If your daughter has an addiction, whether its an adolescent internet addiction, drug addiction, or mental health issues, you might want to consider a rehab center that is gender specific to girls. Your teen will obviously have a different experience at a girl’s rehab center than she would where both males and females were participating. When male adolescents are not attending the same treatment center, girls can keep their thoughts and attention on their recovery without having romantic or erotic distractions. In addition to this obvious benefit, being with other girls undergoing the same process can be supportive. For example, rooming with another adolescent female, attending group therapy with other girls with the same concerns, and working with issues that are specific to the female gender can support the emotional and psychological growth of your child.
Furthermore, a girl’s rehab center will often have therapists, counselors, and a clinical team that are well versed in the issues a female teen typically faces and will know how to respond therapeutically. For instance, it is common for female adolescents with addictions to also have a mental illness as well as to be at risk for pregnancy. Research indicates that one in every seven female teens will have a child before the age of 20. In general, the birth rate for girls between the ages of 15-19 is 29 per every 1000. In comparison, the birth rate among adolescents with a mental illness is approximately 45 for every 1000.
Typically, when a female teen is admitted to a gender specific rehab center, she will be assessed upon intake, exploring the mental health history of the family, her drug abuse history, and the possible presence a co-occurring mental illness. Having both an addiction and a mental illness is known as a co-occurring disorder or a dual diagnosis. In this case, there would ideally be an integration of services between the psychiatric and the drug counseling fields in order to best treat a teen with a co-occurring disorder. Often, a girl’s rehab experience will provide treatment that involves individual and family psychotherapy, medication, support groups, and strong communication among the psychiatrist, psychologist, family members, social workers, teachers, and other professionals in female teen’s life.
The services that a girl’s rehab center might include are:
- Assessment
- Individualized Treatment
- Gender Specific Living Areas
- Addressing Gender Specific Issues
- Medical Detox
- Behavioral Modification Therapy
- Individual Counseling
- Group Counseling
- Chemical Dependency Education
Another benefit to a gender-specific treatment program, particularly during adolescence, is the ability to support a female teen’s growth in finding her unique identity. Girls tend to have strong issues of identity because of the social demands placed on them. During this stage in life, teens are reaching for their independence and a sense of self. They are going through a process of role confusion and discovering their unique sense of identity.
A girl’s rehab center can address the substance addiction, mental illnesses, and facilitate behavior modification for those girl’s at risk for pregnancy. Furthermore, a female specific rehab center can help to address the unique issues typical of female teens.
- By Robert Hunt
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