At the Life-Line Center in North Salt Lake City, the parents go into therapy, too.

"We believe in order to be successful, the parents need to show they are committed to repairing the relationship," says Shawna Meredith, the center's director of admissions.

The nonprofit day treatment center recently expanded its campus at 1130 W. Center St. to include overnight facilities for the first time.

"While we try to have the parents close by, it can't always work that way," explains Shane Petersen, director of administration. "Sometimes the parents are divorced and one of them lives in another state. This allows us to invite them in for a week's stay in the middle of the process."

The 7,330-square-foot living center has 32 rooms; two of them are larger family rooms with pullout beds and kitchen areas.

"That way, we can have [parents and children] together under one roof and sharing breakfast together again," he said.

The overnight facility also helps when there is abuse in the home or there are other reasons a client wouldn't want to return home during the treatment. Officials say the average stay in the program is 10 months.

Center officials say the new addition will not change the way they address problems, which is primarily through a mentoring system in which new clients go into the homes of peer mentors who are past participants of the Life-Line program.

The center is for troubled youths ages 13 to 17 and costs about $30,000 to complete all five phases.

During the first phase of the program, youths are removed from their homes and evaluated by one of the Life-Line physicians before they begin counseling. Ideally, the youths attend school and counseling during the day and sleep in host homes at night.

Officials say they screen the host parents by requiring them to know CPR and to pass background checks and psychiatric evaluations. The idea is to give young clients an opportunity to interact in a normal family setting until they are ready to begin communicating with their own families again.

The center also sponsors monthly two-day seminars for parents to help rekindle the relationship.

"Parents are not allowed to just drop their kids off here," Meredith says. "They have work to do, too."

Becky, a Salt Lake City mother of two who asked that her last name not be used , is a parent mentor at the school. She has seen a major transformation in her 17-year-old son since she had center workers come pick him up eight months ago.

"Becoming a peer mentor has had a tremendous effect on him," she says. "He needed that validation. He has confidence about him that he never had before."

Life-Line was founded in 1990 by a "group of parents and professionals who were concerned about the growing scourge of teen addiction," Petersen says. Vern Utley, former director of the Utah Boys Ranch, is the executive director and has been with Life-Line since its inception.

Life-Line relocated to it's 17,000-square-foot facility in North Salt Lake City in 1994.

The center recently gave up some of its land to accommodate construction of the Legacy Highway, but future plans could include more recreational programs revolving around the equestrian trail that will run along the highway. Officials also would like to build a gymnasium.

"Recreation is an important part of the recovery programs," Petersen says. "We have a climbing wall here and space for aerobics and exercise class, but we would like a facility to allow for more recreation during the winter months."