The Oaks Behavioral Health

By PJ Martin

Editor

The Herald-News

 

Everyone needs a little help when it comes to life’s ups and downs and children are no exception. The chaotic world that children deal with every day takes a toll on them and sometimes as adults, we don’t realize just how much.

Children have to manage things beyond their control such as bullying, grief, parents divorcing, abusive situations, or poor living conditions related to income or other factors. Any one of these things can have a detrimental effect on a child’s behavior and mental health. Some situations can be severe enough to cause mental health disorders like anxiety and depression, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), or cause them to turn to substance abuse.

That’s where The Oaks Behavioral Health can help by offering screening and assessment, treatment planning, diagnosis, psychiatric medication management, individual and family counseling, non-opioid outpatient substance abuse disorder (SUD) treatment, consultation, case management, peer support groups, and therapeutic rehabilitation, and a therapists can meet with clients individually or in group settings.

The new Edmonton location at 1007 West Stockton Street is currently accepting appointments for children and adolescents. They hope to expand and take adult clients in the future. All appointments are scheduled through the Glasgow office or online at https://theoaksbehavioralhealth.com/.

There are currently two people at the Edmonton location Brittany Jessie, CSW who does individual treatment sessions, and Janet Huckaby, LPCC who works with the group sessions. These ladies are working in unison with the school system to get area children the support and treatment they need.

When you first walk through the front door of The Oaks, you expect to see an ordinary sterile neutral-colored lobby of a doctor’s office with chairs lined up and a receptionist to sign you in. That is not what you see when you enter the front door of The Oaks facility.

There is no receptionist, the clients sign in on an iPad and wait in a comfortable room that feels like a home with a sofa, cushy chairs, and artwork on the walls. It is a very comfortable feeling environment.

Children can be scheduled for either individual at school appointments or facility appointments with Brittany who currently sees approximately 15 clients. She sees students at the school 3 days each week and the therapy sessions last 30 minutes so as to not disrupt class time. If seen at the facility, therapy sessions last for one hour. Brittany added, “As we add more patients the number of days at the school may be increased.”

The individual treatment sessions last for varying lengths of time. “It just depends on their diagnosis and other risk factors that we see as to how long they need to be in treatment. So it’s kind of individualized for each client,” explained Brittany.

Janet works with the group sessions five days a week after school from 3 – 6:30 p.m. and children are transported by school bus to the facility. There are two groups with children ages 5-12 and a separate group of adolescents ages 13-17.

The current program is called “Through the Woods” and focuses on improving daily living skills, emotional regulation skills, crisis coping skills, and interpersonal skills, and helps them improve their self-esteem, friendships, and interactions with peers, family, school work, and more.

Janet explained how each evening’s activities begin. When the children arrive they have individual cubbies (cubicles) for their backpacks, books, etc. to be stored. Next, the children head for the kitchen to get snacks before the session begins. Since they attend there from 3 – 6:30 p.m., a meal is provided in the dining room.

As for how many months a child attends group sessions, Janet explained, “Really within a year they want them transitioned out. They don’t like it to be considered long-term. Individuals, it could be a lifetime that the child needs it and goes into an adult, but as far as TR (group therapy) we’re looking at a year…At six months you have to start looking and seeing where the progress is and they do have to make progress, because if they don’t then they have to decide well you know what you’re doing is not working so maybe increase individual (treatments) or put ‘em on medicine. You know there’s other options that we’ll look at. So I don’t get to keep my babies for a long period of time.”

Both ladies expressed the desire to improve the well-being of the children emotionally and physically. When asked what the main reasons for treatment seem to be they agreed family dysfunction or lack of resources. “We’ve got a lot of families taking on other people’s kids. A lot of our guardians are grandparents,” said Janet.

“A lot of environmental stressors that affect behavior for sure,” added Brittany.

“We are very grateful to be here serving this population and in this area. We’re really excited to be here and being able to help with some of those things and target some of those issues,” relayed Brittany.

Janet added, “We appreciate the parents. We appreciate them trusting us with their children.”

The beginning – The Oaks Behavioral Health was founded in 2019 by Tarah Mathews, a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner. She had worked at various mental health facilities and wanted to create a facility where clients could get all their treatments at one location. The Oaks opened in February of 2019 at the Glasgow location and most recently a second location in Edmonton has opened.

The facilities work with most insurance plans, Medicare, and Medicaid, and never turn anyone away regardless of their ability to pay. Discounts for essential services are offered based on family size and income.

To contact The Oaks Behavioral Health you can call (270) 861-0606 or to learn more go to their website at www.theoaksbehavioralhealth.comor Facebook page at