Admissions Information

We understand that placing your child in a residential setting will be a difficult experience for you. If residential care is required, we want to help your family navigate the stress it will cause. As needed, you may call our Director of Admissions, Director of Nursing, Business Administrator, and other Administrators, your child's Residential Therapist and Family Therapist when you have questions, concerns or wish to receive information about your child.

For more information on admissions please contact, Mr. Phillip McMillan, Director of Admissions at (318) 255-5020.

Our work is a ministry in which we:

Exist to serve children and their families

Believe each child must have a sense of belonging

Believe the best place for a child to live is with a family

Teach by modeling the examples of Christ

Provide holistic care to accomplish our goals

Program Description

Louisiana United Methodist Children and Family Services, Inc. provides assessment-based residential services through the Louisiana Methodist Children Home for youth unable to live at home. As a residential treatment center we seek to restore wholeness and facilitate reconciliation in the lives of the individuals and families we serve.

Our Philosophy of Care

Based on our mission and the beliefs about the youth we serve, we seek to accomplish our mission according to the following treatment philosophy.

1. All clients have the right to be treated with dignity, respect, and privacy in every element of care and treatment.

2. All clients are entitled to assessment, planning and treatment services designed to meet the individual needs they might have.

3. All clients are entitled to a holistic approach that addresses their physical, emotional and spiritual needs.

4. All clients have the right to a nurturing, caring, supportive, safe, secure, and stable environment to enhance the opportunity for change and growth.

What are the Treatment Goals?

As a component of its long range, strategic and annual operating goals, Louisiana Methodist Children's Home, in keeping with our mission, values, beliefs and philosophy, has established the following treatment goals.

1. To provide quality, assessment-based residential treatment services for the youth placed in our care.

2. To provide an interdisciplinary therapeutic approach that includes all systems involved with the client.

3. To provide a caring, comfortable, safe, secure, nurturing, and age-appropriate environment for the youth in care.

4. To provide varied resources and opportunities to address the unique needs of the youth in care.

5. To provide quality educational and experiential opportunities for the youth in care to facilitate the acquisition of developmentally appropriate skills and information.

6. To prepare the youth we serve to function productively in a less restrictive environment, with their families or in some other appropriate setting.

Who is Eligible for Residential Care?

Louisiana Methodist Children's Home provides services to children ages 12 to 17 who have mild to severe behavioral, emotional, and/or family disturbances. In more recent years the majority of referrals and our concentration has been working with the adolescent population. The facility admits youth for assessment and intensive services. Children who are actively suicidal, homicidal, psychotic, mentally handicapped (IQ below 65 ), serious criminal offenders, severely physically handicapped, or actively abusing substances will not be considered for admission. Specific admission criteria are as follows:

1. Adjustment problems related to the family, communication difficulties, lack of respect for rights of others, running away, persistent lying, stealing within the home, argumentative, non-compliant behaviors, physically aggressive, lack of emotional bonding, or violations of family rules.

2. Problems related to personal and emotional functioning, poor self-esteem, impulsivity, inadequate judgment-making skills, low frustration tolerance, depression and temper outbursts.

3. Problems functioning within the community and social relationships, stealing, vandalism, difficulty in maintaining peer relationships, sexual promiscuity, acting out or aggression.

4. Educational difficulties related to disruptive or delinquent behaviors, poor academic performance, or exhibiting mild to moderate learning disabilities.

Exclusionary criteria include but may not be limited to:

Severe psychiatric disorders which require hospitalization.

Physical handicaps which limit the child's ability to participate fully in a residential program.

Medical conditions which limit the child's full participation in the program. These include, but are not limited to, severe diabetes, epilepsy, hemophilia, food allergies, which require very specialized diets, encopresis or enuresis, which prohibits functioning in the educational or recreational programs.

Significant impairments resulting from organic brain disorders or traumatic brain injury, which prohibit full participation in a residential program.

Pregnancy

Severe sexual disorders

Chronic violent behavior, which is incompatible with a group living environment.

Louisiana Methodist Children's Home serves only children from the State of Louisiana. Residents are admitted without regard to sex, race, creed, national origin, religious preference.

Louisiana Methodist Children's Home will receive over 1,000 requests for placement this year. We will be able to admit approximately 250 of those youth. The information you provide will help us make a realistic decision regarding our ability to meet the needs of your child.

It is our hope that we will be able to serve you.