Turning Point Family Care Inc: November 2012

Friday, November 30, 2012

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.

Monday, November 26, 2012

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.

Friday, November 2, 2012

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."