Community
Family
Commitment
Flexibility
Cooperation
Individualized
Involvement
Teamwork
Commitment
Mullins House is committed to finding solutions, working together with agencies and hanging in with children/youth and understanding that long term commitment is essential to effective treatment. We recognize the need to nurture a sense of belonging and connectedness.
Family Focused
Mullins House will focus on the family as a whole and developing new patterns of interacting together while fostering the development of appropriate family relations under the direction of placing agency workers.
Individualized Programming
Mullins House sees the children/youth they are responsible for and their families as unique individuals and are committed to individualized programs that incorporate the needs, values and beliefs of individual families and include community, medical, educational, social and cultural aspects. Mullins House uses a relationship and a behavioral incentive approach to enhance positive characteristics and encourage positive change.
Our Approach
Mullins House commits that the individualized programming and planning will involve input from the child/youth and family, will involve short term attainable goals, and motivate the youth and family to want to change their current pattern of living.
Mullins House acknowledges that change occurs through utilization of daily life events as they are occurring and that positive responses are more important than negative ones in helping facilitate change.
Mullins House acknowledges that helping begins by knowing where the child/youth is at and beginning from that point, accepting them for who they are, not as we might want them to be.
Mullins House realizes that externally focussed, behavior management and control approaches are less effective than are approaches based on meeting individual needs, connectedness, relationship, and the development and experience of competencies. Therefore, Mullins House will develop a proactive approach to facilitate change rather than a reactive approach to behaviors. All Youth Care Workers at Mullins House are trained in Trauma Informed Practices and view situations through this trauma-informed lens.
Community Involvement
Mullins House proposes to involve or re-involve children/youth in the community as much as possible by utilizing community supports, integration and follow up.
Our community offers numerous recreational activities at the YMCA, and the Town of Amherst offers an excellent recreational program. Children can choose between getting involved with team sports such as hockey, baseball, football or soccer or activities such as swimming, skating, gymnastics, drama, horseback riding, art classes, cubs, cadets, scouts, 4H, etc. The youth can become involved with church groups, youth groups, or volunteer work.
Flexibility
Mullins House commits to adapt the program to fit the needs of the individual youth and family rather than insisting they fit the program.
The team constantly brainstorms motivational strategies to help keep the children/youth on track. Contact with the family is flexible based on the needs of the youth and family but must accommodate the direction given by the social worker.
Our Program Features
