On October 5, World Day of Bullying Prevention, and throughout the month, Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch staff and kids are holding awareness and learning activities to help wipe out intentional, repeated, and degrading meanness. “Bullying leaves people feeling small and exposed and so lonely,” said Joy Ryan, President/CEO, Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch. “I was bullied in school, and unfortunately, I am in the majority. We did a quick survey of the children in our care right now and 88 percent of them report having been bullied. Bullying doesn't build character or compassion and there is no lesson to be learned from experiencing it. Social media has added another avenue for bullying at a whole new level and made it mainstream.” The effects of bullying can be long-lasting for victims including fear and anxiety, depression and thoughts of suicide.…
Dakota Family Services
Every Monday, I send an internal e-newsletter to Ranch employees. As one part of that newsletter, I ask individual Ranchers to share their thoughts about how they in their individual roles, help fulfill the mission of the Ranch. The mission, "to help at-risk children and their families succeed in the name of Christ," is pretty lofty. It is not something anyone of us can accomplish alone, but rather we all have to do our own part.…
On a purely cause and effect level, the aggression of Ranch children usually stems from some combination of poor emotional regulation and impulsivity. Many of the children we treat have mood disorders and experience intense periods of depression, anger, or irritability. These moods cause their level of emotional arousal to be abnormally low or high.…
Last week, staff at Dakota Family Services and Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch had the chance to learn from Dr. Wayne Martinsen, MD, MSW, Medical Director at the Ranch, who traveled to all three campuses to present “The Harmony and Health of Happiness.”…
Dakota Family Services is a group of compassionate, practiced experts providing trauma-informed care for children, adolescents, and adults with substance abuse, psychiatric, and behavior issues. Our staff are truly committed to their work and the care of children, adolescents, and adults with a variety of behavioral health issues. For more information, go to http://dakotafamilyservices.org/…
During a recent lecture, Dr. Wayne Martinsen, Medical Director and psychiatrist at Dakota Family Services, clearly explained the science and statistics of different types of dementia. For the professionals in attendance, he shared new research on the medications that enhance brain functioning, and the limitations of those medications, new findings on the prevalence of Traumatic Brain Injury as a contributor to dementia, and much more. The takeaways, for my own life and for those I love, were in the powerful information he provided about building protective factors against dementia. We can establish behaviors (for ourselves and for the youngest of our Ranch kids) that can delay or impact the effects. Diet, exercise, brain-stimulating activities, sauna, caffeine – each in appropriate doses – have great research-based impacts on the prevalence of the disease. It was fascinating.…
All children have occasional temper tantrums and outbursts. Because they don’t have the internal infrastructure to deal with big emotions, they get frustrated and angry. It’s likely that other emotions—sadness, irritability, shame, guilt or embarrassment—lie at the root of your child’s anger. Anger is the fallback emotion when a child doesn’t have the vocabulary or awareness to explain other more complicated emotions.…
Many Ranch children suffer from Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD). In our extensive work with children and adolescents, we have learned that engaging a child’s caretakers is especially important when treating children with RAD. Our work with caregivers focuses on educating them about RAD, and helping them build patterns of positive communication and interactions with their child.…
Have you ever heard the old saying, “When you look good, you feel good?” In many cases, the inverted version of that sentence is also true, “When you feel good, you look good.” Sometimes, the kids at Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch don’t feel good OR look good. The reasons vary by child, but commonly fall into a few different categories.…
Dakota Family Services, an outpatient counseling clinic founded by Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch, recently promoted Kayla Falcon to DFS Clinic Coordinator. Her promotion was another step in the clinic’s expansion of services and clinicians to better meet the needs of children, adolescents, adults, and families in the Minot area.…
At Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch, we understand that working with kids who are on the autism spectrum is not a one-size-fits-all approach. While many kids have things in common, it doesn’t make sense to assume the same approach will work with all children. It is called autism “spectrum” disorder because the symptoms vary from mild to severe, indicating the level of impairment and need for intervention. The awesome thing about this? Even though autism can make it difficult for children to navigate their social environment, it also brings strengths these kids can identify and build on—strengths you or I could only dream of having.…