UPMC Western Behavioral Health at Mon Yough provides a range of mental health services for youth and families in Allegheny County.
Outpatient therapy for kids, ages 5 to 18
Our team provides:
- Supportive and goal-oriented therapy for youth, ages 5 to 18, and their families.
- Therapy at our clinic in McKeesport or schools throughout the Mon Valley region. Please call 412-675-8430 for the most recent list of schools we work with.
We can help your child and family with issues such as:
- Behavior problems at home/or school.
- Depression and ADHD.
- Anxiety and social skills.
- Family conflicts.
- Self-harm.
- Grief and loss.
- Trauma.
At your child's first appointment at our office or in their school, we'll complete an intake form and clinical assessment. This gives us the valuable data we need to develop meaningful goals.
Your child will meet with the therapist as needed — once every other week in most cases — with or without parents or guardians. We strongly urge families to be involved in their child's sessions.
If you or your child feel it may help to see our licensed psychiatrist, that appointment will be at our McKeesport office.
Student Assistance Program (SAP)
SAP is part of a school team that works closely with school staff to spot youth who are expressing at-risk behaviors.
Our goal is to pinpoint any hurdles to academic success, such as:
- Behavioral health concerns.
- Family problems.
- Alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use.
We then mobilize school and community resources to remove these learning barriers.
The SAP team works with the youth's team to detect at-risk behaviors early.
We then intervene and help prevent these issues by connecting youth and their families to arrange:
- Behavioral health services.
- School support groups.
- Other useful resources as needed.
- Program behavior health contracts
Our staff provides short-term, solution-focused behavioral health counseling for youth in partnering schools throughout the Mon Valley and all Propel Charter Schools.
Services include:
- Crisis support and actions.
- Brief psychoeducation.
- Working with teachers to build in-class systems and activities that support behavioral health and learning.
- Professional development lessons.
We create customized plans that focus on:
- Building social skills.
- Learning new ways to cope.
- Resolving conflicts.
- Making decisions.
- Staying motivated.
- Planning for better health and wellness.
For youth who need more intense help, we can refer them to another level of mental health or substance use care.
Specialized Foster Care
The goals of this program are to help kids and teens:
- Thrive in safe, supportive, and nurturing foster homes.
- Rejoin their families of origin or find other permanent homes.
Direct services include:
- Placement tailored to best meet the specific and unique needs of each child.
- Service provision and support services to foster families.
- Trauma informed care training for foster parents and caseworkers.
- Child-focused skill development.
- Making sure children are in least restrictive and developmentally appropriate childhood settings that meets their needs.
- Ensure proper health care by working with youth's doctors and nurses.
- Taking part in Individualized Service and Education Plan meetings and court hearings.
- Supervised visits with biological family.
We offer crisis support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, either over the phone or in person to:
- Decide what level of intervention you need.
- Assess for safety.
- Provide de-escalation skills and problem-solving methods.
- Make a plan to address ongoing need.
We can arrange other services with:
- UPMC Western Behavioral Health at Mon Yough (based on youth's enrollment).
- Third-party providers (such as Children, Youth, and Families).
- Psychiatrists, social workers, and other mental health experts.
- Schools.
- Legal systems (such as family courts and juvenile probation services).
For more information, please call Amber Vash at 412-657-6828 or Rebecca Hagedorn at 412-913-0281.