St. Augustine Youth Academy, St. Augustine

Treatment Services at St. Augustine Youth Academy

There is one level of care here: long-term residential. How long depends on the risk classification a young man arrives with, and the gap between the two is wide. A high-risk commitment runs nine to twelve months, while a maximum-risk commitment runs eighteen to thirty-six months. Families planning school, work or visits around a placement should get that classification in writing before assuming any discharge date.

Treatment divides into a 48-bed mental health program for males fourteen to eighteen, a 16-bed substance use program for males eighteen to twenty-one, and a separate program for sexually reactive males thirteen to seventeen. Individual, group and family therapy run alongside social skills training, which is the part aimed squarely at life after discharge. No specific drug or alcohol is named in the published service description.

Medical cover mixes resident and contracted staff: nursing on site, with a physician, psychiatrist, dentist and behavior analyst under contract, a psychologist brought in as needed and a licensed dietitian. That means psychiatric review comes from a contracted clinician rather than an in-house prescriber, so ask how often that clinician attends if a young man arrives on medication that needs close monitoring during the first weeks.