The Essence of Residential Treatment: III. Change and Adaptation

SUMMARY This paper examines four challenges facing residential treatment programs: Providing short-term treatment, increasing family involvement, preparing children for life in the community, and offering a “hospital level of care.” It shows that past problems in these areas have arisen from the social conditions and historical circumstances in which residential programs evolved rather than limitations inherent in the core concepts upon which the modality is based and that those concepts provide a basis for solving those problems.