ASPIRE at Hoag—Teen Outpatient Mental Health Program

ASPIRE promotes emotional wellness using a holistic approach built on education, training and active participation from teens and their families. The program provides a structured, supportive environment that will teach and train healthy behaviors and show teens how to effectively regulate emotion, manage distress, and engage in healthy interpersonal relationships.

Adolescence is a time of profound growth and change. While our brain is still developing, challenges in school, family, and our social relationships can result in significant emotional distress leading to difficulties in normal daily function. When feeling overwhelmed, and lacking effective tools to manage and overcome life stressors, one is more likely to engage in unhealthy and maladaptive behaviors that hinder growth and can be harmful.

In 2010, 30 percent of students in the Newport-Mesa school district reported drug abuse, 50 percent reported alcohol abuse, and the numbers have continued to rise. Suicide rates have doubled since 2010. In 2017, one of seven people in this age group experienced a major depressive episode according to a recent study. If you are a parent of a teen in Orange County today, you likely have your own story—direct or indirect—to underscore this unfortunate reality.

The Hoag Solution

Pickup Family Neurosciences Institute has launched a programmatic answer to this glaring community need. ASPIRE (After School Program: Intervention and Resiliency Education) is an intensive outpatient program for adolescents, ages 13-17, with primary mental health disorders and possible co-occurring substance abuse challenges. The program guides teens and their families through an eight-week curriculum of skills-based training in stress management, resiliency, interpersonal communication, mental health and substance abuse education. The ASPIRE program at Hoag is now accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) for teens to receive high school credits. Learn more about the ASPIRE program.