Are you seeking Reactive Attachment Disorder Treatment for your child or a child in your care? Are you wondering what residential treatment facilities are available that provide care for children with attachment issues, RAD, ODD, and Developmental Trauma Disorder? This article provides a list of facilities in the United States that specialize in treating attachment disorders.
While no parent ever has the goal of placing their child in a placement outside of their home, in some situations this is necessary for the wellbeing and safety of the child and the family.
Before you make the decision to place a child in facility care, be sure to read our article with 10 shocking truths about residential treatment that every parents must know.
- What is Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD)?
- What Reactive Attachment Disorder Treatment is Available?
- Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD) Treatment Centers, Facilities, and Programs in the United States
- Calo Treatment Center in Missouri
- Chaddock in Illinois
- Christian Boys Ranch Mountain State Therapeutic Services in Montana
- Cookson Hills in Oklahoma
- Havenwood Academy in Utah
- Hope House in Idaho
- Institute for Attachment and Child Development in Colorado (CLOSED)
- Magellan Academy in Utah
- Meridell Achievement Center in Texas
- Mountain States Children's Home in Colorado
- My Father's Arrows/Mama's House in Florida
- Reflections Academy in Montana
- Respite Retreat in Georgia
- Three Points Center in Utah
- Tupelo Children's Mansion & Haven of Hope in Louisiana
- Villa Santa Maria in New Mexico
- Warwick House in Pennsylvania
- Residential Treatment Centers with Trauma-Informed Care in the United States
- Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch in North Dakota
- Discovery Academy in Utah
- Elk River Treatment Center in Alabama
- New Haven in Utah
- Sarah A. Reed Children's Center in Pennsylvania
- Skyterra Embrace in North Carolina
- Timber Ridge in North Carolina
- Waco Center for Youth in Texas
- Whetston Therapeutic Boys Ranch in Missouri
- Residential Treatment Centers for Children Outside of the United States
- Youth of Vision in Academy in St. Catherine, Jamaica
- Caribbean Mountain Academy in the Dominican Republic
- Parent Reviews of RAD Treatment Programs
What is Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD)?
Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD) is defined as a problematic pattern of developmentally inappropriate moods, social behaviors, and relationships due to a failure in forming normal healthy attachments with primary care givers in early childhood.
Children with Reactive Detachment Disorder show symptoms such as:
- Control issues
- Anger issues
- Avoiding eye contact
- Physical aggression and violence
- Bossy with peers and adults
- Manipulative
- Stealing
- Acting out sexually
- Lack of remorse
- Fascination with gore
- Harming animals
If you feel your child may have RAD but you aren’t sure, use this Reactive Attachment Disorder checklist. RAD can only be diagnosed by a licensed professional.
For more information about RAD, click here for Frequently Asked Questions about Attachment Disorders.
Do you need to place a child who is young? While it can be difficult to find, there are treatment programs that accept young children. Click here for a listing of residential treatment programs that accept children ages 5-12 years old.
What Reactive Attachment Disorder Treatment is Available?
Treatment for attachment disorders is intensive and long-lasting. Both the child and the family must be involved in order for treatment to be successful.
Treatment of RAD requires therapists, doctors, and educators who are familiar with the unique needs of a child with attachment issues. Traditional therapies are not successful in the treatment of attachment issues and can in fact make the situation worse.
Treatment for RAD includes:
- Therapy for parent and child with a therapist who specializes in attachment issues.
- Parent education.
- Intensive, 24-7 line-of-sight supervision.
- In-home services.
- Respite.
- In-patient hospitalization.
- Psychiatric medication.
- Special education services.
- Other therapies such as sensory, equine, music, etc.
- Residential treatment.
When all treatments have proven unsuccessful, or when a child is a danger to himself or others, seeking residential treatment may be the next choice for parents who are struggling to help their child.
Click here for more on the types of residential treatment available.
Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD) Treatment Centers, Facilities, and Programs in the United States
While the goal is always for children and teens with attachment issues to stay in the community and home, there are times when residential treatment is necessary.
