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What to Expect from CIEBS

Children undergoing treatment with Children’s Intensive Emotional and Behavioral Services (CIEBS) at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) are given a comprehensive array of therapies that will prepare them to return to their school, home and community with tools to help them manage their behavior and emotions.

Services your child and family will receive include:

  • Thorough screening and evaluation
  • Psychiatric evaluation, consultation and medication monitoring
  • Expressive therapy groups
  • Family therapy
  • Individual therapy tailored to the child’s and family’s needs, as necessary
  • Psychoeducational groups
  • Simulated classroom setting and activities
  • High level of supervision and safety for aggressive and combative behaviors
  • Case management and care coordination
  • Creative therapies
  • Daily living skills and health training
  • Daily recreational therapy
  • Referral to — and consultation with — community resources
  • Psychoeducation/psychotherapy group for parents of current and former patients
  • Transitional discharge planning
  • Transportation for children based on distance from the child’s residence to the CHOP Specialty Care Center in Mays Landing, NJ. Alternative transportation can be discussed.

Our philosophy and treatment

Members of our team work together to provide comprehensive evaluations and individualized treatment to each child. Our approach to care incorporates the child, family and community.

When children enter one of our partial hospital programs, they are placed in developmentally appropriate treatment rooms that become the setting for their therapy. Within this safe, predictable and therapeutic environment, children receive trauma-informed, behaviorally focused, individualized treatment that encourages family and community participation.

Treatment focuses on teaching children how to develop safe adaptive behaviors, emotional self-regulation and pro-social skills as building blocks that will improve their academic learning potential. Interventions are designed to help each child reach their behavioral, emotional, social and learning goals.

Therapeutic interventions stress safety and the acceptance and respect of others, as they are, without judgment or evaluation (also called unconditional positive regard). These interventions are derived from humanistic principles, state-of-the-art behavior modification techniques and applied behavior analysis. Children are further supported by individual, group and family psychotherapy, simulated classroom activities and, if needed, medication.

The weaving together of these interventions — under the guidance of the treatment team in a setting similar to a school classroom — creates a therapeutic environment.

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