CASA House is a mental health-care facility for youth in grades seven to 12 who have not responded as expected to previous therapy. Treatment includes individual, group and family therapy, social and life skills training and on-site schooling in small classroom settings. The voluntary, residential program involves caregivers as active participants in treatment.

The CASA House multidisciplinary team works closely with youth from a biological-psychological-social treatment approach. 

Youth who come to CASA House have complex needs that could include severe mental health challenges, family dysfunction, school issues, peer-related issues and social/economic challenges. The treatment goals of CASA House include diagnostic clarification, symptom stabilization and functional improvement.

The family component of the CASA House program focuses on improving the parent-child relationship, implementing effective parenting strategies and increasing the parent’s understanding of their adolescent’s diagnosis and knowledge of normal adolescent growth and development.

 Family-centred residential care is focused on five key areas:

• Providing trauma-informed programming that places the patient and their family at the centre of every care decision;

• Providing care that is focused on the persons as individuals, rather than the illnesses, in the context of their family and community;

• Considering youth and their families as the experts on their own needs and values;

• Enabling youth (and their families) to be active participants in the decision-making around their own (or their family member’s) care;

• Developing a truly collaborative relationship or partnership between health professionals and youth and their families that is based on mutual respect.

Youth live at CASA House for an average of four months while they receive intensive mental health treatment. There is an additional month of post-discharge follow-up by a transition team to help ensure success beyond the program. 

CASA House is preparing to expand services to more Alberta communities over the next several years.