Residential Treatment Center in Missouri for Troubled Youth

Change Academy Lake of the Ozarks:
Change Academy Lake of the Ozarks (CALO), located in Lake Ozark, Missouri, is a specialized adolescent residential treatment setting for boys & girls (ages 12-18). At CALO, we with work a small window of student issues focusing specifically on issues of emotion, attachment and trauma. At CALO relationships are the primary change agent. All treatment is connected to and motivated by relationships. Relationships with family, CALO staff, and CALO peers are what drive change.

- CALO is accredited by JCAHO (Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations) through their Behavioral Healthcare Accreditation Program.
- CALO is licensed by the Missouri Department of Social Services Children's Division as a residential provider.
- CALO is an approved private agency through the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. 

CALO's academic curriculum comes through the Park City Independent program augmented by the BYU High School Transcript program as needed. The Park City Independent program and the BYU Program are accredited by the Northwest Association of Accredited Schools (NAAS).

Accreditation sources are reciprocal with other regional accreditation agencies, meaning that earned credits through the Park City Independent Program and the BYU High School Transcript Program are almost always transferable to other educational institutions.

Admission Criteria:
We accept students, ages 13 to 17, with the following diagnosis:

- Attachment Issues: adoption issues, identity issues, reactive attachment disorder, personality disorders (borderline, histrionic, narcissistic traits)
- Trauma Issues: abandonment, victims of abuse and/or neglect, bereavement, post traumatic stress disorder
- Emotion Regulation Issues: depression, dysthymia, bipolar, anxiety, personality disorders (borderline, histrionic, narcissistic traits)

Symptomatic behaviors include: poor impulse control, poor social skills, promiscuity, severe control issues, self-destructive behaviors, academic decline, family conflict, identity issues, low self-esteem, low motivation, manipulation, oppositional behaviors.

- Adolescent Residential Treatment
- Recreation Therapy Program
- Canine Therapy/ Transferable Attachment Program
- Individual, Family & Group Therapy
- Therapy-Based Academic Track
- Restorative Academic Track
- Standard/Collegiate Track

Location:
Lake Ozark is a city in Camden and Miller counties near its namesake, the Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri, Midwestern United States. Nearst major airports in Missouri include: Lambert - St Louis International Airport (3 hours by car), Kansas City International Airport (3.5 hours by car) and Springfield-Branson National Airport (2 hours 15 minutes by car).

Transferable Attachment through the care of purebred Golden Retrievers is a key, cutting-edge treatment aspect of our program. Where clinically appropriate, students have the opportunity to “foster and/or adopt” a Golden Retriever and are responsible for feeding, training, cleaning and nurturing their new family member.

The adoption process that students go through mirrors the adoption process that many families have to go through when adopting a child (home study, petition for adoption, decree of adoption, etc.) All interactions with this animal are used therapeutically.

It takes little time for our students to feel caring for the dog he works with. We talk of how the student’s parents feel the same way but with even stronger attachment to the student.

As students struggle with poor behavior from the dogs and the difficulties of training the dogs they are helped to understand those frustrations their parents have similarly felt. The students feel empathy for their parents. Empathy is the fertile soil where attachment can grow. This empathy is gained experientially, not through abstract discussion. This empathy and attachment is then transferred to the family relationship.