El Pueblo An Adolescent Treatment Community

Background Statement

History

El Pueblo was originally called the Pueblo Youth Center and was founded in 1960 by the Pueblo County Commissioners. From the very beginning, the organization aspired to become a research center for children with behavior problems in an effort to work with them before they became classed as delinquents. The Center originally cared for 24 boys who came from broken homes, bad homes or no homes at all.

In 2004, the organization adopted a new name, El Pueblo…an Adolescent Treatment Community, and logo to more accurately reflect the agency's evolution into a more sophisticated organization. El Pueblo had been recognized for its ability to treat youth who demonstrated more severe levels of mental health, behavioral and substance use issues. The new organizational name change also accompanied major infrastructure developments and enhanced professional development required to meet the higher level of treatment needs of the youth.

During this time El Pueblo completed construction on four additional therapeutic cottages and two reflection cottages which were used to provide a safe environment for youth in crisis, who required increased supervision and intervention above that offered by congregate residential care. The additional cottages increased the organization's capacity to serve Colorado's most vulnerable youth in a residential setting, to over 124.

In 2006, El Pueblo developed a specialized program to serve dually diagnosed youth who had mental health and behavioral issues coupled with developmental disabilities. In 2007, in response to a growing need for more transitional and "step-down" supports for discharging residents and non-residential community-based services for troubled youth who were at risk of out-of-home placement, El Pueblo added a non-residential / outpatient component to its continuum of care.

In 2009, El Pueblo partnered with the Colorado Department of Human Services, Division of Behavioral Health (formerly the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Division) to develop its Wise Up: Minors In Possession outpatient drug and alcohol treatment program for ticketed minors. (In 2009, 30 youth were served. In years two and three, the program served four times that number of youth!)

In 2010, under the new leadership of Sherri Baca, El Pueblo concentrated its efforts into effective and intensive treatment and programming to get the youth back into public school and their communities successfully. El Pueblo ramped up its focus on vocational and job readiness skill development through increased on-site job opportunities and life skills training.

Also in 2010, El Pueblo expanded its clinical department to include the skills of a registered nursing (RN) staff to serve the needs of medically involved youth with mental health and behavioral disorders.

In 2011 El Pueblo expanded its Substance Education and Addiction Recovery (SEAR) Program to accommodate teens demonstrating more severe drug use issues through the Intensive Short-Term Substance Abuse Treatment Program. An Intensive Short Term Therapeutic Program was added to serve adolescents in crisis who were displaying unsafe or suicidal behaviors and who may not have been appropriate for inpatient hospitalization.

In 2012, El Pueblo opened two satellite outpatient offices; El Pueblo - North, located in the Kempe Center at the Children's Hospital Colorado and El Pueblo - Colorado Springs, located in central Colorado Springs. Both satellite offices were staffed to process admissions and provide seamless outpatient and after-care services to those youth returning back to their northern Colorado and Colorado Springs communities. El Pueblo also hired 2 additional part-time psychiatrists.

El Pueblo re-authorized its 2013-2018, 5-year strategic plan by identifying three strategic imperatives as its driving force over the next five years: 1) Fostering excellence from the inside out…internalizing and promoting excellence; 2) Becoming known as the experts in the field of child welfare and adolescent mental health, delivering each of our evidence-based programs with fidelity; and 3) Serving all youth with integrated approaches to meet their unique needs. El Pueblo began meeting its priorities by hiring a Director of Clinical Services, a Compliance Officer, a Professional Development Officer, a Dean of Students, and a Lead Milieu Supervisor with the explicit intent to improve programming through staff development and accountability across campus. The strategic plan continues to be evaluated and updated on a quarterly basis.

Fifty-seven years and over 4,000 changed lives later, El Pueblo has remained flexible and responsive to youth and families through its delivery of a continuum of services ranging from the most intensive crisis interventions to the transitional supports for youth who have successfully completed treatment and were transitioning back into their communities, having the support of El Pueblo's Community to Community programming.

Throughout the organization's history, youth placed at El Pueblo have become much more acute and medically fragile. Today's youth have chronically failed in outpatient treatment and multiple foster care settings. In 2013, a typical diagnosis for a current resident would include Post Traumatic Stress Disorder; Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Mood Disorder, Bipolar Disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Substance Abuse or Dependence, Cyclothymic Disorder, Dysthymic Disorder, other Depressive Disorders and Anxiety Disorders, spectrum disorders and developmental disabilities accompanied with mental health and behavioral disorders.

El Pueblo has exerted concerted efforts to maintain open communication with its stakeholders throughout the State of Colorado to ensure that El Pueblo remains responsive to the needs of at-risk youth and that services are delivered with fidelity, in an effective, transparent, professional and efficient manner. Program enhancements are highlighted and customer service concerns are given personal attention by the President/CEO and Chief Operations Officer.

To that end, El Pueblo has made intentional moves in its programming to meet those identified needs in a tangible way, as demonstrated by El Pueblo's programming for youth with developmental disabilities and spectrum disorders who also struggle with mental health and behavioral disorders.