Denver Children's Home

Results: Treatment for DCH clients is ongoing, without a set duration. Work begins at intake when a thorough case history is collected and the client is assessed, placed in a dorm and/or education group and is assigned a therapist. Currently, the agency-wide successful discharge rate stands at 81%. This stands in comparison to the majority of child welfare agencies across the state where successful discharges are roughly 50%.

Target demographics: traumatized children and families through a thorough array of therapeutic, educational, and community-based services.

Geographic areas served: Denver Metro area

Programs: Residential services: our residential services program provides care for children ages 10-18 in crisis and youth with serious psychiatric disorders and behavioral problems. We offer 24-hour treatment consisting of individual, group and family therapy. We aim to offer a positive alternative to psychiatric hospitalization, combining intensive trauma-informed therapy, individualized academic support, and advanced drug treatments. We help children take ownership of their treatment, understand and accept responsibility for their actions, control their behavior, and develop coping skills for difficulties beyond their control. Community-based services: has created a comprehensive continuum of care through three community-based programs. 1) day treatment offers a combination of onsite schooling and therapy for children struggling or failing in the public school system. 2) intensive in-home therapy helps stabilize fractured families overwhelmed with poverty, mental health issues, and physical and emotional abuse. 3) family resource center at Denver children's home offers resources to struggling families through more than 60 community partners. Education: Our onsite education program, Bansbach Academy, is a fully accredited school. Many of our students have long histories of school failure, and many have undiagnosed learning disabilities, which are compounded by emotional or behavioral problems. We provide educational experiences which remediate, maintain and improve academic, intellectual, and social functioning. The life! Program provides a structured, supportive environment for developmentally disabled youth with mental health issues. This program focuses on skill development. Students learn life skills, independent living skills, functional academics, and essential social skills necessary to improve intellectual and social functioning. Discovery and Inspire home: Our two group homes offers transitional housing for adolescent youth, between the ages of 15 and 20 years old, preparing them to graduate from high school and emancipate. With support and supervision from a DCH program leader and residential house parents, as many as eight young men and women form two households. Although many of them have scarcely experienced childhood, the homes enables them to move toward accepting the responsibilities of adulthood - attending high school, finding employment, enrolling in college, and ultimately becoming self-sufficient.