Our Program
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Pine Tree Gardens Program Information
West and East House
Monday through Friday
Occupational skills projects are any earned income projects that support the upkeep of the house, off campus SEP work, and non-paid work that makes use of the eyes, hands and problem solving skills. Yard work, gardening, knitting, cooking and some board games are examples of occupational skills projects.
The focus of this session is to better support clients with increased skill sets as well as higher levels of cognition.
Clients must participate for the entire session length. This may take a few weeks for those clients who are used to much less focused time. They should be encouraged and offered breaks if needed. Many clients show interest in off-campus employment, volunteering or classes, but cannot focus for long amounts of time.
Weekly assignments may be assigned to clients who work with the job coach. There are also on-campus projects such as wood-working or gardening projects; these are not paid projects but they offer skill set development. If a client is not listed as having an ongoing or an assigned project staff can give assistance with ideas, paid jobs, or support them with generating an activity that uses visual scanning, fine motor skills and problem solving.
East House, West House and I Street
Monday, Tuesday and Thursday
Skill Set: Creativity, self-expression, following directions, new skills and group work.
All clients must participate in this session. The focus of this session is on development of expression and topic focus. The session leader is to choose a topic and have a discussion or story about it. Before the discussion is opened to the group, they are to draw, paint or sculpt their ideas around the topic. At the end of the session, all clients may share their work.
It is important to keep clients on topic as they may get tangential in their discussion. They can be brought back on topic by offering them a question that pertains to the focus of the sessions. Clients should help with clean-up when the session is over.
East House and West House
Monday through Friday
Clients who are working on fitness and weight loss goal should be encouraged to join the DAC. The agreement is that they go to the club and work out a minimum of three days per week. They should work out for at least 30 minutes. Staff should check in with clients and get them to set goals for fitness and weight loss. Clients are to have appropriate clothing and shoes as well as a water bottle. Clients may shower at the club, but may not make the group run late if they choose to do so. New memberships begin at the beginning of each month and new clients may have to wait to join if they want to join after the first of the month.
East and West House
Tuesdays and Thursdays
Skill Set: Listening comprehension, abstract thinking, focus skills, forming conclusions, group speaking and memory.
This session focuses on higher levels of thinking. The session topics may include news articles which are read to the group with a written follow-up completed by clients, viewing films and having a discussion, and problem solving projects. The session length varies depending on the subject matter, but it should be at least 30 minutes. The session leader should note the clients level of participation and their comprehension of the topic. Any improvements or changes in client participation are noted by the session leader.
West House and East House
Monday through Friday
Skill Set: Independent planning, budgeting, orientation, tracking time, social development, using resources like the post office, the bank, the library and stores.
This session is offered to all clients who are behaviorally in control and have positive symptom management. Staff may suggest outings such as viewing art shows at local galleries or window shopping at shops downtown. Clients should be encouraged to come up with some points of interest independently, but may need staff support if they cannot independently come up with a plan.
Staff should document how clients use this time and how they are doing with their treatment goals. Some examples are: how clients are doing with food choices, budgeting money and having appropriate social behaviors. The information gathered will better support continuing goals and higher levels of independence.
Monday through Friday
East House, West House and Off-Campus Clients
VPP (Visual Perceptual Program) which is also known as VP supports clients with working through a series of exercises that will address their visual and spatial difficulties. Some difficulties experienced by clients include: blurry or fuzzy vision/images, slow body movements on uneven surfaces, lazy eye a.k.a. strabismus, difficulty with pouring beverages, bumping into people and objects, eye fatigue, difficulty reading and comprehending what they see and having poor visual memory. VP helps improve visual memory, visual recognition, visual acuity, oculomotor control, scanning visual fields, and visual attention and awareness.
VP also addresses areas of cognition. Visual information is a very important component of both memory and new learning. People on psychotropic medication have a harder time with memory and new learning. VP exercises help compensate for the decrease in cognition and awareness that these medications can cause.
Monday through Sunday-7 Days/week; several times throughout the day
East House and West House
ADLs (Activities of Daily Living) include clients having a thorough understanding of the medications they take and what symptoms their medications support. Often clients do not know what medications they are taking or how the medication supports the symptoms of their illness. It is important that each time clients take their medications that they complete a medication review with support from staff. Clients tell staff what medications they take, how many milligrams and what symptoms of their illness the medications support. Medication review and training is also beneficial to clients who have a difficult time admitting to or understanding that they have an illness as it requires that they state what symptoms they are experiencing.
