Since 1996, Midwest Center for Youth and Families (MCYF) has been committed to helping teens living with complex mental illnesses lead productive and fulfilling lives. Foremost among the therapeutic methods employed by MCYF is full immersion dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), which develops each patient’s capacity for mindfulness, interpersonal effectiveness, emotion regulation, and distress tolerance. Hundreds of young people across the country and from all walks of life have benefited from the services offered at MCYF.
Earlier this year, MCYF CEO Chris Iliff concluded the six-month-long process that made MCYF an affiliate of Universal Health Services’ Patriot Support Program. This organization provides active-duty service members (ADSMs), veterans, and their families with a variety of specialized mental healthcare services. These services are covered by TRICARE, a health care program that supplies active and retired military personnel and their families with health insurance coverage.
MCYF’s status as a Patriot Support Program indicates that the facility has a proven track record of successfully treating adolescents who come from military families.
Dr. Douglas Jarvis, certified child and adolescent psychiatrist and medical director at MCYF, has been treating MCYF patients since 2021. Jarvis is a former Army Medical Corps colonel and has served as a member of every branch of the armed forces except the Air Force. In his view, MCYF’s association with the Patriot Support Program sets it apart from other behavioral health care facilities.
“Affiliation with the Patriot Support Program says a lot about an organization,” Jarvis said. “You can't just sign up; your facility has to be reviewed and vetted for it. After you receive affiliation status, you must consistently receive positive feedback from your patients to keep it. The fact that MCYF earned this designation indicates that the care we offer is of very high quality. When the providers of TRICARE-based patients receive a referral to us from the Patriot Support Program, they will instantly recognize that the staff at MCYF knows how to work with and care for military families.”
Jarvis was instrumental in establishing MCYF’s affiliation with the Patriot Support Program. The process started when Jarvis volunteered to visit Fort Belvoir in Alexandria, Virginia, several years ago. While there, Jarvis spoke with the base’s medical professionals and social workers, the military personnel on the base who were considering sending their children to MCYF.
Jarvis’ ability to converse with the parents in “army speak” enabled him to effectively allay whatever concerns they had about sending their children to rural Indiana for treatment.
Parent participation is an integral part of MCYF’s therapy process and parents are encouraged to visit their child several times during their stay at the facility. This can be difficult for parents in the military, some of whom are stationed as far away as Alaska or the Philippines.
The Patriot Support Program is a designation earned through maintaining high quality metrics from our evidenced-based program. It allows us to partner with military installations across the Nation and in turn, help military parents navigate and streamline access to our level of care. Jarvis continues to use his position as the only military veteran doctor at MCYF to support military families and their children however possible.
“I’ve found that my knowledge of the military and its culture has helped in the treatment process,” Jarvis said. “If a father who is in active duty is going to be deployed four weeks into his child’s stay at MCYF, I can call the dad’s commander and say, ‘This is former Colonel Jarvis, Army Medical Corps. Could you wait another eight weeks and add this individual to phase two of your operation? His child will be concluding treatment by then.’ It’s a difficult position for the commander, but a request like that, coming from someone who speaks their language, has a different impact."
According to Jarvis, adolescents in military families can face a unique set of challenges that their peers from civilian families might not experience.
"During the war in Afghanistan, a member of the armed forces might have been deployed two or three times within a period of 12 years,” Jarvis said. “That has a negative impact on everyone in the family and changes everything for the kids. Sometimes, the adolescent children of military families haven't meaningfully interacted with the parents who served since they were toddlers. In other instances, the children of military families know that their parents will receive a permanent change in station every three or four years and that they’ll have to move eventually. I can understand what these kids are going through and, as a result, I know which questions I need to ask to help them open up."
Jarvis works with a total of 60 MCYF residents a week and seeks to establish a rapport with each patient. He believes that the care that the MCYF staff members put into their work is what makes their treatment so effective.
“Chris and most of the other top administrators at MCYF started out at the ground floor and have been working there for over a decade,” Jarvis said. “That’s a selling point for MCYF because it proves that the people who run the show today are here because they want to be. We are all committed to providing the kids with an enveloping system of care. We all like what we do and we’re committed to helping these youths grow into functioning members of society instead of potentially ending up in other less desirable situations. It’s been a pleasure to work with the MCYF staff; they're all like family to me."
Please visit midwest-center.com for more information on the services that MCYF offers its patients.