We Are NATSAP: Articles Submitted by Members

The Summit Achievement Continuum of Care Model is a unique treatment model unlike any others, providing a continuum of services that maximize treatment outcomes, family work, and classroom academics with a focus on returning 90% of our clients to a lower level of care in two to six months or less, making us one of the most affordable treatment journeys for clients to be ready to return to home or boarding school.

We work with adolescents ages 13-20,  dealing with depression, anxiety ADHD and substance use and the subsequent difficulty within their family, school, and/or personal lives.  The focus is on long-term success and lasting change by integrating diverse elements of care in a residential treatment setting that include, clinical sophistication, strong classroom academics, family systems work, and backcountry camping trips, all aimed at helping adolescents develop life skills, emotional regulation, and the ability to thrive independently in a streamlined, cost-effective approach. Summit Achievement is a licensed residential treatment center and an accredited school. 

Two phases of our Continuum are Achievement and Traverse:

Achievement is a Primary intervention where students typically come from home, a hospital, a boarding school, etc. Summit Achievement combines the impactful adventure activities found in outdoor education programs with clinical sophistication, a strong academic program, and a therapeutic community usually featured in therapeutic boarding schools or RTCs. This allows students to not only experience the high impact of outdoor living but also apply that to the classroom and their family system on a weekly basis.  

The Summit Achievement experience looks like this:  

• 4 nights on campus
• 3 nights per week camping
• Weekly family, individual and group sessions
• Overnight visit with parents
• Weekly Parent coaching
• Discharge planning
• 6-10 weeks

Traverse is a secondary intervention where students generally come from Achievement, a wilderness therapy program, or another program where the treatment team believes the student could succeed in a traditional setting (home or boarding school) in 2 to  6 months with continued treatment. Traverse is an innovative, flexible-length therapeutic placement, which combines family-centered therapeutic services, accredited classroom academics, and a rich residential life curriculum.  On average, students spend one week per month at home practicing newfound skills and commitments and then return to treatment to process the experience.  We accept students who have successfully completed a primary treatment program and need help in transitioning back home or to a traditional boarding school.

The Summit Traverse experience looks like this:

• 7 nights on campus
• Weekend activities
• Weekly family, individual, and group sessions
• Weeklong home visits
• Parent coaching
• Discharge planning
• 2-6 months

Since Summit Achievement was founded in 1996, it has been considered a variety of things, from a wilderness therapy program to a hybrid model and sometimes even known as two programs. We are, in fact, a continuum of care—a one-stop shop for primary treatment to transition. Ninety percent of our clients leave our continuum and go to a lower level of care (most often home or boarding school).