Youth Mental Health

OhioGuidestone, the state’s leader in behavioral health services, works in offices, schools, living rooms and more to meet your child’s needs.

Children, especially teenagers, face unique issues navigating today’s world. Anxiety and depression are prevalent and often exacerbated by social media. The COVID-19 pandemic made socializing difficult, if not impossible, for some children. While most kids are back in school, school-from-home had quite a lasting impact since children were unable to have access to vital resources like counseling or even lunch.

OhioGuidestone Youth Mental Health Services

Our mental health services for teens and children are designed to address different issues based on what works best for the client. We provide mental health care in schools, offices and court-mandated programs.

Home-Based Counseling

Our counselors can meet with clients in the comfort and privacy of their home, meeting weekly to go over issues. Home-based counseling can be conducted with the family present or alone, depending on what the family and child are comfortable with.

Intensive Home-Based Treatment

Individualized Assessment: Counselors meet 1-on-1 with their client in the home.

Family and Individual Counseling: Counselors meet with the individual and the family in the home. Sometimes separately, other times together as a group.

Parenting Education and Skill Training: The counselor meets with parents to help them find stronger parenting techniques to better reach and instruct their children.

Crisis Intervention: The counselor assists with a crisis such as if a client is having a mental health or behavioral episode.

Conflict resolution: The counselor can act as a third party and assist in bringing members of a family together who may be experiencing a dispute in part due to one or both’s mental health issue.

Coping Skills Enhancement: The counselor assists a member of the family in coping strategies. This can be for a person with a mental illness who may have difficulty with others, or with a member of the family who has difficulty living with or understanding the person with the mental illness.

Links to Community Resources and Support: Because the counselor may be more familiar with resources that the family may not know about, the counselor can connect family members to additional resources they may wish to try.

Mental Health Case Management: This provides a variety of services delivered by local, mobile individuals or multidisciplinary teams of trained health professionals. Community Psychiatric Supportive Treatment (CPST) provide individualized treatment for the mental health needs of each client.

Intensive Home-Based Counseling

Like home-based counseling, some clients require extra care and oversight. They may have behavioral issues or need more consistent guidance. IHBC therapists have smaller caseloads so they can address more time and attention to the clients who need it most. They also meet more frequently with their clients.

Office-Based Counseling

Clients can meet for regularly scheduled counseling in the conventional office setting if that works best for them. OhioGuidestone works with trained mental health professionals in offices across the state.

In-school Counseling

Our network of mental health professionals work with school administrators and can meet with clients during school. Some clients find taking a break from school to talk with their counselors helps them with issues that may arise during the school day. Counselors can also work with administrators to do what’s best for the client with respect to their mental health needs and school work.

Referrals for school-based outpatient services come directly from school staff, who are in a position to recognize warning signs parents may miss in the household.

Juvenile Justice

Our counselors work with Juvenile Justice programs to assist at-risk youth who may have a history of behavioral issues related to mental health problems or substance abuse. Juvenile Justice programs in coordination with therapy have helped keep at-risk youth from violence, recidivism and family separation.

Juvenile Justice programs include:

• ProKids
• PROTECT
• Behavioral Diversion Education
• Functional Family Therapy

Residential Treatment

For some clients, staying in residential-style treatment facilities can assist with issues they may be experiencing, such as behavioral outbursts or other mental health problems. Clients who have worked with our psychiatrists, psychologists and counselors have reported better moods, an easier time navigating hard decisions, better anger management skills, and more.

OhioGuidestone Residential Treatment Services include a full complement of mental health and room & board services for teenagers and children. Curriculums are designed to meet the needs of both typical and special education needs. Classrooms feature teacher-to-student ratios of 10:1 and make use of a variety of techniques based on behavior management principles.