Programs

Upon referral to the Lighthouse Program, clients have typically experienced multiple placement breakdowns and long-term hospitalizations, and/or are residing in locked institutional facilities.

The service approach for the Lighthouse Program is derived from several models of care and meets the Alberta Government's 6 key principles of the Child Intervention Practice Framework:

• Trauma informed practice, which focuses on Attachment, Self-Regulation, and Competency (ARC) model (Blaustein & Kinniburgh, 2010).  ARC provides a framework for intervention with youth and families who have experienced multiple and/or prolonged traumatic stress. ARC identifies three core domains that are frequently impacted among traumatized youth, which are relevant to future resiliency. ARC provides a theoretical framework, core principles of intervention, and a guiding structure for providers working with these children and their caregivers.
• Disability informed practice, which includes a community inclusion approach, a positive behavioral support framework, and a commitment to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
• Family-centred/strength based approach to support and treatment.
• A lens of strength-based treatment that focuses on resiliency and competency building is applied individually and within the family.
• Therapeutic Crisis Intervention (TCI).
• Ecologically oriented service that focuses on preserving families, aboriginal experience, and collaboration with families, caregivers, guardians, and service providers.

The key elements of service design and delivery are:

• Highly-resourced, customized wraparound services - a process of integrating assessment and planning so as to create a strengths-based customized set of services and natural supports.
• The Lighthouse Program offers individualized support based on a comprehensive understanding of the individual’s strengths, presenting needs, and circumstances. 
• The Lighthouse Program works collaboratively with community-based health and mental health services and others to ensure each individual’s needs are addressed.
• The program has a higher ratio of staff to youth, in order to support the clients throughout their day-to-day activities, including school. If the client requires hospitalization, then his or her staff team accompanies him or her to maintain continuity of care.
• While prioritizing individual, employee, and community safety, Lighthouse supports and maintains positive behavioural change through the implementation of promising practices.