Her Lived Experience With Addiction Helped Create An Urban Model For Holistic, Community Based Young Adult Treatment, with The Dorm’s Amanda Fialk

ABOUT THE EPISODE:

One of the biggest challenges young people who are misusing drugs and alcohol face is identifying the plan for transitioning back to the “real world” post-treatment. Young people can become vulnerable because they feel they don’t belong anywhere as they start to rebuild a new and different life that doesn’t involve substances.  If they aren’t ready to hold down a job or enroll in college, where do they go? How do they spend their time without getting into trouble? 

In this episode, I’m joined by Amanda Fialk, the Chief Clinical Officer of The Dorm, a safe place for young adults to find community and gain skills and tools to become independent as they seek to find their place in the world after treatment for substance use and mental health challenges. Amanda has worked hard to build in aspects of outpatient treatment that she saw were missing from her own experience.

The difference young people find at The Dorm is the holistic approach to support services and an urban, “real world” environment that still offers guidance and nurturing. Young adults receive access to long-term support as it relates to their clinical, academic, health and nutritional needs, just to name a few. 

In this episode, you’ll learn: 

• How a simple request from a staff member in her own treatment program changed the course of Amanda’s career
• What prompted Amanda to leave law school and instead pursue advanced degrees in social work and mental health
• What she believes makes traditional outpatient therapy programs ineffective for young adults
• Why every family needs to agree on a discharge plan before a student leaves a program 
• Why it’s beneficial to not dive straight back into school, work, and other demands, and how parents can play a role in this important transition period
• The difference between your child talking and the substances talking

EPISODE RESOURCES:

• Check out The Dorm Website
• The Dorm on LinkedIn
• The Dorm on Instagram

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