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Treatment Focus
At this center, you receive personalized care for mental health conditions. They provide therapy and tailor treatment to your unique needs, diagnoses, and preferences.
Primary Level of Care
Offering intensive care with 24/7 monitoring, residential treatment is typically 30 days and can cover multiple levels of care. Length can range from 14 to 90 days typically.
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Treatment Focus
At this center, you receive personalized care for mental health conditions. They provide therapy and tailor treatment to your unique needs, diagnoses, and preferences.
Primary Level of Care
Offering intensive care with 24/7 monitoring, residential treatment is typically 30 days and can cover multiple levels of care. Length can range from 14 to 90 days typically.
Provider's Policy
Our admissions team will work with you to explore the right payment options based on your needs, ensuring you get the best possible treatment.
Waco Center for Youth
Waco Center for Youth
About Waco Center for Youth
The Waco Center for Youth is a residential treatment facility in Texas that serves adolescents aged 13 to 17 with severe emotional or behavioral challenges. Operated by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, the center provides a range of services including individual, family, and group therapy, medication management, medical services, therapeutic recreation, and educational instruction through a partnership with Axtell Independent School District. Additional offerings include an equine program, social and self-regulation skills training, dietary support, spiritual services, and aftercare planning.
Build on Strengths and Learn Important Skills
The center uses a strength-based treatment model, which focuses on youth’s strengths and teaches new skills as needed. Its treatment approach is guided by five core values: Helping, Healing, Relationship, Responsibility, and Commitment. Adolescents live on campus while receiving care and attend school on-site. Educational staff work with students who come from across the state, addressing both academic needs and behavioral or emotional issues.
Earn Rewards for Meeting Daily Goals
Waco Center for Youth also implements a behavior incentive system, where clients earn stars for meeting daily goals related to school, therapy, and programming. These stars can be exchanged for items at an on-campus store called The CeNTER. Admission to the facility requires that a legal guardian initiate the process, with referrals accepted from local mental health authorities, state hospitals, or Child Protective Services. Applicants must meet specific criteria, including age, psychiatric diagnosis, and documented behavioral difficulties in at least two settings.
Center Overview
Treatment Focus
At this center, you receive personalized care for mental health conditions. They provide therapy and tailor treatment to your unique needs, diagnoses, and preferences.

Insurance Accepted
Pricing and Program Length
Estimated Center Costs
Center pricing can vary based on program and length of stay. Contact the center for more information. Recovery.com strives for price transparency so you can make an informed decision.
Levels of Care
Your Care Options
Specializations
Adolescents
Teens receive the treatment they need for mental health disorders and addiction, with the added support of educational and vocational services.
Bipolar
This mental health condition is characterized by extreme mood swings between depression, mania, and remission.
Depression
Symptoms of depression may include fatigue, a sense of numbness, and loss of interest in activities. This condition can range from mild to severe.
Who We Treat
Adolescents
Teens receive the treatment they need for mental health disorders and addiction, with the added support of educational and vocational services.
Children
Treatment for children incorporates the psychiatric care they need and education, often led by on-site teachers to keep children on track with school.
Approaches
Family Involvement
Providers involve family in the treatment of their loved one through family therapy, visits, or both–because addiction is a family disease.
Individual Treatment
Individual care meets the needs of each patient, using personalized treatment to provide them the most relevant care and greatest chance of success.
Personalized Treatment
The specific needs, histories, and conditions of individual patients receive personalized, highly relevant care throughout their recovery journey.
Therapies
1-on-1 Counseling
Patient and therapist meet 1-on-1 to work through difficult emotions and behavioral challenges in a personal, private setting.
Equine Therapy
Guided interactions with trained horses, their handler, and a therapist can help patients improve their self-esteem, trust, empathy, and social skills.
Family Therapy
Family therapy addresses group dynamics within a family system, with a focus on improving communication and interrupting unhealthy relationship patterns.
Life Skills
Teaching life skills like cooking, cleaning, clear communication, and even basic math provides a strong foundation for continued recovery.
Medication-Assisted Treatment
Combined with behavioral therapy, prescribed medications can enhance treatment by relieving withdrawal symptoms and focus patients on their recovery.
Nutrition Counseling
Nutritious food helps patients heal from within, setting them up for mental and bodily wellness as they learn about healthy eating.
Psychoeducation
This method combines treatment with education, teaching patients about different paths toward recovery. This empowers them to make more effective decisions.
Languages
Conditions We Treat
Anxiety
Anxiety is a common mental health condition that can include excessive worry, panic attacks, physical tension, and increased blood pressure.
Bipolar
This mental health condition is characterized by extreme mood swings between depression, mania, and remission.
Personality Disorders
Personality disorders destabilize the way a person thinks, feels, and behaves. If untreated, they can undermine relationships and lead to severe distress.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
PTSD is a long-term mental health issue caused by a disturbing event or events. Symptoms include anxiety, dissociation, flashbacks, and intrusive thoughts.
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a serious mental health condition that causes hallucinations, delusions, and disordered thinking.
Stress
Stress is a natural reaction to challenges, and it can even help you adapt. However, chronic stress can cause physical and mental health issues.
Trauma
Some traumatic events are so disturbing that they cause long-term mental health problems. Those ongoing issues can also be referred to as "trauma."