Outpatient Admissions

Individuals seeking admission to Dawn Farm Adult Outpatient must meet the following criteria:

• Age 17 or older (with parental permission)
• Be willing to work on clearing any warrants
• Not have a severe and persistent psychiatric disorder (that is currently going untreated)
• Individuals should be detoxified; If not, Outpatient will strongly recommend that the individual detoxify at first point of contact

Prescreen

Potential clients are required to call the Dawn Farm Intake Team (DFIT) and complete a prescreen. An appointment will be scheduled for a Level of Care Assessment (LOC) at this time. Potential clients will be screened for circumstances that may delay or prevent their admission to Outpatient Services:

• In need of immediate detox
• Open warrants
• Severe and persistent mental illness.

Potential clients may be referred to other programs or levels of care if they meet any of the above criteria.

Once a perspective client completes their Intake Team Screening and is scheduled for an LOC, DFIT will provide them with a basic description of Outpatient Services as well as answer any questions they may have.

Level of Care Assessment and Intake

Clients will meet with an Outpatient Therapist for their LOC Assessment and Intake. The following information will be gathered during the assessment:

• General Client Information: Name, age, date of birth, complete address, medical problems and medications used, education, religious preferences -if applicable, employment, income, military history, current legal problems and arrest history.
• Substance Abuse History/Addiction Assessment: Levels of current use and use history for all mood-altering chemicals will be determined, as well as basic questions to aid in assessment of addictive features (i.e. tolerance, effects of abuse on family/school/job/legals, blackouts (w/ETOH), withdrawal syndrome, etc.
• Treatment History: A complete listing of prior treatment experiences will be noted—both chemical dependency-related and psychiatric.
• General Clinical Impressions: In addition to the above, the Outpatient Therapist will obtain a basic Mental Status Exam (as needed) and expand on any areas of the clients history as needed.
• Client Motivation: As noted above, there are subjective issues related to assessing the motivation of a prospective client, and this is an area that should be approached with great care. Dawn Farm is committed to helping addicts and alcoholics. The program’s ability to solicit some expression of personal motivation is essential to our accountability—both to the individual client and to the treatment group as a whole.

If it is determined during the assessment that a client needs a different level of care, referrals will be made to the appropriate programs as needed.

Clients will be given an opportunity to read through the Dawn Farm Client Handbook, have any questions answered and sign the Client Handbook Sign-off, releases and consents for treatment. The client will be assigned to a group that fits their needs. They are given copies of the Dawn Farm Client Handbook, AA Attendance Sheet, AA, AA schedule, and a reminder card indicating their first group, date, and time.