Because attachment disorders require uniquely skilled therapy, ideally the best placement for these children is a treatment program that understands their needs. Here are facilities that are designed especially for youth with RAD, attachment disorders, and Developmental Trauma Disorder.
Some of the following programs accept insurance and Medicaid, and others require private funding. Click here for details on how to fund residential treatment.
If your child has not been diagnosed with RAD but displays similar behaviors, some of the following facilities may still be a good fit. Call and discuss your needs with the treatment center.
Calo Treatment Center in Missouri
Calo Treatment Center in Missouri provides treatment for preteens, teen boys and teen girls who have experienced developmental trauma and have a diagnosis of Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD) or experience attachment issues.
With a focus on coregulation, Calo provides a therapeutic approach that includes canine therapy.
For more information about Calo, call 866-285-6884.
Chaddock in Illinois
Caddock Treatment Center in Quincy, Illinois specializes in in the treatment of children suffering from the psychological, emotional, and spiritual effects of significant abuse, neglect and trauma.
Chaddock offers preventative, educational and treatment services to children from birth to age 21 and their families include community-based services, a special education school, in-home intensive programs and residential treatment.
Contact Chaddock through their website or by calling 217.592.0347.
Christian Boys Ranch Mountain State Therapeutic Services in Montana
Mountain State Therapeutic Services has the goal to provide a safe loving home for young boys to learn how to overcome their problems and/or disorders and build a strong Christian character for the trying years ahead.
Treatment is provided for at risk boys struggling with ODD, RAD, and adoptees who are having trouble adjusting to their new homes in America. They provide services and referral resources for male children of any age but the average age of the population they serve is 8-13 years old.
Contact Mountain State Therapeutic Services through their website or by calling 406-291-5480.
Cookson Hills in Oklahoma
Cookson Hills has provides home, school, and therapy for kids who are at-risk, including boys and girls ages 5-17.
provided a nurturing home, quality Christian education, and therapy services in a safe and trauma-informed environment.
Contact Cookson Hills through their website or by calling 918-948-6300.
Havenwood Academy in Utah
Havenwood Academy is a long-term residential treatment center that specializes in treating young women and their families who are struggling with complex trauma and attachment related issues.
Havenwood accepts girls ages 12-18.
Contact Havenwood through their website or by calling (877) 830-7012.
Hope House in Idaho
Hope House exists to provide a home for children ages 5 to 18+ who are emotionally impaired, developmentally disabled, and/or come from disrupted adoptions or dysfunctional families. Some children and teens come from difficult family situations or failed adoptions with serious attachment issues.
Hope House provides a home for approximately forty-eight young people under the age of eighteen and a number of young adults with disabilities who have grown up at Hope House.
In addition to full-time and part-time live-in staff, the children’s needs are met by state-certified teachers, licensed professional counselors, sports coaches, and volunteer grandparents. Hope House is a non-profit organization.
Contact Hope House through their website or by calling 208-896-4673.
Institute for Attachment and Child Development in Colorado (CLOSED)
Update – this program has now closed, March, 2022.
The Institute for Attachment and Child Development offers a unique approach where children stay in specially trained foster homes, called the Extended Care Program, where children grow and heal from their traumatic experiences.
The program provides care for children across the United States and outpatient therapy as well.
Magellan Academy in Utah
Magellan Academy provides residential care for children and adolescents with emotional disturbances. Their contact number is 801-794-0318.
Meridell Achievement Center in Texas
Meridell Achievement Center is a residential treatment facility located in Liberty Hill. They provide specialized care for children and adolescents ages 11-17 years old. They offer gender affirming traditional behavioral and neurobehavioral programs for youth. Boys and girls are accepted from across the United States.
Contact Meridell through their website or by calling 800-366-8656.
Mountain States Children’s Home in Colorado
Mountain States Children’s Home provides care for children who have experienced emotional trauma and behavioral issues resulting from abuse, neglect and abandonment.
