Gulf Coast Trades Center employs full-time caseworkers to counsel with students. These professionals also provide the students with different techniques to help them process and handle their feelings appropriately along with anger management techniques. The Center offers individual and group counseling sessions with onsite counselors. Services are also added by different psychiatric and psychological professionals to aid the Casework and Counseling staff in these counseling efforts. Recreational activities such as flag football, basketball, weightlifting and the Ropes Course are provided to help students redirect their anger and express their emotions in a positive, creative, and fun manner.

Medical care at GCTC is more than just administering prescribed and over the counter medications. We have four med passes, breakfast, lunch, dinner and bedtime where youth receive their prescribed medications and/or over the counter medications as indicated by our standing orders.

Upon admission to the GCTC campus, all eligible youth have Medicaid applied for them. Once Medicaid is established, our Medicaid Coordinator ensures the youths are set up with the appropriate primary care physician and dentist. The medical department staff includes a nurse who is on-call twenty-four hours a day outside of being on campus, and medical assistants. The medical staff, under the direction of our contracted medical director and PCP, are responsible for making required appointments and transporting the youth to those off campus appointments, timely and safely. The medical department also administers minor treatments for injury and illnesses, within their scope of practice, and has an on-site infirmary the youth can stay in if illnesses are not emergent but need a little extra care. We utilize our nearest hospital ERs and specialists for major or emergency medical needs. As required, appointments for annual physicals and eye exams, biannual dental exams and treatment, psychiatric and “sick calls” are made as needed to keep the youth safe and healthy. Youth also receive medical trainings/education such as Stop the Bleed and STI/D awareness, just to name a couple.

Designed to develop trust, overcome perceived boundaries, and to build self-esteem, our on-site Self-Challenge Course includes ropes, wood platforms, and webbing-type obstacles.