Vanderheyden

Our Mission:

At Vanderheyden, our caring and professional staff works hard to provide individuals with the skills necessary to enhance self-esteem and self-confidence, and to engage in experiences that lead to personal growth and to live healthy and productive lives. Our vision is to continue the work of providing life-changing care to the youth, individuals and families we serve for another 180 years.

Vanderheyden is licensed by the following organizations:

• NYS Education Department www.nysed.gov
• NYS Office of Children and Family  Services www.ocfs.state.ny.us/main
• NYS Office of People with Developmental Disabilities www.opwdd.ny.gov

Education

Richard A. Desrochers Educational Center is a Regents accredited 7 -12 grade program by the New York State Department of Education offering all required classes for students to graduate with a Regents Diploma, a Career Development and Occupational Studies (CDOS) credential or a Skills Achievement and Commencement Credential. 

Residental Treatment

Our residential cottages are on 80+ wooded acres with ponds and nature trails. The setting offers opportunities for growth and development in a safe, nurturing, and therapeutic atmosphere.  Our school and gymnasium are located within walking distance of the cottages. 

Diagnostic/Respite Services

The program, for stays up to 90 days, is designed to serve persons ages 12 to 21 who are in need of emergency care and have emotional, behavioral and/or developmental challenges. Diagnostic services also can be provided on site.

Bridges To Health (B2H)Home & Community Based Services Medicaid Waiver Program.

The B2H program provides family and community support services to a proposed 3,305 children statewide and supplements the existing foster care and Medicaid State Plan programs. Vanderheyden serves as the Waiver Service Provider to Northeast Parent and Child Society and Parsons Child and Family Center. Vanderheyden provides 9-14 services in Albany, Schenectady, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Warren and Washington counties as well as provides Skill Building in Columbia, Fulton, Green, Montgomery and Schoharie counties.

• Skill Building
• Crisis Avoidance, Management and Training
• Day Habilitation
• Immediate Crisis Response Services
• Special Needs Community Advocacy and Support
• Intensive In-Home Supports
• Planned Respite
• Crisis Respite
• Family/Care Giver Supports and Services

Vanderheyden is proud to be Sanctuary Institute Certified

Sanctuary certification symbolizes an organization's commitment to providing a higher level of care, a trauma-sensitive environment for the people they serve and a better work environment for employees. Sanctuary certification requires re-evaluation every three years, as it is designed to promote, sustain and strengthen an organization's commitment to the maintenance of a trauma informed culture for all of its stakeholders. The Sanctuary® Model is a blueprint for clinical and organizational change which, at its core, promotes safety and recovery from adversity through the active creation of a trauma-informed community. A recognition that trauma is pervasive in the experience of human beings forms the basis for the Sanctuary Model's focus not only on the people who seek treatment, but equally on the people and systems who provide that treatment.

The Seven Sanctuary Commitments - The set of values that Sanctuary outlines as a way to lead individuals and organizations away from trauma-reactive behaviors are the Seven Sanctuary Commitments. These commitments, adapted from work done in the UK by Therapeutic Communities, are defined as follows:

• Commitment to Nonviolence: building and modeling safety skills
• Commitment to Emotional Intelligence: teaching and modeling affect management skills
• Commitment to Inquiry & Social Learning: building and modeling cognitive skills
• Commitment to Shared Governance: creating and modeling civic skills of self-control, self-discipline, and administration of healthy authority
• Commitment to Open Communication: overcoming barriers to healthy communication, reduce acting-out, enhance self-protective and self-correcting skills, teach healthy boundaries
• Commitment to Social Responsibility: rebuilding social connection skills, establish healthy attachment relationships
• Commitment to Growth and Change: restoring hope, meaning, purpose