They accept boys and girls ages 12-17. Children may be challenged with Attention Deficit Disorder (or Hyperactivity), Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or struggle with mood regulation (Bi-Polar). Children may be showing rebellion towards their parents/guardians through defiant, disrespectful or disobedient behaviors.
Contact Mountain States Children’s Home through their website or by calling (303) 776-6841.
My Father’s Arrows/Mama’s House in Florida
Mama’s House is faith-based ministry that specializes in restoration and orphan care. Mama’s House is a safe, loving, trauma-informed Christian home. The children’s home is for boys and girls ages 0-17 who have been abused, neglected, abandoned, rejected, or are otherwise struggling with the impact of their traumatic experiences.
Contact My Father’s Arrow’s through their website or by calling (850) 675-4403.
Reflections Academy in Montana
Reflections Academy is a small, homelike therapeutic boarding school for girls in Northwest Montana. Reflections offers a residential program that is meant to be a safe haven for struggling girls and their families.
Reflections Academy works to empower teenage girls to conquer behavior problems such as anger, addictions, disrespect, low self-esteem, attachment disorders, anxiety, and depression.
Contact Reflections through their website or by calling (406)-827-5591.
Respite Retreat in Georgia
Respite Retreat uses the serenity and privacy of a 12-acre farm to minister to families dealing with Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD), Autism and other emotional disturbances. Respite Retreat works intensively with one or two children at a time (and their families) in order to provide healing, renewal and education to support the goal of the child staying within the family situation.
Contact Respite Retreat through their website or by calling (706) 897-4237.
Three Points Center in Utah
Three Points Center is the first and only residential care facility that focuses only on adopted teens and their families.
The goal of the center is to help adopted individuals journey with their families to build or regain trust, heal a fractured identity and ultimately find a sense of peace and wholeness.
Contact TPC through their website or call 435.635.0636.
Tupelo Children’s Mansion & Haven of Hope in Louisiana
Tupelo Children’s Mansion has a mission to offer hope through the love of Jesus Christ to orphaned or disadvantaged children by providing their physical, spiritual, emotional, social, and educational needs.
Haven of Hope Girls’ Home is a part of Tupelo Children’s Mansion and is a 12-month behavior modification and support program for teenage girls between 13 and 16 years of age. The home provides a safe and structured environment where the girls receive direction and guidance from house parents and qualified therapists.
The program consists of a 3-tier system in which the girls accomplish specified behavioral and therapeutic goals.
Contact Tupelo Children’s Mansion through their website or by calling (662) 791-7763.
Villa Santa Maria in New Mexico
The Villa Santa Maria is a residential community for children with Reactive Attachment Disorder. Located in Cedar Crest, New Mexico, the program focuses on the latest neurobiological research in order to provide trauma-informed care.
The Villa works with boys and girls between the ages of 5 and 14 and has extensive experience with international adoptions.
Children who benefit from the treatment program are those with attachment or relational difficulties and affective regulatory problems.
Contact the Villa at 505.281.3609.
Warwick House in Pennsylvania
Warwick House provides residential treatment, intensive in-home treatments and Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) treatment for Autism.
Warwick House is an intensive, family focused residential treatment program serving children ages 5 – 14 years old who struggle with serious emotional and behavioral problems often associated with severe trauma, substance abuse exposure, and serious family stressors.
Warwick also offers short term intensive residential treatment with an emphasis on reunification and long term stability and recovery for both the child and family.
Contact Warwick House through their website or by calling (267) 525-7000.
Residential Treatment Centers with Trauma-Informed Care in the United States
The following treatment centers are not specifically for RAD, but staff are familiar with the necessary treatments and may be a suitable placement for children with attachment issues.
Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch in North Dakota
Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch, offering treatment for boys and girls ages 10-18, provides trauma-informed care in both a residential program and a psychiatric facility.
Contact Dakota Ranch through their website or by calling 800-593-3098.
Discovery Academy in Utah
Discovery Academy in Provo, Utah is a therapeutic boarding school for teen girls and boys, age 13-17.
