1/18/2010 4:01:00 PM St. David's opens day treatment for preschoolers
Guiding St. David’s
St. David's Center for Child & Family Development based its preschool day treatment program in part on a model of treatment intervention developed by Dr. Anne Gearity at the Washburn Center for Children, which offers a preschool day treatment program in Minneapolis. Gearity's "Developmental Repair: A Training Manual" is available at www.washburn.org.
St. David's is located at 3395 Plymouth Road in Minnetonka. For more information call 952-939-0396 or visit www.stdavidscenter.org.
By David Schueller
The west metro's first preschool for children with significant mental health diagnoses opened on Jan. 5 in Minnetonka.
St. David's Center for Child & Family Development started its preschool day treatment program with three children and as the program grows it plans to cap enrollment at seven.
"We're providing them the sense that they can be successful in a group, without which they will fail miserably in any school setting," said Marit Appeldoorn, director of early intervention services.
Children as young as 3 years old can attend the preschool. The program is meant for children ages 3 to about 5 whose mental health issues go well beyond the typical conception of misbehaving.
"It's a treatment program. And it's very specifically tailored for this age group. But it's a treatment program," Appeldoorn said.
Children can be given serious mental health diagnoses if they deal with trauma, severe anxiety, severe attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder or other issues.
Therapists try to help children identify their emotions, learn self-regulation skills and function in a group.
The preschool staffs about one therapist for every two children and families get a home visit a couple times a month or more to help parents build their own coping skills.
The program also continues as a child enters kindergarten to smooth the transition.
"It really serves to stabilize and strengthen that first critical year that kids are going through the schools," Appeldoorn said.
The cost of the three hours a day, five days a week preschool - typically all covered by insurance - is $85 a day.
Since it's meant for kids with serious diagnoses, milder ones wouldn't qualify, such as less serious cases of depression or anxiety, or a lack of impulse control that's manageable enough to keep a kid in class.
St. David's already has a therapeutic preschool for kids with less serious issues who nonetheless could use an augmented preschool.
And in September 2009 staff started providing therapy in the Hopkins School District for children 5 years old and under, made possible by a $300,000 state grant.
That program came about because the schools were seeing what Appeldoorn last year called an epidemic of kids not ready for kindergarten because of mental health issues.
While there are resources for children who struggle with mental health issues, the west metro lacks enough for those with the most serious diagnoses, Appeldoorn said.
For them, one hour a week doesn't cut it.
"They actually need corrective environments," she said.
Just how does one go about diagnosing a preschool age child?
Appeldoorn said there's a whole field of study involving early childhood mental health.
"We're not trying to slap adult diagnoses on little kids. We're trying to address the needs of little kids," Appeldoorn said.
St. David's tries to avoid creating a stigma by working with the family.
"By the time they're contemplating day treatment, the kids' issues are not a secret," she said, adding that the treatment and diagnosis can actually remove a stigma with an explanation that "goes beyond [that] they're bad kids, because they're not."
With enough interest, St. David's might consider offering the preschool to more than seven children.
Appeldoorn said early attention can make for lasting changes because a child's brain is still developing.
"Because it's so early in a child's life, with a lot of kids the wonderful opportunity we have is the brain is still very plastic," she said.
