Last year, the Irene Stacy Community Mental Health Center began offering a Drug and Alcohol Intensive Outpatient Program for youths 15 to 18 years old.

As of this month, the center on Hillvue Drive is offering a similar mental health program for younger adolescents.

Called the Mental Health Intensive Outpatient Program, the group sessions address behavioral issues with children 13 to 15 years old, some of whom might demonstrate risk for using drugs and alcohol later.

The MH-IOP will follow the same format as the eight-week drug and alcohol program for older adolescents, which meets in three-hour sessions three times a week.

That group, which includes up to 10 people, helps those with addiction and substance abuse issues learn to cope through their recovery. Although the sessions are moderated by Irene Stacy program coordinators, much of the support comes from peers.

"A peer group is much more powerful than any adult," explained Betsy Duncan, director of the addictive behaviors unit at Irene Stacy.

"It does help a lot," agreed one teen girl enrolled in the program, "because either they've been through it or they've been through something like it."

Although her participation was initially mandated by Butler County Children and Youth Services, the second-time participant said she had returned to the program three weeks ago, disheartened by a relapse after eight months.

"They make you feel like a brother or a sister," she said of her peers.

"We're all here for the same reason. We all have a problem with drugs or alcohol, and we're going to have this problem for the rest of our lives."

Although relapses occur in many cases of addiction, Duncan cites a 57 percent success rate in the drug and alcohol group. Success is measured through random urine sampling, which must reflect abstinence for 30 days, she said.

Duncan said increasing evidence of adolescent substance abuse prompted the intensive outpatient program, created for teens not eligible for treatment in residential facilities.

"At any given time, I probably have 25 to 30 adolescents enrolled in some type of care," she said.

"It has easily doubled over the last six years."

As of this month, the effort expanded further, creating the MH-IOP to address risky behaviors with the younger group.

Those behaviors, which sometimes precede drug and alcohol issues evident in the older teens, include repeated behavioral problems at school and at home.

As with teens in the drug and alcohol program, Duncan said the destructive behaviors can stem from biological, psychological or social factors.

Children who repeatedly demonstrate the behaviors will enter the program after referrals from their schools and families or from county agencies like Children and Youth Services or Juvenile Court Services.

Irene Stacy began to develop the program after meetings with the Butler County Children and Youth Services, juvenile probation officers and school administrators.

"It was a need that was identified in the county," said Kathleen Rodgers, director of the child and adolescent outpatient department at Irene Stacy.

Butler Junior High School Principal James Allen, who was asked for input early on, said he supports any program that helps young people make good decisions.

"We spend an awful lot of time and effort on initiatives to have students do good things in school and make positive decisions," Allen said.

"And if that is at all the goal of the program — which I think it is — I think it has merit."

Bill Rumbaugh, community-based probation supervisor for Butler County Juvenile Court Services, acknowledges a need to work with younger adolescents.

"Most of the kids we deal with in one way or another have a mental health issue, and a lot of these mental health issues surface between 12 and 15," Rumbaugh said.

"A lot of times they lead to self-medication. ... We're somewhat fortunate to have Irene Stacy here in our community to help us with that."

The department began meeting with the agencies over the summer, eventually getting a $75,000 grant from the Staunton Farm Foundation, which focuses on mental health treatment organizations in southwestern Pennsylvania.

Although the grant will cover start-up costs for the program, Rodgers said costs for participating are typically covered by insurance.