Families of Children Under Stress (UCI FOCUS)
UCI FOCUS is a comprehensive treatment program for everyone affected by sexual abuse, including victims, families and offenders. Children who are sexual abuse victims are referred to the program by the Orange County Social Services Agency. No walk-ins are accepted.
The program's goal is to assist victims and their families with recovery from the harmful effects of sexual abuse and sexual assault through therapeutic support and treatment.
We strive to help the entire family, with treatment that is based on a careful assessment designed to meet each family's unique needs.
For more information or to refer a child to the program, call 714-509-6480.
Our mission is to counter the effects of sexual abuse on victims and their families. We strive to treat the whole family and return it back to health.
The UCI FOCUS program and the Orange County Social Services Agency have worked collaboratively for more than 20 years to assist families experiencing the traumatic effects of sexual abuse.
Our staff
We have a compassionate and skilled staff, including licensed marriage and family therapists and registered marriage and therapist interns.
We have therapists fluent in both English and Spanish, and we can provide interpreters for other languages if needed.
Our staff includes a permanent medical director and psychiatric residents on a rotating basis. Our residents offer psychiatric evaluation and medication management.
Hours of operation
Our hours are Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Child care services are provided for parents attending group classes on Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings.
Child care hours are Wednesday, 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.
Individual and family therapy
We offer individual and family therapy to victims and their families to educate, support, combat the impact of trauma and develop healthy coping mechanisms to deal with abuse on a long-term basis.
Treatment modalities include:
- Individual therapy for victims
- Individual therapy for siblings
|
- Individual therapy for adults/parents
- Family therapy
|
Group therapy
We offer ongoing group therapy sessions for current patients and assist parents in understanding the traumatic effects of child sexual abuse. The adult's group emphasis is on psycho-education, support and resources to help adults assist their children with healing.
Parenting groups assist parents with development. Emphasis is placed on how to help parents with raising a traumatized child.
Child and adolescent groups emphasize psycho-education, support and resources to assist with understanding their trauma and healing process.
Our therapy groups include:
- Non-offending parents group
- Latency victims group
|
- Adolescents victims group
- Adult male offenders group
|
Psychiatric evaluation and medication management
UCI FOCUS offers psychiatric evaluation and medication management for children and adults, with minimal wait times.
Our psychiatrists specialize in long-term treatment modalities, using play therapy to alleviate the symptoms associated with trauma and abuse.
The impact of sexual abuse affects everyone differently.
Symptoms vary greatly depending on the:
- Age and personality of the victim
- Severity and duration of the molestation
- Dynamic makeup of the family
- Reaction of the non-offending parent
- Emotional importance of the victim's relationship with the offender
As a result, our program strives to be flexible and open-minded in our treatment model. Our theoretical approach is eclectic and humanistic, relying heavily on the frameworks of family systems theory, psycho-dynamics and ego psychology.
Abuse symptoms
The effects of sexual abuse on the child are seen in a variety of symptoms, which may include:
- Acting out
- Disassociation
- Withdrawal
- Personality problems
|
- Depression
- Intimacy difficulties
- Drug abuse
- "Molest" re-enactment
|
Long-term abuse effects
Traumatic abuse and neglect in childhood can lead to:
- Developmental delays
- Drug abuse
|
- Domestic violence
- Mental illness
- Social isolation
|
Family members react to the disclosure of abuse with varying degrees of denial and confusion, compounded by feelings of guilt, shame, anger and sadness.
Abuse treatment
Treatment is based on a careful and thorough assessment that is designed to meet the unique needs of each family.
Therapy not only addresses the incidence of abuse, but also examines the family context in which it occurred and the community's response.
No walk-ins are accepted.
Therapy services are available only through a referral from Orange County Social Services Agency. All of our cases involve allegations of sexual abuse, and we prefer to treat the entire family when possible.
Referral instructions
To call in a referral to UCI FOCUS, call 714-939-0101 prior to sending resource support.
Learn more about the referral process ›
Resources
There are numerous supportive resources throughout Orange County for children who are ineligible for our program.
Learn about additional resources ›