Contact Discovery Academy through their website or by calling 855-645-0484.
Elk River Treatment Center in Alabama
Elk River Treatment Center provides care for boys and girls ages 12 – 18. Elk River provides residential treatment for teens struggling with substance abuse, behavioral problems and mental health issues.
Contact Elk River through their website or by calling 866-906-TEEN.
New Haven in Utah
A treatment facility only for girls ages 14-18, New Haven is a residential treatment center and boarding school. New Haven empowers adolescent girls with the skills to overcome life’s traumas.
New Haven provide all-girls residential treatment in a safe, comforting, home-like environment. Their intensive family program and AP academics ensure that girls return home healed, connected, and prepared for life.
Contact New Haven through their website or by calling 855.712.7612.
Sarah A. Reed Children’s Center in Pennsylvania
Sarah A. Reed Children’s Center provides residential treatment, hospitalization, and outpatient care for children and their families.
Sarah A. Reed Children’s Center offers residential treatment services for boys and girls ages 5-18 experiencing significant psychiatric and/or trauma related issues.
Contact Sarah A. Reed through their website or by calling (814) 838-1954.
Skyterra Embrace in North Carolina
Skyterra Embrace is a therapeutic wellness program for young women ages 18-29. Embrace challenges the ways in which young women have been held back from opportunity and achievement as a result of not knowing how to apply an active role in their lives.
Contact Skyterra Embrace through their website or by calling 1-828-521-0918.
Timber Ridge in North Carolina
Located in North Carolina, Timber Ridge provides a program to rehabilitate troubled males from 12 to 17 years of age. Treatment is provided for substance abuse and sexually aggressive behaviors.
The program uses a therapeutic outdoor setting where male youth stay in camps and hike, swim, canoe, and fish.
Contact Timber Ridge at (704)279-1199 or through their website.
Waco Center for Youth in Texas
Waco Center for Youth is a state hospital for youth ages ages 13 through 17 who have exhausted available community treatment resources and are referred through local mental health authorities from throughout the state of Texas.
The Center provides psychiatric residential treatment to adolescents with severe emotional or behavioral disorders and who have experienced serious dysfunction.
Contact Waco Center for Youth at 254-756-2171.
Whetston Therapeutic Boys Ranch in Missouri
Whetstone Boys Ranch has a mission to “sharpen the character of young men by modeling the life of Christ, mentoring them through authentic relationships, imparting the love of creation and teaching the joy of work, thus equipping them to be servant-leaders in their families and communities.”
Whetstone Boys Ranch serves families with boys between the ages of 12-16 who are struggling with anger, apathy, depression, relationship, trauma, truancy and/or self-esteem, among a variety of other things. Many of the boys we serve have also been diagnosed with attention deficit, hyperactivity, oppositional defiance and attachment struggles.
Contact Whetstone through their website or by calling 417-934-1112.
Residential Treatment Centers for Children Outside of the United States
The following treatment centers are options for families outside of the United States.
Youth of Vision in Academy in St. Catherine, Jamaica
The Youth of Vision Academy (YOVA) is a private Christian boarding school established to provide educational, therapeutic and behavioral services to children and young adolescents.
Click here to read about one mom’s experience with sending her son to YOVA and the exact costs involved.
Contact YOVA through their website.
Caribbean Mountain Academy in the Dominican Republic
Caribbean Mountain Academy (CMA) is a Christian therapeutic boarding school for at-risk teen boys and girls. The school offers year-round enrollment to English-speaking teenagers in crisis that are age 13 – 17.
Their program is based on the Stages of Change. They help youth progress through a natural change process for the specific struggles that were preventing them from living in their homes successfully.
How much does Caribbean Mountain Academy cost? Tuition is $4,200 a month plus enrollment fees.
Contact CMA through their website or by calling 866-318-7392.
Parent Reviews of RAD Treatment Programs
Read 75+ parent reviews of treatment centers for attachment disorder. Includes free printable of treatment center options.
