At Midwest Center for Youth and Families, nursing is about more than monitoring patient health – it’s about coaching, educating, and building the rapport necessary to contribute to long-term healing. For youths and adolescents with complex mental health needs at the center, the nursing team is a constant presence on their path to wellness.
Midwest Center provides residential treatment for youth struggling with issues such as depression, anxiety, and trauma by offering full-immersion Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT). It is a comprehensive, evidence-based treatment that all staff members are trained to implement. This means that nurses are both caregivers, as well as active participants in the therapeutic process – helping guide patients through their recovery.
“What we do is about more than medication,” said Trey Biggs, a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner at Midwest Center. “It’s a combination of medication management and DBT therapy. We nurses know almost all of the coping skills that the therapist would know, we help coach the kids in the moment. There’s no one pill that solves every problem.”
This hands-on coaching is central to Midwest Center’s philosophy. The nursing staff works in concert with a multidisciplinary care team to empower adolescents with practical tools to manage intense emotions, focusing on deploying DBT coping skills as a first step rather than immediately turning to medication.
“We teach them to take a moment and cope ahead, we’re certainly not just saying ‘I know you’re anxious, here’s a medication I can give you,’” said Dianna Harris, a registered nurse with 30 years of experience in mental health. “I always tell kids that these are skills for life, not just their teen years. At first, some are resistant, but eventually it hits home for them and it’s like a light bulb goes off. It’s wonderful to see the insight they gain.”
Patients often stay at Midwest Center for as long as two months, or sometimes even longer. This long-term residency gives the nursing team a chance to build a deep, trusting relationship as they oversee the youths and provide medical support. This extended timeframe also allows the center to involve the entire family in the treatment process, ensuring support continues long after a resident returns home.
Harris, for example, works to make sure that every resident is educated about their own health. She runs medication groups and ensures that each patient understands what they are taking and why.
“I talk to kids daily about their medicine, if they say ‘Hey nurse Dai, this doesn’t look like what I took yesterday,’ I’m always going to take a look and tell them what it is and what it’s for,” she said. “A kid is never going to hurt my feelings by asking a question about their health. Psychotropic medications are effective, but there’s still no perfect antidepressant, no perfect mood stabilizer. That’s why we look at the whole picture here.”
Another part of the care process is making sure that the residents have the chance to relax and have some fun without thinking about their treatment. Those opportunities give rise to some of Biggs’ favorite moments.
“We do a lot of fun stuff for the kids, like last weekend when we had a field day for them,” he said. “It was cool to see the kids outside just being kids. They were throwing water balloons and squirting each other with water guns. It’s so nice to see things like that. It makes me feel good to see that joy, especially when you see it in a kid who’s been here for three or four months, when they came in not caring about anything.”
For the nursing team, seeing that kind of growth is the ultimate reward. Managing symptoms and supporting their health is their job, but watching the residents mature and rediscover their joy is a special experience.
“Some of these kids haven’t seen a lot of kindness in their lives,” Harris said. “They’ll tell me, ‘You’re always so kind to us,’ and that goes back to how I was raised. For me, it’s about being witness to and supporting the change and growth in these kids. It’s amazing to see. I’m really proud to say I work for Midwest Center for Youth and Families.”
To learn more about Midwest Center for Youth and Families and the secure, nurturing environment it offers children and adolescents, visit midwest-center.com.
