Intervention strategies in residential immersive life skills programs for youth with disabilities: a study of active ingredients and program fidelity

ABSTRACT

Objective: To examine intervention strategy use in residential immersive life skills (RILS) programs.

Methods: The Service Provider Strategies-Checklist was used to record the strategies used in 100 activity settings across two summers at three RILS program sites. Activity settings were categorized by activity type and session format. Relative occurrence of the strategies was examined using percentages.

Results: Socially mediated strategies (listening, engaging youth) and teaching/learning techniques (verbal cues, verbal instruction) were used in over 75% of the settings. Strategy use was highly contextualized, with different strategy patterns observed for different types of activity settings.

Conclusion: The findings suggest that RILS programs be characterized by their use of socially mediated strategies and teaching/learning techniques, with socially mediated and non-intrusive strategies appearing to be program hallmarks. Strategy use was aligned with the types of sessions offered, providing evidence of program fidelity and indicating that RILS programs are complex in their formats, activities, and strategy use.     

Recognising depression in residential facilities: an Australian challenge

BACKGROUND: Depression in aged care facilities (ACFs) is reportedly under-recognised and under-treated. Observer-rated and self-rated depression rating scales can help identify cases of depression, and could be used to estimate the prevalence of depression in ACFs. METHOD: Direct care staff in 168 ACFs used a survey form and administered the Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia (CSDD) and (in those able to be tested) the 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-15) to every fourth resident. In seven facilities the same subjects were clinically assessed and (where appropriate) diagnosed by a psychiatrist. RESULTS: Survey forms and CSDD ratings were completed by staff concerning 91.6% of the one-in-four selected subjects. Their mean age was 82.1 years. CSDD scores of 8 or more, indicating depression, were recorded for 34.7% of the ACF residents, comprising 40.5% of the 1,084 high care (nursing home level) residents, and 25.4% of the 674 low care residents. Of 1,250 residents tested with the GDS-15, 41.1% scored 6 or more, indicating depression. The correlation between GDS-15 and CSDD scores was 0.6. Use of the survey tool allowed staff to identify which factors were most strongly associated with depression, the strongest being grief over loss of abilities and opportunities to participate in valued activities. CONCLUSIONS: The CSDD (and the GDS-15 in those without severe cognitive impairment) proved useful in identifying residents who were depressed. Survey questions helped draw attention to factors of importance in development or persistence of these depressions, and hence to strategies for intervention.     

Beyond model programs: evaluation of a countywide system of residential treatment programs

Assessing deinstitutionalization as a social policy requires examining a system of programs rather than single, "model" services. The authors report an evaluation of 19 residential treatment programs in Hennepin County, Minnesota, that provide three different levels of care (intensive, transitional, and supportive) for mentally ill clients. Data on client characteristics, program outcomes, and hospitalization costs were collected in two study periods between 1980 and 1985. The results showed that the programs served three distinct client subpopulations that differed in recidivism, vocational status, discharge setting, and costs according to the type of program. Clients in all programs made substantial gains in community integration, and as a group the programs were cost-effective.     

Risk for arrest: the role of social bonds in protecting foster youth making the transition to adulthood

This study examines a sample of foster youth at the onset of the transition to adulthood and explores how social bonds are related to the risk of arrest during adulthood. Drawing from official arrest records, event history models are used to examine the time to arrest. Because individuals may be at risk for different types of crime, competing risk regression models are used to distinguish among arrests for drug-related, nonviolent, or violent crimes. Between the ages of 17-18 and 24, 46% of former foster youth experience an arrest. Arrests were evenly distributed across drug, nonviolent, and violent crimes columns. Although findings fail to support the significance of social bonds to interpersonal domains, bonds to employment and education are associated with a lower risk for arrest. Child welfare policy and practice implications for building connections and protections around foster youth are discussed.     

Multiple indicators of success in residential youth care and treatment

Based on a large, ongoing empirical research effort to determine factors associated with the successful community adjustment of troubled adolescents leaving residential treatment, this paper focuses on multiple indicators of success measured at multiple points of time in the treatment process. Implications for research and clinical practice are discussed.     

