P.U.L.S.E. Evening Treatment Center (ETC)

About the Program

Category: Criminal Justice and Public Safety (Best in Category)

Year: 2018

Through the implementation of the Juvenile Justice System Enhancement Strategy, Lancaster County has focused its efforts on demonstrating better outcomes, increasing the use of cost effective interventions, and ensuring risk reduction. Lancaster County’s Juvenile Court, the Office of Juvenile Probation, and the Children and Youth Agency were experiencing a reduced accessibility to specialized programs, as well as the closure of some residential facilities. This resulted in their need to seek out opportunities to keep low to moderate risk juveniles within close proximity to home and community resources which could parallel the successful outcomes of long-term placements. Prior to the development of the P.U.L.S.E. Evening Treatment Center (ETC), there were no other programs that were designed to address the youth’s criminogenic needs with evidence based practices on a weeknight basis. The Office of Juvenile Probation and the Children and Youth Agency worked collaboratively with the Youth Intervention Center in order to identify the needs of the adolescents, identify evidence-based practices that would serve those needs, and develop the program. The program is offered to males and females ages 13-18 who live in the community, as well as those who reside in the Youth Intervention Center Shelter Program. The participant’s goals, program length, and groups will be determined based on recommendations from the Juvenile Probation Officer or Children and Youth Caseworker, consultation with the parents/guardians, and results of various assessments. The participants participate in evidence based programs (Aggression Replacement Training, Forward Thinking, Strengthening Families, Alternatives, The Council for Boys and Young Men, and Girls Circle), as well as psycho-educational groups. Currently, we assess our four main goals in the following manner: • The first goal is to provide a range of evidence-based and psychoeducational groups to meet the needs of the adolescents while keeping these youth in their communities, homes, and schools. Each participant’s treatment plan is uniquely designed to meet their individual needs. • The second goal is reduce the likelihood that these adolescents will be placed outside of their homes or commit future illegal acts. Only 5% of the 42 participants that successfully completed the program have been placed in the Youth Intervention Center Detention Program or Shelter Program. • The third goal is to provide therapeutic programs to Shelter in order to increase prosocial attitudes and behaviors that will assist in their transition back into their communities. Of the Shelter residents who participated in the ETC, 39% of them transitioned home. Of those participants, 36% of them continued to attend groups at ETC in order to provide support as they transitioned home. • The fourth goal is to decrease antisocial, distorted, and criminal thinking patterns. This goal is assessed using the How I Think (HIT) Questionnaire, which is administered when a participant starts the program and when they successfully complete the program. Of the participants who completed a pre and post HIT Questionnaire, 58% report a decrease in the Overt Scale and 67% report a decrease in the Covert Scale.