Program Goals
The Methodist Home for Children’s Value-Based Therapeutic Environment (VBTE) Model is a nonpunitive treatment model that concentrates on teaching juvenile justice–involved youth about prosocial behaviors as alternatives to antisocial behaviors. The VBTE Model is used in juvenile group homes operated by the Methodist Home for Children (MHC) in North Carolina. The MHC homes provide residential services for youth involved in the juvenile justice system who are referred for treatment through the state’s Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (DJJDP).
To ensure a consistent approach in the treatment of youth, the VBTE Model provides a common set of values, skills, therapeutic activities, and intervention tools. In addition, an integrated approach is taken to individualized treatment plans for youth that incorporates parents, teachers, and court counselors.
Target Population/Eligibility
The target population is 10- to 18-year-old youth who are involved in the juvenile justice system. Youth must have been adjudicated delinquent and referred by the North Carolina DJJDP to receive residential treatment in one of the MHC juvenile homes.
Services Provided
The MHC VBTE Model has five treatment components:
- Service planning, which provides a family and community approach to meet the needs of youths and their families
- The skills curriculum, which provides staff with a teaching tool and promotes clear expectation and individualization for youth and their families
- Learning theory, which promotes the understanding of individual youth and their behavior, which is critical to creating effective motivation systems
- Motivation systems, which provide staff with a daily plan that supports the overall service plan, promotes therapeutic interactions, teaches and reinforces skills, and implements principles of the learning theory
- Therapeutic (focused) interactions, which provide youth with structured teaching and reinforcement based on each individual’s service plan and learning levels, and incorporates the motivation system that is modified for each youth [Strom et al. 2010, 1–1]
The five components are designed to complement one another and concentrate on the treatment and services provided to youth and their families. The success of the VBTE Model relies heavily on the interactions between counselors and adjudicated youth. Counselors teach youth that their behavioral choices are related to six values: 1) respect, 2) responsibility, 3) spirituality, 4) compassion, 5) empowerment, and 6) honesty. Youth begin to appreciate and understand how their behavior affects those around them, and they receive consistent feedback from MHC staff about how to modify these behaviors.
Before they are admitted, all referred youth are screened through face-to-face meetings that include MHC staff and the youths’ families. For each youth who is admitted to the program, an individualized service plan is created based on information on the youth’s history in addition to input from his or her family, residential counselors, court-appointed counselors, and teachers. These specialized plans are developed within 14 days of admission and are updated every 30 days afterward. Service plan goals are also reviewed during treatment team meetings, which are held within 15 days of admission and every 30 days afterward.
In addition, each youth works with a family service specialist who performs needs assessments of the youth and his or her family at admission, prepares the youth for appearances in juvenile court, helps reintegrate the youth with his or her family and school when released, coordinates community services, and assists in the youth’s development of skills and appropriate behavior.
