Skyland Trail

Evidence-based, Holistic Psychiatric Treatment

Skyland Trail offers adults with mental illness a powerful mix of evidence-based psychiatric therapy within an integrated, holistic treatment model. We work in partnership with our residents to create customized mental health treatment plans that meet their psychiatric needs.

Our mental health facilities focus most often on individuals with complex psychiatric issues. All of our clients have a primary mood, thought, or anxiety disorder. And in addition, many of them have co-occurring substance abuse, borderline personality disorder, or anxiety diagnoses.

In addition to expert psychiatric treatment, the holistic path to wellness at Skyland Trail includes music, art and horticultural therapy, workforce and school readiness, primary care services, family therapy, and healthy living and nutrition coaching. This integrated approach helps clients make a series of changes – from healthier eating, to better sleep, to new self-care strategies – that collectively add up to a healthier, happier life.

Customized Support for Mental Health Issues

At Skyland, we understand that people are individuals, and not just diagnoses. While we may ask our residents to adjust their goals and expectations, we will not ask them to settle for less.

Skyland Trail offers a customized mix of evidence-based, supportive psychiatric therapies. Each client is assigned to a specialized treatment team, peer support group, and structured schedule based on individual diagnoses, symptoms and self-defined goals. Our specialized mental health treatment teams include:

• Young Adults with First Episode Psychosis

• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

• Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)

• Social Integration

This individualized approach to psychiatric care allows clients to be part of a consistent peer group in which adults in need of mental health help can build trust and support one another. We also offer clients with substance use issues a dual diagnosis program.

A Continuum of Mental Health Care

To support mentally ill adults as they make progress toward reintegration, we offer a unique continuum of residential care that includes deliberate step-downs to more independent facilities as well as community reintegration points. Our continuum includes:

• Residential care

• Day treatment

• Intensive outpatient psychiatric care

• Independence coaching

• Transitional housing

Skyland provides the graduated support adults with mental illness need to progress through our levels of care and return to independent living. Clients typically participate in the residential level of care for about two months before stepping down to the day treatment program for an additional one to three months.

A Typical Week at Skyland

Skyland Trail offers a structured schedule of more than 125 groups each week. A typical week of residential treatment at Skyland includes a combination of the following:

• One-on-one sessions with a psychiatrist or counselor

• Daily diagnosis-based core group

• Nature as therapy in our greenhouse and gardens

• Stress management training

• Assertiveness coaching

• Music therapy

• Peer support groups (topics like sobriety or processing grief)

• Art therapy

• Mindfulness meditation group

• CBT and DBT skills group

• Community outings

• Sports and fitness activities

• Cooking and nutritionist consultation

• Other specialized group therapy sessions

By helping clients define who they are and who they want to be—in addition to helping them develop practical skills for managing their mental illness—we give them the best chance at sustaining their recovery and stopping the cycle of repeat hospitalizations.

Respectful, Therapeutic Environment

Skyland’s residential treatment facilities are built around gardens and offer clients private bedrooms and bathrooms as well as comfortable common areas to connect with peers. All of Skyland Trail’s residential treatment facilities are unlocked, and all treatment is voluntary.

A Program Proven to Improve Mental Health

Skyland Trail also blazes trails in the area of mental health patient outcomes research. We employ research and data compilation tools considered to be the gold standard in the mental health field to measure the effectiveness of our psychiatric treatment programs.

Mental health research data collected at Skyland Trail annually confirm that patients who complete the treatment program at Skyland return to their communities with reduced psychiatric symptoms and improved skills to pursue more independent and productive lives.

Results like these are just one reason Skyland Trail has been recognized nationwide for its high-quality psychiatric care services. Among our honors are a Joint Commission National Quality Gold Seal of Approval Since 1995, a Special Presidential Commendation from the American Psychiatric Association in 2014, an American Psychiatric Association Gold Award in 2008, and a Rosalynn Carter/Johnson & Johnson Caregiver Award.