Virgin Islands Behavioral Services

Virgin Islands Behavioral Services (VIBS), in conjunction with the U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Human Services, provides on-island services to improve the effectiveness of treatment by maintaining youth in their culture and in proximity to their community and families, improving cost effectiveness, providing early intervention, decreasing the number of admissions to inpatient facilities, and developing a pool of trained and experienced mental health professionals in the Virgin Islands.

Believing that continuity of care is one of the critical variables ensuring success, VIBS is staffed by cohesive multidisciplinary teams as an integral part of the resident's course of treatment from the time of referral through the aftercare phase. Each resident follows an individualized service plan that includes individual, group, and family therapy, as well as other behavioral interventions.

Programs

• The St. Croix Boys and St. Croix Girls Home are eight-bed intensive therapeutic group homes for adolescents ages 13 to 18. Through education, socialization and recreational programming, residents in both homes receive guidance in developing and practicing important life skills necessary for effective interactions within their family and/or community.
• The Female Therapeutic Residential Facility is a six-bed facility on the grounds of the Youth Rehabilitation Center, known as The Girls Cottage at YRC. The Cottage serves female wards of the Department of Human Services, ages 13 to 18 years old, who have committed offenses.
• Juvenile Intensive Support Services (JISS), a federally funded project, has been developed to serve as a delinquency prevention and recovery program for the territorial Juvenile Court System in the Virgin Islands. The program provides comprehensive, wraparound services for diverted or adjudicated youth. Services include intensive supervision and monitoring, educational and vocational job search services, community service work, and in-school and in-family counseling services. Current programming operates on St. Thomas and St. Croix.
• The Diagnostic and Crisis Stabilization Center on St. Croix offers eight beds and a day treatment program for youth ages 13 to 18. Youth entering the Diagnostic and Crisis Stabilization Center are often from highly dysfunctional backgrounds marked by abuse, neglect and/or abandonment. This 30- to 90-day program provides crisis intervention and stabilization services, as well as dispositional planning.
• Crawford Day Treatment Program provides educational and related supportive services for eight special education students. Special services include specialized academic classes, individual therapeutic counseling, family therapy and related educational supportive services.
• VIBS also provides Medical and Psychiatric Services to The Youth Rehabilitation Center. VIBS staff provide regular, non-emergency and emergency non-invasive professional medical and mental health services to youth ages 13 to 19 who are temporary wards of the Department of Human Services.