Skyland Trail

Skyland Trail is a private, not-for profit organization in Atlanta, Georgia offering treatment to adults with mental illness. Skyland Trail specializes in treating adults with Bipolar Disorder, Schizophrenia, Depression, and Dual Diagnosis.^[1]

History

In the early 1980s, Charles B. West, an Atlanta businessman, saw a void in mental illness treatment. The dominant treatment model in Atlanta at the time was hospitalization for acute cases, aimed at stabilization. There was no long-term treatment program that provided therapies that included teaching skills needed to reintegrate patients back into the community.

Through a friend’s experience, West recognized the need, and in 1982, he established The George West Mental Health Foundation, named for his father, and recruited a board of directors. The board studied programs and innovations across the nation that looked beyond short-term stabilization and to long-term recovery.^[2]

Mission

Skyland Trail promotes recovery from mental illness. Its programs foster reintegration into the community and empowers adults to live with dignity and independence. In partnership with families, providers and the community, Skyland Trail delivers treatment, education and research.^[3]

Programs

Skyland Trail provides client-centered services for individuals with mental illness, grounded in personal commitment to recovery and engagement in the process. The client’s customized recovery plan includes primary medical care, psychiatric services, counseling and adjunctive therapies, which include horticultural, art. music and drama therapies. This approach integrates mental, physical and spiritual dimensions of health.

Day services are an element of every patient's recovery plan. All residential and intensive outpatient patients, participate in day services. Major components include group and individual counseling, psychiatric services and active therapies to engage patients in their recovery processes.

Patients participate in recovery communities, which are primary treatment systems with ten to fifteen clients each. Clients enter a recovery community based on their diagnosis.^[4] Community types are:

• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): Major depressive disorders, anxiety disorders, psychotic illnesses
• Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT): Secondary Axis II disorders, bipolar affective disorders, dual diagnosis
• Dual Diagnosis: Secondary substance abuse with early, full remission; individuals who have recently relapsed
• Young Adult: First break episodes of schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders
• Longitudinal: Long-term clients who are relatively asymptomatic and focused on functional recovery and community reintegration^[5]

Treatment

Skyland Trail provides active therapies that engage patients in their recovery process. Horticulture, art, music, drama and recreation provide regular activities and socialization opportunities to meet diverse patient interests and abilities, promoting increased self-esteem, socialization, community reintegration and a higher overall quality of life.

Skyland Trail was one of the first mental health treatment facilities in the U.S. to have an on-site, full-time primary care clinic. Patients receive primary medical care as part of a holistic treatment for mental illness connecting mental, emotional and physical health.^[6]

Skyland Trail's evening Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) employs evidence-based treatments with client centered strategies to help adults who are working or in school continue progressing in their recovery.

Skyland Trail treats patients with a primary diagnosis of mental illness with related substance abuse disorders. Dual Diagnosis Services provide a structured program, individualized for the patient, to promote a drug-free and sober lifestyle. Group and individual psychotherapy help the patient gain insight into the relationship between his or her substance abuse and mental illness.

Research

Skyland Trail's clinical team is working on the VALERO Study, a research initiative aimed at developing assessments to quantify and VALidate the Everyday, Real-life Outcomes of people with serious mental illness. The program, which is sponsored by the National Institute for Mental Health (NIMH) in conjunction with Emory University's Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, began in May 2008. Skyland Trail was one of two test sites selected nationally for the VALERO Study.^[7]