Psychoanalysis and the early beginnings of residential treatment for troubled youth

One of the intentions of Aichhom, Redl, Wineman, Bettelheim, and Anna Freud in their writings about group care was to advocate for the need to simplify the lives of youths who had known only chaos, to create an atmosphere in which everything has a purpose and predictable positive responses were given unconditionally. Recent efforts, such as those by Greenberg et at, have focused on building community-wide early interventions to forestall later emergence of emotional or behavioral disorders. The efforts also mark a shift away from punishment and exclusion for troubled children at school to more inclusive systems of positive behavioral interventions and support by providing a place to achieve academic and social behavioral success. Contemporary social policy regarding residential care for troubled children reflects the belief that a child's development is inevitably enhanced by residence ina family environment. This belief in the value of home and family, so central to contemporary child welfare policy, has been challenged by the recognition that some family situations are not conducive for growth. Redl and Wineman observed that the children who ended up in residential treatment had used up all community treatment resources and soon became the children that nobody wants. Eventually, the homes that produced them, the communities in which they lived, the schools they attended, and the neighborhoods in which they played were unwilling to tolerate their disruptive and disturbing behavior. The chaotic lives of the parents of these children hindered effective monitoring and management,which limited the family's ability to spend time with children, teach conflict-resolution skills, or communicate consistent behavioral expectations. Walker suggested that divorce, abuse, poverty, drugs, and other forces that interfere with normal parenting increasingly disrupt advantaged and disadvantaged families.Vogel and Bell and Spiegel observed that some troubled young people become the family scapegoat. Within these families, therapeutic efforts directed either at the troubled child or the whole family often fail to resolve conflict. Among these families, placement of a child in a therapeutic milieu provides refuge for children and permits parents to marshal their own resources in an effort to restore their own lives.Although many young persons with severe personality disorders meet the criteria formerly acceptable for residential care, such treatment facilities have proved particularly vulnerable to the effects of funding declines and increasing regulatory demands. Increasing visibility of pediatric pharmacology has lessened the impact of a child's disruptive behavior and may have facilitated decreased length of treatment. If, as Bettelheim maintained, psychological symptoms are a response to a world felt as overwhelming, early return to community in the absence of a young person's enhanced awareness of his or her own situation and impact on others may exacerbate return to care. As Rinsley observed, the pathologic family organization that led to the need for residential treatment is not likely to be significantly ameliorated by short-term, system-focused programs. Traditionally, the efforts of the long-term milieu settings have been aimed at restructuring complex and ingrained pathologic influences that have become embedded in family dynamics and have led to maladaptive behaviors in youngsters. The psychodynamic milieu approach emphasized the nuances of relation-ships and meanings ascertained from every interaction with other young people and with adults. This enhanced awareness of a child's impact on others through the marginal life-space interview, together with enhanced awareness of one's own wishes and thoughts as provided by the milieu and individual therapy, may offer the best means for helping a young person return successfully to the community. Although it is increasingly difficult to support young people in long-term milieu therapy, the concerns initially expressed by Anna Freud and her Viennese colleagues, continued in the work of Bettelheim, Ekstein, and Redl, suggest that attention to a child's understanding of self and experience and focus on the interplay of dynamics between the child and the social milieu continues to offer an important means for therapeutic change. This remains true, even at a time when pressure for "mainstreaming" children with special needs together with financial constraints and reliance on psychopharmacology have altered more traditional understanding of the provision of residential psychodynamic treatment for troubled young people.     

A modification of the token economy for nonresponsive youth in family-style residential care

Out-of-home treatment for youth with conduct problems is increasing rapidly in this country. Most programs for these youth deliver treatment in a group format and commonly employ some version of a token economy. Despite widespread evidence of effectiveness, a substantial minority of treated youth fail to respond. Participants for this study were 3 youth who were nonresponsive to treatment provided in a family-style residential care program with a comprehensive token economy. Our approach to the "nonresponse" of these youth involved modifications of the frequency and immediacy of their access to the backup rewards earned with tokens. We evaluated the effects of the modifications with a treatment-withdrawal experimental design. Dependent measures included two indices of youth response to treatment: intense behavioral episodes and backup rewards earned. Results showed substantial improvement among these indices during treatment conditions.     