With this list of Reactive Attachment Disorder treatment facilities, you’ll be able to make an informed decision about the best location for your child, or a child in your care, to find hope and healing.
What if none of these treatment centers is right for your family? There are other options. Consider therapeutic boarding school, military school, wilderness programs, or hiring an educational consultant to help you find the best placement.
Do you know of another facility that is not included on our list? Please share it in the comments or email us at [email protected].
Do you recommend or have concerns about one of the facilities on our list? Please share your feedback in the comments in order to help other parents who are seeking attachment treatment for their children.
Click here for a free PDF printable checklist of the 7 steps to take when your child needs residential treatment.
Why isn’t there anything in ARKANSAS?!?! AND why is it that Calo the closest thing to us can’t help because of her I Q??? She’s been through early childhood trauma which keeps the brain from developing correctly so why do they expect them to have higher IQs??? Make ABSOLUTELY no sense!!
I’m sorry to hear there aren’t good treatment options in your state. If we hear of any, we will certainly update and add them to the list.
Youth Home, Inc. in Little Rock, Arkansas has a highly rated Residential Treatment Center specializing in Reactive Attachment Disorder – http://www.youthhome.org
Respite Retreat in northeast Georgia takes in one girl age 4-12 at a time for intensive one-on-one therapeutic care. Child has a private bedroom with total line-of-sight supervision during the waking hours and silent alarms in the evenings. The wife in the home is a counselor who homeschools the child in care; she researched and publishes articles for other mental health professionals on trauma and attachment; specifically Reactive Attachment Disorder and Disinhibited Social Engagement Disorder. Three of the owners’ children live in the home too and model respect for authority and responsibility with schoolwork and chores as the child’s peers in ways that adults are usually dismissed. Very powerful program.
Thanks for sharing this resource with us!
Is there anything in Oklahoma besides the one listed, they will not take my step granddaughter that I have legal guardianship of.
At this time, that is the only treatment center in OK that is specific to RAD to our knowledge. You might look into other treatment centers for mental health, therapeutic boarding schools, or treatment centers in neighboring states.
My daughter is 19 years old, just turned in February, and is a need a residential treatment. Adopted from Guatemala, Rad, attachment,
Any other treatment options for adults? We live in Ohio but I willing to travel?
Tim, that’s tough now that she’s older. You’ll have trouble finding a residential program for her unless she qualifies via mental health diagnosis as an adult. Depending on your personal finances, there are some options. Check into “failure to launch” programs. Some of these consultants specialize in those – https://childresidentialtreatment.com/educational-consultant-residential-treatment/. Also check out SkyTerra Embrace in North Carolina – it’s for young adult women – https://childresidentialtreatment.com/reactive-attachment-disorder-treatment-centers/#residential-treatment-centers-with-trauma-informed-care-in-the-united-states
Talk with Chaddock in Quincy, Illinois.
Do you know if the Teen Challenge programs are good for RAD or brain trauma?
I have not had a child in Teen Challenge so I can’t say for certain, but from what I have read and parent reviews, I think Teen Challenge is good for RAD in the sense that it will given them structure and accountability, but not necessarily to address the trauma and heal it.
Mountain States Children’s Homes says on their website that they do NOT take children with “Severe attachment disorder issues (Reactive Attachment Disorder)”. They only take children with “mild attachment issues”.
I am looking for a summer camp for my 14 year old daughter who has been diagnosed with RAD.
Some of these programs have summer camps. Look for the ones that are private or are boarding schools. https://childresidentialtreatment.com/parent-reviews-residential-treatment-rad/ Also check out the military school listings which have summer camps – https://childresidentialtreatment.com/military-school-girls/ Hope this helps.
Is there any centers located in iowa? I am guardian to a 14 year old girl. She has been getting worse and worse. Lying, stealing, disrespect, violent, food addiction, porn addiction, she was in a center for 5 months but they sent her back with no explanation. She is also failing school and is cutting herself.