The Wellspring Foundation offers residential psychiatric treatment for children ages 5-12. This small nine bed facility is located in a large country home in the scenic hills of Northwestern Connecticut. The peaceful atmosphere and caring staff provide the sense of security necessary for a child and family to risk restoring relationships.

The Children's Residential Program offers a framework for family growth and change that can reverse the decline that often characterizes the child's and family's course through the mental health system. The family is brought into the treatment setting as an essential component of the treatment process. The attachment issues of adoption are welcomed and specifically addressed in our family unity model.

Parents are given the opportunity to learn effective parenting skills, to form or restore positive emotional connections with the child, and to participate in experiences of play and work necessary for healthy family life. Parents are not overwhelmed by trying to cope with severe behavioral problems before they have adequate knowledge and skill. This family-oriented approach enables relationships to be established that become a bridge to home and outpatient care. Parents or Guardians must be able and willing to be actively involved in the treatment process as indicated and recommended by the Treatment Team.

Children in this program are provided a safe and structured setting where attachment, learning and change can occur. Since children learn more through experience than talk, Wellspring takes great care in structuring the child's daily experiences and relationships as opportunities for healing. Groups and activities include art, music and movement, drama, recreation, puppetry, a farm-based animal program, an adventure program, an outing-based discovery program, along with both traditional and non-verbal individual, family and group therapies. A sample daily schedule is available here.

Wellspring's state approved therapeutic special education school is integrated into the program. Teachers are involved in the milieu programs as essential members of the Treatment Team. Therefore, school can proceed within the residential setting as an important aspect of treatment.

Discharge planning begins upon admission. Removal from the home is only temporary to provide safety and structure for learning and change that can be tested in trial visits home. Continuity of care can be sustained for some children and families through our extended day treatment programs.