Relevance of programs for emotionally disturbed youth in other lands

On behalf of the Joint Commission on Mental Health of Children, a survey of current trends was conducted in more than 40 countries. Focus was on the organization and delivery of services in other lands and their relevance for evolving practices in the United States. Readily apparent was a divergence in attitude, a seemingly greater flexibility, and a willingness to experiment with administrative and therapeutic roles. Direct comparisons are elusive. Ideological differences are important determinants of the organization, range, and quality of services provided. It is time to learn from each other, from our mistakes as well as our successes. This article is based on a report prepared under contract with the Joint Commission on Mental Health of Children and to be published by Harper and Row (1971) under the title Child Mental Health in International Perspective.An earlier version of this paper was presented at an American Orthopsychiatric Association symposium, New York, April, 1969.     

The impact of environmental factors on outcome in residential programs

Although community residential placements are among the leading areas of program expansion for the chronic mentally ill, they have been designed without scientifically validated models. The author reviews the literature on the impact of residential environment on the course of serious mental illness. In most studies, environmental variables were better predictors of outcome than were patient variables. This overall finding suggests the value of further research on environment and the importance of applying the results to program development.     

The next challenge for psychiatric genetics: characterizing the risk associated with identified genes.

BACKGROUND: As advances in genetics further our ability to identify genes influencing psychiatric disorders, the next challenge facing psychiatric genetics is to characterize the risk associated with specific genetic variants in order to better understand how these susceptibility genes are involved in the pathways leading to illness. METHODS: To further this goal, findings from behavior genetic analyses about how genetic influences act can be used to guide hypothesis testing about the effects associated with specific genes. RESULTS: Using the phenotype of alcohol dependence as an example, this paper provides an overview of how the integration of behavioral and statistical genetics can advance our knowledge about the genetics of psychiatric disorders. Areas currently being investigated in behavior genetics include careful delineation of phenotypes, to examine the heritability of various aspects of normal and abnormal behavior; developmental changes in the nature and magnitude of genetic and environmental effects; the extent to which different behaviors are influenced by common genes; and different forms of gene-environment correlation and interaction. CONCLUSIONS: Understanding how specific genes are involved in these processes has the potential to significantly enhance our understanding of the development of psychiatric disorders.     

Emotional disturbance and substance abuse in youth placed in residential group homes

Residential group homes are increasingly important components of the system of mental health care for children and adolescents. However, they often do not have sufficient resources to provide active therapeutic programs as a result of their usual missions in serving abandoned or runaway youth. The authors studied 299 youth, ages 12 to 17 years, in five large residential group home programs in South Carolina. The instruments administered were (1) the Center for Epidemiological Survey-Depression Scale (CES-D), (2) a brief substance abuse questionnaire, and (3) questions about socioeconomic status, previous placements, and family relationship variables. A significant percentage scored above conservative clinical cut-off scores for the CES-D (51.7% scored 16 or above and 33.6% scored 23 or above). The youth also had significant levels of substance abuse problems. However, these variables were not predictive of previous multiple out-of-home placements (runaway behavior was predictive). These findings support the importance of addressing the clinical needs of youth in these programs.     

Patient opinions on the benefits of treatment programs in residential psychiatric care.

OBJECTIVE: To assess patients' opinions on the perceived benefit of treatment delivered during their stay in a residential facility. METHOD: We administered the Opinions on Curative Factors Questionnaire (OCFQ), which was developed from previous studies and assesses several treatment modalities and therapeutic factors, to a sample of 157 severely ill psychiatric patients admitted to a residential facility. RESULTS: All therapeutic factors tested by the OCFQ were considered helpful or very helpful by most of those sampled. The item with the highest score was "talking to doctor," followed by "free pass," "medication," "visitors," "nonhospital setting," "making friends with patients," "structure of daily life," "support from team," and "talking to nurses." The least-valued item was "group activities." CONCLUSION: Psychiatric patients consider several treatment factors to be helpful, especially those based on individual approaches or on a less restrictive therapeutic milieu that allows interactions with the outside world. These results may be a valuable contribution to improving treatment planning in residential facilities.     

