![]() The place is so quiet, calm and bright that it’s hard to believe it is a counterpart to the traditional psychiatric treatment center, or lock-in. Kids eat healthily, exercise and are, above all, encouraged to express themselves and to be happy. Outdoor and indoor environments, including those that foster interaction with animals, are specifically designed to promote learning and calmness by decreasing children’s stress responses. At The Center for Discovery, buildings conform to strict eco-friendly regulations, and the residents’ diets are stripped of artificial dyes, flavorings and preservatives. The idea is that a person’s physical, emotional and psychological health, along with his or her environment, are one interconnected whole. While the medical establishment tends to adhere to a “broken brain” theory of developmental disability, which focuses primarily on neurological problems and behavior-based therapies, the Monticello center aims to treat the entire individual. The activities are essential to The Center’s holistic - or “offbeat,” as Patrick Dollard, The Center’s boisterous president and CEO, puts it - approach to treatment. In the winter, they zip special coats around their wheelchairs so they can still go outside safely. Students here - some 400 adults and children with significant physical or developmental disabilities - feed the farm animals as well as the rabbits, rascal ferrets, snakes and frogs that live in the Center’s “Imaginarium.” Residents also work the farm, swim in the therapeutic pool, play fantasy football in the “Learning Center,” and volunteer at the nearby fire department. The on-site cafe serves freshly baked goods made from hyperlocal organic ingredients and offers an array of nut-based milks. Spread out over three campuses and 1,500 acres of rolling hills wound with walkways and lovingly tended gardens, the facility abounds with horses, pigs, chickens and cows. On a bright morning in early fall, the campus had the air of a tony New England prep school or a mountaintop yoga retreat - not, God forbid, an institution. ![]() The Center, located in the Catskill Mountains, feels more like a utopia than it does a last resort. ![]() ![]() MORE: When This Dad Looked at His Autistic Son, He Saw a Business Opportunity, Not a Handicap The private not-for-profit is the largest residential treatment center of its kind in New York State, reserved for the care and treatment of those with significant disabilities, complex medical conditions and autism spectrum disorders. They had one other option: a different kind of facility, called The Center for Discovery, about 100 miles away, in Monticello, N.Y. The Nacmiases were reluctant to confine their young son to such an institution. Their choices were limited: Most residential treatment centers are state-run forensic psych facilities - sometimes referred to as “lock-ins,” because residents are locked inside the premises. Billy’s parents sued the city school district after their son’s maltreatment, and as part of their settlement, they were offered their choice of institutions, on the government’s dime, to help him. He became easily enraged and went on binges destroying his family’s home. His behavior had grown increasingly unstable in recent years, after being physically beaten by another teacher at his Queens, N.Y., school. By age 14, Billy Nacmias had become obese, obstinate and prone to such violent outbursts that he pushed a teacher down a flight of stairs and was expelled from school.īilly has autism, but he had not always been so contentious.
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