Advice for family dealing with troubled teen who could use DBT/ACT?

[Guest guest]

If there are any therapists lurking on the list

with experience in treating teens ...

A couple I know is having an escalating series

of problems with their 13-year-old adopted

daughter. She is very charming, but was adopted

relatively late (4 years) from a tough background.

For several years nows she's been increasingly

unhappy - trouble sleeping, very sensitive to

rejection, feeling she has no identity of her own,

etc. It's more than just the usual teen angst,

because she also has some obsessive & addictive

behaviors she cannot seem to control.

After what sounds like a relatively mild episode

of taking a prescription drug given to her by a

friend, her school recommended she be placed in

a locked psych ward, to which the parents

agreed. (This surprised me, but I guess they're

worried she is getting out of control.) They are

very loving, very concerned, well-educated,

committed to helping her ... but also very much

over their heads at this point.

The head shrink at the ward says the daughter is

a good candidate for a local DBT group therapy

program, based at a nearby hospital; it's a day

program that would last 6 weeks. DBT sounds

right to me, too, though I'm not an expert. Or

ACT would be good to - again, I'm not an expert,

but it sounds like her dysfunctional behaviors

have to do with avoidance of extremely

distressing thoughts & feelings.

Problem is, how to get the daughter safely out

of the locked ward and back home, so that the

parents can begin taking her to this group

program each day? They've tried to bring her

home a couple of times, but each time she does

something relatively tame but still upsetting to

cause them to bring her back to the ward (e.g.

goes to the medicine cabinet & takes a

prescription medicine of some sort).

My concern is that this kid may be learning

problem behaviors from other kids on the ward -

e.g. she has learned to " cut " herself with paper

clips, etc. The head shrink meanwhile has

decided she might benefit from lithium so

they've started her on a trial of that. Which I

suppose is the standard approach - however she

does not have a diagnosis of bipolar disorder,

so it also seems potentially abusive on the part

of the institution.

From what I am being told it doesn't sound like

she's getting any actual therapy on the ward,

DBT-based or otherwise ... just lectures from

the head shrink about how she shouldn't feel

sorry for herself compared to the kids who in

the ward who are worse off than her, etc. etc.

To be told that the system is doing the best it

can by locking the kid up & giving her meds is

not very reassuring. Do the parents have any

other options here? Any other resources or

strategies they might pursue?