Monday through Sunday, 7 days/week
East House and West House
Morning Meeting is the first session of the day and includes all clients. This session includes client check-ins, a review of what sessions are occurring each day and what plans each client has for the day. It also includes what the days meals are, who is completing meal preparation and clean-up and who is completing laundry. This session also allows clients and staff to address any concerns about Pine Tree Gardens or any other important information. It is important that clients arrive at Morning Meeting ready for the day with all ADLs completed. Breakfast should occur before this session.
Wednesdays
East House, West House and I Street
This session builds listening/writing skills, creative use of language, abstract thinking, and putting thoughts/concepts into words. Clients listen to the session leader's instructions and spend time composing and writing at length about various topics. Clients are encouraged to take their time and to be thorough. Clients then share their work out loud during the last twenty minutes of the session. This session lasts for one hour. A benefit of this session is that it gives clients the chance to be creatively expressive.
Monday, Wednesday, Friday
East House and West House
The focus of this session is on opinion forming, non-defensive debate skills, accurately communicating your perspective as well as group listening and communication skill building. A good match for this session is any current event newspaper articles, magazine articles on popular culture and people in the public eye. Any topic in which there will be diverse opinion and perspective.
Monday through Sunday, 7 days /week
East House and West House
Meal preparation occurs each day before lunchtime. A team of two clients completes meal preparation and may have staff support as well. Clients set the table and prepare for lunch. Clients practice healthy meal preparation such as the importance of hand washing and wearing serving gloves when handling plates, utensils and food. Knife-safety and food clean-up is addressed as well as clients may have low-awareness in these areas. Clients also practice being thorough with lunch clean-up, disposing of food and putting way dishes and utensils.
Monday through Friday
Job coaching can take the place of Occupational Skills for clients who have independence and diligence in their work habits. These clients support other clients with light home maintenance skills such as: painting, minor plumbing and basic home upkeep.
Monday through Friday
East House West House, Off-Campus Clients
This session supports clients in that it provides modified, structured employment opportunities for clients who have shown good independence in the area of Occupational Skills and independence in the completion of house chores. Some SEP jobs are completed under the supervision of a job coach.
Monday through Sunday/7 days/week
Environmental training includes completing house chores, room upkeep, safe use of household cleaners and how to identify the needs of a household.
Concrete Thinking-
The concrete thinker shows the ability to grasp one-stage instructions. They will have difficulty forming concepts, using categories, generalizing from a single experience or applying information to other similar instances. Behaviors that are displayed by concrete thinkers are: coming up with quick, superficial solutions to a problem. They may seem unaware of what is relevant and irrelevant, essential from unessential, and appropriate from outlandish. Clients may present as inflexible or stuck in their belief in the moment. They often have great difficulty planning ahead, being organized, initiating activity, problem solving and adapting to changing circumstances. Concrete thinkers will often lie about the obvious without thinking anyone will notice and will tell the same lie repeatedly without hesitation.
Abstract Thinking-
Abstract thinkers have the ability to learn new skills and concepts and apply them to different situations. Abstract thinkers can apply these skills without hesitation and can draw conclusions independently with little or no support. Tasks are completed in a sequential manner with insight and they are accurate reporters most of the time. Abstract thinkers can learn high levels of independence and prove to be good workers. Settings may need to be modified depending on stimulus sensitivity of the client.
Maintenance Plan-
Clients who are on maintenance plans will have small, incremental improvements over long periods of time. Many of these clients have reached their highest level of independence. Their stable health and positive symptom and behavioral control are the focus of their treatment plans.
Progressive Plan-
Clients who are on progressive plans have reachable goals of increasing their current level of independence. Many of these clients will have the ability to live with less support and supervision. Their treatment plans consist of better behavioral and symptom control as well as independent living skills. Some of these clients will never live independently, but will live with higher levels of independence in residential care.
Independent Living Program-
This program is offered to clients who have become independent in the Day Treatment Program and who are working toward living independently in apartments or houses. In order to participate in the Independent Living Program, clients must be at level four in the Day Treatment Program. The Independent Living Program helps clients reach higher levels of independence. Clients are required to participate in the Independent Living Program sessions. There are three phases in the Independent Living Program.