Friends of Youth and Lakeside Milam Recovery Centers

Summary
My internship, Friends of Youth, is closely connected with Lakeside Milam Recovery Centers and I therefore decided that would be a great place to learn more about incase I needed to refer any of my clients to them. In order to gain more information about Lakeside Milam I spoke with the administrator, Dan Labuda and the director of the inpatient facility in Burien, Mary Fredrickson. Dan provided me information about Lakeside Milam as a whole, while Mary gave me an intake look at inpatient treatment and gave me a tour of Lakeside Milam.
The first thing I realized during my tour was that I was really uncomfortable. Mary explained that the inpatient facility we were touring which houses male and female adolescents and young women was once before a hospital and that is exactly how it felt. The front entrance to the facility was welcoming, but as soon as we stepped through the doors from the waiting room into the facility it felt cold, plain and scary. During the tour, I witnessed patients taking naps in their rooms (with their doors open), adolescent patients talking together in the game room, and patients of the young women’s program having group. Mary gave a very detailed tour and explanation of their inpatient program.
Treatment
Treatment for addictions is multivariate. When looking at appropriate treatments it is important to consider the treatment setting, treatment approach, what is important when treating varying age groups, as well as treating addiction and mental health simultaneously. All of these factors play a large part in treating patients with addiction; appropriate treatment may different between patients.
Treatment Setting
When touring the treatment facility, the setting was rather uncomfortable but that do...

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The one thing that is still difficult for me to grasp is the idea that addiction is the heart of the problem and mental health comes second. When touring Lakeside Milam, Mary explained that they treat the addiction first because they believe mental health problems will dissipate along with the addiction and if there are still mental health issues then it will be treated next. As a mental health counseling I understand that it is important for a client to not be under the influence during counseling, but I do not necessarily think substance abuse counseling is more important than mental health counseling and vice versa. I believe a lot of times they go hand in hand.

Works Cited

Fisher, G. L. & Harrison, T. C. (2009). Substance abuse: Information for school counselors, social workers, therapists, and counselors (5th ed.). Boston: Pearson - Allyn and Bacon.