Seclusion and restraint practices in residential treatment facilities for children and youth

Policymakers, advocates, and families remain concerned about the use of seclusion and restraint in residential treatment facilities for children and youth. This study used data from 2 national surveys to examine the extent to which residential treatment facilities consistently implement certain practices following incidents of seclusion or restraint. The study found that 76% of facilities reported having secluded or restrained youth in the previous year; 34% of these facilities reported that, following such incidents, they always debrief the youth, family, and staff; notify the attending physician; and record the incident in the treatment plan. Accredited facilities and those that conduct a trauma assessment upon admission were more than twice as likely as others to consistently implement these practices. States and providers should continue to monitor seclusion and restraint practices and identify opportunities for quality improvement.     

Substance use by adolescents in special education and residential youth care institutions

This study examined substance use rates and related background factors among adolescents in special education (SE) and in residential youth care institutions (RYC). Information on substance use from 531 adolescents in RYC, 603 adolescents in SE for students with behavioral problems (SEB) and 1,905 adolescents in SE for students with learning disabilities (SEL) was compared with information from 7,041 adolescents who attended mainstream education. Results show that substance use rates are particularly high among adolescents in RYC and in SEB. For example, 22% of the 12–13 years old in RYC and 16% in SEB was a daily smoker compared with 1% of their counterparts in mainstream education. Background factors, including age, ethnic background and family situation, partly explained the differences in substance use between mainstream education on the one hand and SE and RYC on the other hand, but differences between the groups remained substantial and significant. Several interaction effects were found in the relation between SE/RYC and substance use that were all in line with the risk paradox: some subgroups that are normally at lower risk for problem behavior are at higher risk when they are subjected to high-risk indicators. The elevated risk of substance use among adolescents in RYC/SE was in some cases particularly marked for those who would normally be at lower risk for substance use (girls in SEB for heavy alcohol drinking and cannabis use, ethnic minority adolescents and adolescents with a stable family situation in RYC for respectively heavy weekly alcohol drinking and daily use of tobacco). Results of this study have important implications for health education and intervention programs for adolescents in RYC and SE.     

Impact of resilience enhancing programs on youth surviving the Beslan school siege

The objective of this study was to evaluate a resilience-enhancing program for youth (mean age = 13.32 years) from Beslan, North Ossetia, in the Russian Federation. The program, offered in the summer of 2006, combined recreation, sport, and psychosocial rehabilitation activities for 94 participants, 46 of who were taken hostage in the 2004 school tragedy and experienced those events first hand. Self-reported resilience, as measured by the CD-RISC, was compared within subjects at the study baseline and at two follow-up assessments: immediately after the program and 6 months later. We also compared changes in resilience levels across groups that differed in their traumatic experiences. The results indicate a significant intra-participant mean increase in resilience at both follow-up assessments, and greater self-reported improvements in resilience processes for participants who experienced more trauma events.     

Prevalence and comorbidity of mental disorders among adolescents living in residential youth care

Most adolescents are placed in residential youth care (RYC) because of severe psychosocial strains and child maltreatment, which represent risk factors for developing mental disorders. To plan RYC units and ensure that residents receive evidence-based psychiatric interventions, it is necessary to obtain reliable and valid prevalence estimates of mental disorders in this population. However, there is a lacuna of research on diagnoses derived from standardized clinical interviews. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence and comorbidity of mental disorders applying diagnostic interviews in an entire population of adolescents living in RYC in Norway. All young people in RYC were invited to participate in the study. Eighty-six RYC institutions with 601 eligible adolescents were included and 400 adolescents, 12–20 years old, participated in the study, yielding a response rate of 67 %. Anonymous Child Behaviour Checklist scores for 141 (70 %) of the declining residents were also available, allowing diagnoses according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) for 541 youths to be estimated. Diagnoses were assessed by trained interviewers with the Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Assessment interview (CAPA). Seventy-six point two per cent (71.5–80.8 CI 95 %) of adolescents received at least one 3-month DSM-IV diagnosis. Prevalence rates for internalizing psychiatric disorders were higher than for behavioural disorders. Comorbidity was high between these two groups. Mental disorders were prevalent among children and youth in RYC. Our results create major concerns and challenge the existing organization of the RYC system.