By Katie Knapp
Omaha, NE – A treatment center and therapeutic boarding school is preparing to open in Omaha.
Ponca Pines Academy is located on the Uta Halee Girls Village Campus. It's a school and treatment center for twelve teenage women ages 17 to 19. There, they'll receive an education, treatment for mental health disorders or substance abuse, individual and family therapy, and job skills training.
Denis McCarville is President and CEO of Uta Halee Girls Village and Ponca Pines. McCarville says the Academy is unique for two reasons, the first that Uta Halee has been successful in treating adolescents with mental health disorders or substance abuse issues.
Second, McCarville notes, is that Nebraska allows adolescents to undergo treatment until their 19th birthdays. He says that allows for the development of programs targeted at older adolescents.
Ponca Pines opened Monday and could begin accepting teenagers this fall.