About Our Clinical Services

About Our Clinical
Services

Woodward’s clinical services play an important role in the development and monitoring of our organizational Crisis and Stabilization Plan and each student’s Individual Service Plan that includes their unique Crisis and Stabilization Plan. Student and families contribute needed information to this plan about what has worked or not worked as well as providing important cultural perspective. Clinical staff help identify conditions that trigger students, as well as oversee and monitor student’s responses to stressors. Clinical services are critical for identifying therapeutic responses to a student to de-escalate to prevent a crisis situation, in response to a developing crisis and to debrief following a crisis. They are also essential in the provision of trauma responsive treatment interventions designed to help each student understand how their past impacts the present way they think, behave, react, and develop coping strategies.

The Clinical Department is overseen by our Clinical Director and services are delivered by therapists licensed by the state of Iowa and Behavior Health Intervention Specialists (BHIS). Woodward Academy is a member of the Iowa Medicaid Enterprise and maintains a credentialed program, holding professional service agreements with Iowa’s Managed Care Organizations (Amerigroup Iowa, Iowa Total Care, and Molina HealthCare). Woodward Academy works with these managed care companies for authorization and payment for behavioral health services. Maintaining a behavioral health team on our campus allows for communication between all departments about student’s needs and ensures our program offers a variety of trauma sensitive, cognitive-behavioral, and social learning treatment modalities designed to impact student within a normative, pro-social campus environment.

At Woodward Academy student have access to a comprehensive Clinical Department which ensures:

Assessments screen for both mental health and substance abuse.
Assessments screen for additional individual student vulnerabilities including cognitive and developmental deficits and trauma impacted concerns.
Treatment specialists have knowledge of both substance use disorders and serious mental illnesses and understand the complexity of interactions between the disorders.
Treatment specialists are trained in skills that have been effective in treating student with co-occurring disorders.
Student and their families receive one cohesive message about substance use and mental health treatment.
Co-occurring disorders are treated in a stage wise manner with different services provided at different stages.
Motivational interventions are used to treat student in all stages.
Cognitive-behavioral approaches are used to treat student with co-occurring disorders.
Multiple treatment formats are provided including individual, group and family therapy.
Medication services are integrated and coordinated with other treatments.
Reintegration planning includes assessment of community-based mental and behavioral health needs. Collaboration between the student’s Caseworker, Referral Worker, and parent/guardian to ensure successful transition of services back into the home, school, and community.