The Village offers Orientation Days for families who admit their adolescent into our unique program. Orientation Day gives you an opportunity to meet all of the key staff members who will be delivering and directing the care of your child.

Your child’s clinical director, psychologist, psychiatrist, nursing staff, activity therapist, family therapist, program management staff, teaching staff, and recovery services staff will give a brief presentation about their services and will be available for questions.

Our goal is to provide excellent care and service. There are often many questions about our facility, departments, staff, and how we all work together as a team. We will address these and other issues you may have during Village Family Orientation Day.

The orientation sessions that have been held have been a great success. “It was so nice to get to meet our child’s psychiatrist and his other professional staff face-to-face,” said one parent.

Please ask an admissions representative for upcoming Orientation Day dates.

Why Family Therapy is a Critical Piece of the Treatment Plan When adolescents are admitted to The Village they are typically identified as the “problem,” understandably since they are exhibiting the most disruptive and dangerous behaviors in the family. Once the young person is safe and the crisis begins to stabilize, families are free to begin the process of recovery together with their child. Students come to the Village with severe emotional, behavioral, and substance abuse problems, but they never come to this point alone. Families get sick together and treatment at The Village provides the opportunity for them to begin the process of recovery together. Two of the most common issues families wrestle with are control and denial. Understandably when a child becomes out of control the parents desperately want to be able to regain control. Unfortunately, mental illness and addiction are beyond the control of everyone. Well-intended parents find themselves doing things they never dreamed of as they fight to manage the illness that is attacking their family. Frightened and frustrated parents install locks on bedroom doors. Devastatingly hurtful words are exchanged on both sides. Parents follow their children, hit their children, and threaten their children, all out of fear of losing them. When the truth is too painful and scary to accept, denial minimizes and normalizes behaviors and experiences. Therefore, suicide attempts are explained away. Drug use is considered to be a normal part of the teenage experience. Running away, refusing to attend school, and aggressive outbursts are rationalized as responses to understandable unhappiness. Facing the reality of having an ill teenager is painful and arouses a variety of difficult emotions. However, accepting the truth is a vital part of the treatment process. In combating these problematic family dynamics, family therapy is a crucial piece of the treatment plan. However, all families need help beyond the weekly family therapy provided by the Village. Talk with your family therapist about additional recommendations, which may include additional family therapy or individual therapy. Most families also benefit from their own twelve step recovery program, such as Al-Anon or Families Anonymous. Also available are Village parent support groups which meet monthly in Knoxville. Families nearing discharge now have the opportunity to participate in a family relapse prevention group, designed to identify relapse warning signs for both the adolescent and the family. Believing that the entire family has gotten sick together, therefore needs to recover together, is the first step in a successful treatment. Families who commit themselves to working with their child in this manner have increased positive outcomes both in treatment and once their adolescent returns home. Find local Al-Anon meetings by logging onto: www.alanon.alateen.org. Families Anonymous meetings can be located at: www.familiesanonymous.org.

	Village Parents Support Each Other Through On-Line Forum* *(NOT formally affiliated with or sponsored by The Village)

Parents of The Village patients and alumni have an important support resource available – an on-line discussion forum run by parents, for parents. In this forum, parents have shared their experiences, posed questions, and found support by participating in informal online discussions. The forum offers a virtual community where parents can obtain information about AV and its programs discuss questions about their children’s treatment, and support and encourage one another through the ups and downs of recovery – all from a parent’s point of view.

Today almost 70 parents participate in the forum. Discussion topics range from where to buy a cake or get a haircut in Knoxville to how other families experience the doubts, fears and joys of the recovery process at The Village. Recent subjects on the forum include understanding the treatment process, working with Village staff, dealing with setbacks and relapses in recovery, where to go and what to do on Therapeutic Assignments (TAs), coping with a child’s absence, preparing for discharge, helping other family members.

“Before the forum started, I often felt alone in struggling to understand my daughter’s illness and the treatment she was undergoing,” said parent Tim M. “Through the forum, I’ve formed many wonderful relationships with other parents, whose unique perspectives have helped me to understand the process our family is going through.”

Participation in the forum is voluntary and limited to parents of AV residents, alumni parents, and select AV staff. Identifying information is not shared unless parents choose to do so in their own discussions. Some parents are active in posting on the forum, while others find value in observing topics of interest and reading discussion threads.

The mission of the forum is to allow parents access to each other to share information and experiences. AV staff participation is limited to an occasional comment, and AV does not sponsor or maintain the forum.

If you’re not a member of the forum and would like to join, contact us.