeutic activities. This month we decided that in having "The Longest Day Ever" we would challenge ourselves and the youth to have a very long day. As in 24 hours of group and together time! The following pictures are just a snapshot of some of the things we did throughout the day. We did learn a lot about ourselves as therapists, but we also learned a lot about the youth we work with. One thing that I learned was that we were able to challenge our youth and they were able to live up to those challenges. We were also able to see a different side of  many of the youth and that was neat. I think the youth were also able to see a different side of many of the adults! We had a great time and cannot wait to see what the next "Longest Day Ever" brings!

 Some of our youth doing service. This was a very special part of the day as we were able to help out a couple that truly needed service, but also were very appreciative of the hard work our youth did on their yard and home. 

 We challenged each of the pods to cook their own meals! They did great at the challenge and some of the food was even worth eating!!!

 For one of the group activities we had each youth create a mask to show their true feelings and what they are hiding on the inside. It was a powerful activity for many of them. 

 In the middle of the night we had a hike and this was the sight that greeted them when they arrived at the end. It was also great because it kept us warm! We held a group here about committing to the program and to the changes that need to be made to show their victims they have changed. 

Of course we have to have a picture of the sun rise. We had each youth spend some quiet time and watch the sun rise and think about who they are and what they need to do in order to succeed. It was a great day. We were all very tired, but it truly was a great experience for all who were there. 

Thanks for reading!

Plaque

Here is a plaque that was made with care by one of our staff for a youth that will soon graduate the program. This youth has been at home for the past three months and has shown that he has made changes in his life and has not relapsed. Due to this we will have a graduation ceremony where he will be presented with this plaque (Not the best picture, I know). The mirror in the middle is for the youth to look at each day, if there comes a time where the youth cannot look into the mirror and be happy with himself and his actions then that means he needs to change something to make himself be okay and to feel good about the kind of life he is living. The youth also chooses each quote that is on the plaque because each quote means something to them and the challenges and struggles they have overcome to heal. We hope to present a plaque to each youth that enters our program and we are always very happy when we can do this. 

Welcome to Our Blog!

We are Turning Point Family Care Inc. You may wonder what we are all about, so here is a brief version.
We are a residential treatment facility in Cedar City, Utah. Here we have NOJOS Level 6 clients who are referred to us by the court system due to the level of sexually acting out in the community. Much of this blog may be devoted to the kind of things we are doing with our clients in the facility. We like to take our clients out in the community for extensive group therapy days, community service, and other things that may be beneficial to our clients.
We also have foster/proctor care homes. We strive to provide the best types of homes we possibly can find for youth that are placed in proctor/foster care.
We also serve people in the community by offering mental health services provided by our experienced clinicians.
This blog will contain articles, stories, events, etc to showcase what we do best here, and that is to serve our clients.
If you have any suggestions please email at tpfcinc@gmail.com.
Thanks for reading the blog!