The Pines Residential Treatment Center
The Cooperative Living Program - Boys

The Cooperative Living Program, developed for youth with developmental disabilities, emotional, behavioral and psychiatric disorders, is a structured therapeutic environment with 24-hour supervision and special education services for youth aged 12 to 20 who have shown an inability to be maintained safely in a less restrictive environment. Located on The Pines Brighton Campus in Portsmouth, Virginia, the program treats emotional, psychiatric and behavioral problems concurrently. The clinical treatment components are based upon Positive Behavior Support principles and philosophies. Interventions are designed to promote positive behavior and interrupt negative behaviors such as aggression, impulsivity and socially maladaptive interactions.

Referred by family, social services departments, court services or education agencies, these youth display cognitive limitations that significantly impair their judgment and decision-making skills, and demonstrate a need for a structured therapeutic environment with 24-hour supervision through their inability to be maintained safely in a less restrictive environment. These individuals may not be capable of being managed in the home or community at a lower level of service such as rehabilitation homes, specialized group homes, or within the realm of special education services within the public school domain.

The program focuses on the overt behavior of the resident through a systematic application of positive behavior support techniques and strategies. These techniques and tactics gradually shape the residents' behavior to be more normal-appearing so that the residents can function in a less-restrictive environment and be less conspicuously vulnerable to negative attention from other people. The program provides constant monitoring and intensive instruction with a high ratio of behavioral specialists to residents. Whenever possible, positive behavior substitution and diversion are used to replace negative behaviors. When consequences are necessary, they are part of the treatment planning process, and consistently applied in the spirit of the 3Rs: Respectful, Reasonable and Related to the problematic behavior.

Designed for youth, male and female, ages 12 to 20 with:

• DSM-IV-R diagnosis of psychiatric illness.
• Special education classification of seriously emotionally disturbed in lieu of formal DSM-IV diagnosis.
• Assessed I.Q. scored between 55 to 69 inclusive (I.Q. scores between 50 to 55 will be considered).
• Significant impairment of social, interpersonal, and/or communication skills which requires the provision of moderate intensity, multi-disciplinary treatment intervention, integrated within a highly structured 24-hour therapeutic residential setting.

Accredited by:
The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations

Virginia Association of Independent Specialized Educational Facilities and the Southern Association of Colleges and schools.

Licensed by the Virginia Department of Interdepartmental Regulations