• General Psychiatric Services
• Intensive Residential Treatment Program
• Sex Offenders Community Residential Program
• Secure Intermediate and Transitional Residential Mental Health

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• General Psychiatric Services

Admissions Program: The primary mission of the Admission Program is to conduct assessments, identify treatment needs, identify the least restrictive treatment environment, and transfer individuals to that setting in the least amount of time.  The program is designed to conduct thorough psychological evaluations and physical exams, and to begin a medication and treatment regime.  The goal is to help individuals rapidly stabilize and transition to a less restrictive environment including transition back to the community.

Intensive Residential Treatment Program: The primary mission of psychiatric rehabilitation is to elevate individuals’ behavioral and social functioning to a level adequate for a stable adjustment in an outpatient community setting.  People come to the rehabilitation program because they cannot be discharged from the hospital directly to the community.  The Lincoln Regional Center uses a rehabilitation and recovery model for treatment.  Some people have in been in treatment facilities for many years, and are referred in an effort to help them return to the community.  Others are caught in a “revolving door” between hospital stays and being discharged to the community.  In any case, the purpose of the rehabilitation program is to help people recover enough so that they can live stably in the community and continue their recovery.  As all people have different needs, recovery time will be different for each person going through the program.

• Forensic Mental Health Service (FMHS)

The Forensic Mental Health Service at the Lincoln Regional Center is a 128-bed male treatment facility which serves the State of Nebraska for individuals mainly involved in the legal system.  It is comprised of two distinct programs:

Sex Offenders Community Residential Program:  The Forensic Mental Health Services Sex Offender Program at the Lincoln Regional Center provides effective, comprehensive state-of-the-art treatment to individuals who demonstrate a pattern of sexually deviant behavior.  The 85-bed male patient population includes convicted sex offenders, who are offered treatment Legislative Bill (LB) 523 and patients committed by a mental health board. Programming is individualized to the unique needs of the population served; thus, inpatient services are available for adult males who will receive treatment through either the Cognitive Behavior Change program or through the Life Skills Program.  In addition, five of the beds are for female sex offenders.  Aftercare services are also provided for individuals who have successfully completed the treatment program and are reintegrating into the community.

Sex Offender treatment utilizes a bio-psychosocial approach delivered by a multidisciplinary staff specially trained and experienced to treat patients who have demonstrated a pattern of deviant sexual behavior.  Goals for this program include accepting full responsibility for sexually deviant behavior, developing an awareness of the pattern or cycle which leads to acting out and learning specific interventions to interrupt this patter, developing victim empathy, recognizing and changing cognitive distortions related to sexually deviant behavior, learning relapse prevention techniques, developing new coping skills and developing a health balanced lifestyle.  Treatment progress is measured regularly for each patient by a multidisciplinary team using detailed objective measures.  The goals for the programs are designed to reduce repeat offenses, provide for community safety and minimize the possibility of further victims.

Forensic Psychiatric Services Program:   The 43 bed Psychiatric Services Program provides evaluation and assessments for individuals as ordered by the Nebraska legal court systems.

The program is designed to provide treatment and intensive mental health services leading to community referral, placement and discharge.   Individuals admitted to Forensics Psychiatric Services have histories of especially severe and persistent psychiatric disorders and/or have failed to respond to community based and short-term services.  Individuals are hospitalized in a psychiatric program because they demonstrate severe deficits in ordinary living skills or their behavior is sufficiently unacceptable or dangerous, that others seek their admission.  Therefore, the FMHS Psychiatric Services program focuses on establishment of basic living skills, social skills, problem solving skills, and on control of unacceptable behavior through the use of medication, education and a broad range of social and rehabilitative approaches.

Stacey Werth-Sweeney   stacey.werthsweeney@dhhs.ne.gov

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