We are excited to announce the rebranding of our START program – now Camino a Casa meaning Way Home. “We thought it was fitting since the goal of the program is to get kids back to their home and family – healthy, happy, and ready to thrive,” said Elizabeth Zacher Burke, Clinical Program Manager of Camino a Casa. The program offers therapeutic intervention for youth heading into or being discharged from psychiatric hospitalization. Camino a Casa offers access Casa Pacifica’s cutting-edge mental health services through private insurance/private pay.
Molly (name changed for privacy) came to the Camino a Casa program with a distrust of adults and an inability to build healthy relationships. She spent the first 18 months of her life at an orphanage where she was neglected – the result of that neglect was a permanent limp and emotional dysregulation issues. Her adoptive family struggled to teach her coping skills and instill a sense of independence and self-esteem, but they refused to give up on her.
Enter the Camino a Casa program. Mary-Lynn Wagner, Camino a Casa’s Academic Facilitator, spends every morning with the kids in residential treatment. “When Molly came to us she was quiet and withdrawn,” reflected Mary-Lynn. “She wouldn’t confide in any staff or let us comfort her. But by the time she left she would run up to us, say ‘I love you’ and ask for a hug with open arms. It was a complete 180. I believe we gave Molly “wings” to move on to the next chapter of independence in her life by teaching her important skills. In the Camino a Casa program she learned to trust and build strong and lasting relationships, developed coping skills to help manage her disabilities, learned to positively advocate for her needs, and most importantly learned to accept and love herself as a unique individual.”
Find out if Camino a Casa is the right fit for your child, call us at (805) 366-4000.
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