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Children’s Community Mental Health Centeroffers mental health and related services to children and adolescents up to the age of 16 (and in some cases up to the age of 18 or 21), and their families.
The Children's Community Mental Health Center provides a variety of clinical and preventive mental health and related services at several locations throughout Staten Island. Emergency services are provided by Psychiatric Emergency Room, St. Vincents Medical Center, 355 Bard Avenue, Staten Island 10310.
Outpatient Therapeutic Services
Emotionally
or behaviorally disturbed children up to age 16 (up to age 18 at
the Family Support Center) and their families receive the highest
quality diagnostic and treatment services in English and Spanish.
Individual, group, and family therapies, psychopharmacology, medication
management, as well as parent counseling, are available to all registered
clients and their families. The Family Support Parents' Program (FSPP) of the SIMHS, located in St. George, was developed in 1991 to provide the families of children who are enrolled in mental health treatment programs with additional support, advocacy, and respite services. There is no charge to families enrolled in the FSPP. The primary focus of the FSPP is to foster parents' growth as more effective caregivers and to develop more satisfying relationships with their children. Parents learn to understand their child's behavior and special developmental needs, identify and understand their own parenting styles, express their feelings constructively, and encourage their children to communicate their own feelings. Respite
for parents is offered during the times they meet together. Their
children are supervised in a safe, learning, and supportive environment.
Transportation services, advocacy, assistance with accessing other
community services, and promoting recreational activities keep parents
engaged and help them realize their goals. Day Treatment Center Services PS/IS/ 25 & South Richmond HS:
The Day Treatment Center (PS/IS/25 & South Richmond HS) is a partnership between the SIMHS and District 75 of the New York City Department of Education that combines therapeutic and academic services for children, ages 6 to 18, with severe emotional or behavioral disorders. Small classes
are led by New York City Department of Education special education
teachers, who give copious attention to each student's academic
needs. The SIMHS's professional, caring clinicians concentrate on
individual and family therapy to hasten perception and recovery,
with the goal of mainstreaming the children back into their neighborhood
schools. After-school programs located on the North Shore, which
provide homework help and recreational activities, as well as an
optional summer session, are offered to students to provide a continuity
of care and reduce interruptions to their progress. Children in
the Day Treatment program usually return to general education schools
within three to four years.
On-Site Mental Health ProgramThis program provides school-based therapeutic services for mainstream elementary and intermediate school students who are in danger of being placed into special education classes because of chronic disruptive behavior. Individual therapy sessions at the school are offered to students and their parents. Evening appointments are available to working parents. Referrals are made to the SIMHS clinical staff through each school's principal or designee. The On-Site Mental Health Program is available at the following schools:
Summer Therapeutic Program
The program's goals are to provide emotional stability throughout the summer, to help the children feel more confident about themselves and their abilities, and to prepare them for the next school year. Each SIMHS clinician is assigned to a small group and spends time every day with students who need extra support, both in one-on-one and group sessions. Crisis intervention and parent counseling are regularly provided. Recreational
activities include sports, games, arts and crafts, computers, music,
trips, creative arts, a special theme, and a graduation party on
the last day of the program. Family Resources
If you are a parent who
feels overwhelmed, angry, or isolated, and sometimes even powerless
to deal with your child's behavior, this program provides a variety
of preventive, therapeutic, family training, referral, networking,
advocacy, and recreational services to assist you in coping and
to help prevent child abuse and neglect. The goal of the program
is to avert foster care placement and keep families together by
improving their interpersonal relationships, linking them to appropriate
services, providing education about children's development and behavior,
and helping families to achieve a level of stability that will ensure
the children's safety. Teen Center
The SIMHS's Teen Center is one of very few New York State-licensed outpatient alcohol/substance abuse treatment programs exclusively for teens and young adults, ages 12 to 21, including family members of alcohol/substance abusers. The Teen Center program provides consumers with counseling, treatment, support, and training in social skills, in a non-judgmental and recreational environment. Clients re-acquire the life skills to learn, work, play and love optimally without dependence on chemical substances, and gain the insight and ability to grow into responsible, productive adults. Teen Center also offers a specialized intensive treatment track known as MICA (Mentally Ill/Chemical Abuser) for adolescents who have been dually diagnosed with mental illness and chemical addiction, with the goal of preventing initial or repeat acute inpatient stays or residential placement.  
Getting their lives back on track can be very difficult for adolescents and young adults who have emotional disorders and who are dependent on alcohol and/or drugs. A specialized treatment option for these youngsters is the MICA program of Staten Island Mental Health Society's North Shore Teen Center in St. George. Young people with chemical dependencies frequently have emotional disturbances that underpin their drug or alcohol use. Historically, they have been funneled into either the mental health or the substance abuse treatment system, with little, if any, accommodation for their overlapping disorders. In the MICA program, youngsters battling these dual afflictions receive treatment in one therapeutic setting. The program provides intensive therapeutic services up to five evenings per week, geared towards preventing teenagers with mental and addictive illnesses from being placed in a hospital or residential treatment center. Clients work with licensed, professionally-trained counselors who are attuned to the specific needs of youth and families who are struggling with chemical dependencies and serious emotional disorders. Services include evaluation, individual, group, and family therapies by Masters-level substance abuse specialists, and medication management, where indicated, by board-certified psychiatrists. After treatment is completed, less intensive follow-up services such as counseling, educational, vocational, and life-skills services are offered at both Teen Center locations. As emotional
disorders and substance abuse are almost always accompanied by school
failure, after-school tutoring by licensed, Masters-level teachers
is also available at the St. George and Great Kills locations, through
the SIMHS's Project for Academic Student Success (PASS) and other
after school programs.
Project for Academic Student Success (PASS)
Alcohol and
drug abuse are difficult to treat once they are fully developed;
prevention offers the greatest hope. PASS offers academic tutoring
and substance abuse prevention services for intermediate and high
school students, 11 to 17 years old, who are at risk of failing
or dropping out of school because of declining grades and/or behavior
problems. After-school tutoring is conducted by licensed, Master's
level teachers. Computer labs are available for educational and
recreational use. Life skills training and recreational activities
round out the program, while workshops for parents enhance family
understanding and functioning. During the summer, PASS offers free
daytime sports, trips, support groups, and other activities.
SafeTY.net (Safe Transition for Youth.net)
A comprehensive program to help young people (ages 16 to 23) with emotional challenges to manage the transition from adolescence to employment and career, higher education, community living, and the development of life skills. Once enrolled in SafeTY.net, a young person will have the support he or she needs to navigate the passage into the adult world.
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Therapeutic
services, remedial studies, and recreational activities fill the
days of July and August, affording severely emotionally disturbed
children from 5- to 12-years of age, who would not be accepted into
conventional summer camps, an experience of pleasure and purpose,
under the supervision of skilled staff. 
