Drugs and Alcohol Abuse Treatment for Teens

Substance abuse – including drugs or alcohol – affects the entire family, not only the person engaging in use. If you have concerns about your teen’s use of alcohol and other drugs, the Center for Success and Independence can offer support. We are a dual diagnosis program, focused on treating both your teen’s substance use and/or their addiction and their associated mental health disorder, such as depression, anxiety or other mood disorders.

Teens may use alcohol and drugs for different reasons. They may use them to try to feel better, as a coping mechanism. They may use them to try to “fit in” with their peer group. The Center will seek to uncover and understand any underlying mental health issue that contributed to your teen’s substance use. Because drugs often stay in a teen’s system for a long time, longer term treatment is often important. Research indicates that the sooner teens receive recovery supportive treatment, the better.

Teens found to have a history of substance use based on their clinical assessment for admission or after having been admitted to the Center will receive a complete substance use assessment. Based on their assessments, we will develop a personalized treatment plan specifically designed to address your teen’s substance use – drugs and/or alchohol – and the underlying reason for the substance use and chemical dependence.

Our evidence-based, substance and alcohol use treatment plan will include:

• Our Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) and Radically Open DBT programs, specifically designed with teens in mind to develop valuable life skills including mindfulness, resilience, distress tolerance, emotional regulation and more
• Relapse prevention groups
• 12-Step program groups to develop support systems in the community
• Family therapy

The Center for Success and Independence is one of the only DBT-based dual diagnosis treatment programs for teens in the region, offering both residential and intensive outpatient therapy.