When the insurance benefits are exhausted, consider Summit Achievement

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When it comes to mental health treatment for adolescents and young adults, timely and effective interventions are crucial. Insurance coverage often plays a role in selecting treatment options, but it’s not uncommon for families to face limitations on their policy coverage. Insurance companies often stop paying for residential placement long before the therapeutic journey is complete.  

Many programs are creating short-term interventions (30 days or less) that can be covered by insurance at eye-popping daily rates. As you know, the challenge for families is that when their insurance stops paying for treatment at these programs, the out-of-pocket cost- usually well north of $1000/day- is just not manageable.  

If you find your clients are at a crossroads after exhausting insurance funds for short-term interventions, consider Summit Achievement. Our continuum of care is a shorter length of stay compared to any other wilderness therapy program or therapeutic boarding school. Despite our shorter length of stay, we have decades worth of outcome data to show our effectiveness. Furthermore, our daily rates are significantly cheaper than the out-of-pocket cost to continue at insurance-based facilities ($700 for Achievement, $600 for Traverse). Coupled with grants offered both internally and through Sky’s The Limit Fund, we believe that we can be a more realistic and effective option for families facing the inevitability of private pay mental health treatment.

Here’s how Summit Achievement’s continuum of care typically works:

  • The Achievement Program: The program starts with a wilderness component, where students engage in outdoor experiences, adventure-based activities, and therapeutic interventions, while also doing school 3-days per week and engraving in intensive individual, family and group therapy.  This phase aims to build self-awareness, self-confidence, and healthy coping mechanisms.  The average length of stay in Achievement is 6-10 weeks, but this can be shortened significantly after 30-day stay at another program.  
  • The Traverse Program: After completing the wilderness phase, students transition to our  therapeutic boarding school. Here, they continue to receive the same level of therapeutic support, with the same therapist,  but with the intentional addition of school 5-days per week, more “normal” weekend activities, and the intentional introduction of technology. The focus is on academics, personal growth, and preparing for a successful transition back to their home environment.
    •  Traverse is about helping students reintegrate into their families and communities. The program provides support for the family, aiming to ensure that the progress made during the wilderness and boarding school phases is maintained after returning home.  The stay in Summit Traverse is from 2-6 months.  

The shorter length of stay in Summit Achievement’s continuum of care can be advantageous for some families for several reasons:

1. Cost-Effective: A shorter program can be more cost-effective for families as it reduces the overall time spent in a therapeutic setting.  

2.  Continuity of care: Transitioning from our hybrid wilderness program (Achievement) to our short-term therapeutic boarding school (Traverse) involves a continuity of care in that a client will have the same therapist, parent coach, direct care staff and teachers that they had in Achievement.  In maintaining the same treatment team through the continuum families and students are able to seamlessly continue their treatment progress.  

3. Focused Approach: Summit Achievement’s program is designed to create meaningful and lasting change in a relatively condensed time frame. The program’s effectiveness is attributed to the intentional and focused approach used throughout the continuum of care, and our belief that clients belong in the least restrictive environment where they can be successful

4. Minimized Disruption: The shorter length of stay means less disruption to the student’s academic and social life. It allows them to return to their regular routines more quickly.  Our goal is to help students and families gain the skills and confidence to navigate the struggles of daily life outside of treatment.  

A student coming to participate in our continuum of care, especially one coming out of treatment elsewhere, could be with us as short as 3 months, and as long as 6 months, depending on the needs of the family and the nature of the plan to transition back to a lower level of care (home, boarding school etc.)  

Summit Achievement is willing to work with each family and individual to tailor an appropriate course of treatment and length of stay in our programming.  Our unique approach of integrating academics, adventure activities and intense family work enables us to make significant gains in a shorter amount of time than many other programs.  Our continuum of care is the shortest term, and most cost-effective continuum in the country for a child and family to navigate intensive treatment with a wilderness component and therapeutic boarding school.  Over 80% of our clients leave our continuum and return to a lower level of care (home, boarding school etc.)  

Summit Achievement is currently enrolling students into our programs. Don’t hesitate to reach out today if you think we’re right for your family. 

Admissions: Shannon Palentchar – shannon@summitachievement.com, (207) 447-9450