Southern Highlands Community Mental Health Center
The history of Southern Highlands Community Mental Health Center began in 1968 when an application was submitted by the State Department of Mental Health to the National Institute of Mental Health for the construction of the mental health center in Princeton, West Virginia. A five acre site was donated to the State Department of Mental Health by the City of Princeton for the location of this facility, across from the Princeton Community Hospital and on an extension to Twelfth Street southern highlands community
The Center operates under the direction of a volunteer Board of Directors which establishes center policy. The eighteen (18) member board is selected with six (6) representatives from each of the three counties.
The Director of Youth Services works within the community including the public school and legal systems to develop services for children and adolescents. Therapy for children and adolescents can aid youth who have such problems as anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and conduct disorder. As many as 1 in 5 children and adolescents may have an identifiable mental disorder that requires treatment, and at least 1 in 10 has a serious emotional disturbance. Mental health counseling can help with many of these issues. Our licensed mental health professionals are highly-skilled and provide flexible, consumer-oriented therapy. Traditional psychotherapy is combined with a practical, problem-solving approach that creates a dynamic and efficient path for change and problem resolution.
Our Springhaven Center is equipped with an observation room to provide Parent-child interaction therapy (PCIT), an evidence-based treatment for young children with emotional and behavioral disorders that places emphasis on improving the quality of the parent-child relationship and changing parent-child interaction patterns.
We also have staff trained in Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. TF-CBT is an evidence-based treatment model designed to assist children, adolescents, and their families in overcoming the negative effects of a traumatic experience.