What do you do when you aren’t sure how to help your daughter anymore?
The helplessness you feel as the parent of a teen with severe mental health concerns is incredibly painful. You want to make her feel better more than anything in the world, but nothing seems to help.
First, let’s establish something: you are not a bad parent for feeling this way. You are in a tremendously difficult situation, and you are only human. It’s not fair to expect yourself to be able to fix everything, and it’s okay that you can’t.
It just means your daughter needs outside support from a mental health professional.
52% of Texas girls in treatment or screening positive for depression have had at least one suicide attempt in their lifetime, according to a 2023 study.
That’s a scary statistic, and part of why we think residential treatment is so important at Roots Renewal Ranch. It provides a safe environment for your daughter to take a breath, reset, and start working toward recovery from any mental health symptoms she’s managing.
Sending your daughter away for treatment is a huge decision to make, though. How do you know when to consider residential treatment for your teen daughter? We can offer some guidance.
When to Take Action: Signs Your Teen Needs Residential Treatment
Residential treatment is ideal for girls with serious mental health concerns.
What does that mean, exactly? It’s definitely subjective, and something you and your daughter need to decide for yourselves. However, if anything on this list is relevant to your teen, residential treatment could be a huge asset for her:
- She’s regularly experiencing suicidal ideation, especially if she’s had a plan or attempted suicide before. Residential treatment offers 24/7 supervision, so your teen will be safe. It might be scary to not supervise her yourself, but you aren’t a mental health professional, and you don’t have all the answers. That’s okay! The medical staff at residential treatment centers will be able to offer your daughter the care she needs even in severe cases.
- There’s something in your daughter’s current environment that makes her feel unsafe or is seriously hindering her mental health. This could be bullying, an unhealthy relationship, substances, harmful behavior she couldn’t participate in under supervision, and more. If you’re reading this and can think of someone or something your daughter would benefit from “getting away” from, you should think about residential care.
- She expresses a desire to “take a break from life,” “go away for a while,” or “make everything stop.” It’s not a vacation, and getting better is hard work, but it can still serve as a much-needed escape from negative circumstances for girls. Your daughter will have a chance to put the rest of her life on hold and focus fully on her own well-being for a while. When she returns to regular life, she’ll be equipped with new skills and strategies to improve her situation.
How It Can Help: The Benefits of Residential Treatment for Your Teen Daughter
One of the biggest plus sides of residential treatment is that your daughter will definitely be safe. Residential treatment environments are closely monitored, and she’ll have access to trained staff 24/7 for anything she needs. It’s similar to an inpatient hospital stay in this way, but it isn’t – residential treatment typically happens in a setting that feels a lot more like a home than a hospital. This is usually comforting for girls and their parents because it doesn’t feel as extreme.
Residential treatment also provides the structure that is so key to improving and maintaining mental health. Girls will have standard meal times, regularly scheduled therapy sessions, and often even chores and tasks to complete around the home. They learn to be more responsible, and how useful a daily routine can be.
Your daughter can focus fully on getting better in residential care, too. She’ll be free of distractions and typical stressors and really get in touch with who she is – and then get to work conquering everything standing in the way of her living her best life. Residential treatment can also serve as a sort of “fresh start” away from an environment that might be painful for your teen. That can be very valuable.
Most residential programs also have time dedicated to schooling, which means your daughter won’t get off track in her education, even while she focuses on healing.
When to Choose Residential Treatment Over Other Treatment Programs: How Do You Know It’s the Right Fit?
When you look into treatment for teen girls, the options are a little overwhelming. There are so many choices. How do you know if residential treatment is the best fit for your daughter? You can ask yourself (or her!) these questions to get a better idea:
- Are you afraid to leave her by herself?
- Is her current environment hurting her mental health?
- Could she benefit from additional structure?
- Could she use intensive, all-day treatment?
- Would she have trouble balancing treatment with her regular responsibilities?
- Does she have a condition that’s hard to manage at home?
If the answer to any of these questions is “yes,” residential treatment might be a good idea. The more questions that apply to her, the more likely she is to benefit from residential care.
Factors To Consider for Residential Treatment: Choosing Her Temporary Home
You’ve decided your daughter needs residential treatment – now what? There is, of course, even more to consider. This time, you need to think about the residential program and facility itself.
This will take some research. Investigate the treatment center’s website. You can even call them with any questions you have. This is where transparency matters. The more you can find out about what the residential program offers, the better.
One important thing to look for is the type of therapy modalities the treatment center uses. There are a ton of different ones these days, and you’ll want to look for a program that is rooted in evidence-based practices. It’s even better if they specifically mention the therapy your daughter will participate in if she visits them. Then, you can look into what it’s all about if you don’t already know, and decide if you think it could help your teen.
You’ll also want to know if the facility has staff on standby for your daughter, and how often she’ll be able to see them. It’s ideal to find a treatment center that has both mental health professionals and traditional physicians or nurses on staff. That means your daughter’s mental and physical health will be well taken care of while she’s away. Your daughter should have 24/7 access to someone on her treatment team. It’s best if she gets weekly visits from a doctor, too – and if it’s more than weekly, that’s awesome.
Check out what the facility itself is like, too. Does the website specifically mention having a family-style environment? It’s even better if pictures are available. Take a good look at what’s available to you, and have your daughter look at any pictures, too. You want to make sure she’ll be comfortable in the facility she visits. That’s a huge – and sometimes underestimated – aspect of healing.
While recovery should always be the top priority, you can’t forget about education. See if the treatment center is open about how schooling works in their residential program. It’s best if your teen has access to certified teachers and dedicated classroom time. The facility should also stay in touch with your daughter’s school to take that stress off of you both. Residential programs aren’t easy – for teens or their parents. The less you have on your plate during this time, the better.
One of the most important aspects of treatment is what happens after the residential program. The ideal residential center will have an aftercare program, where they’ll continue to support your daughter even once she returns home. Getting acclimated to regular life again after time away can be challenging, and so can applying what you learn in treatment. Your teen shouldn’t have to figure things out on her own.
Last but not least, you’ll want to choose a treatment center that involves you and the rest of your family. Family support is crucial to your teen’s recovery. Whether it’s family therapy every week, classes on how you can better help your teen, or just frequent updates and communication with you – you should never feel left out of your daughter’s care.
Finding Residential Treatment for Girls in the Dallas-Fort Worth Area
You might feel overwhelmed. That’s totally understandable. Being apart from your daughter at all can be stressful, especially when she has mental health concerns. Residential treatment for teen girls also lasts a while, which is hard, too. It’s a big decision, but a residential program could change your daughter’s life. If you think it would be a good fit for her, it’s worth taking the leap.
If you’re searching for a residential program in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Roots Renewal Ranch can help. We’re a residential treatment center for girls ages 13-17. We check all the boxes for the factors we mentioned above. We also utilize animal therapy as a core part of our program. The girls here take care of them, bond with them, and heal alongside them. We’d love to tell you more about what we do and answer any questions you have. Call us at 888-399-0489. Your daughter is strong, she is loved, and she is enough. We’re ready to help her believe it.
