Creating sanctuary in residential treatment for youth: from the "well-ordered asylum" to a "living-learning environment.".
This paper addresses the need for a coherent conceptual therapeutic approach to guide work with disturbed children and adolescents in residential treatment centers. The paper identifies changes in the population currently in care; examines the two dominant approaches that historically have shaped the standard treatment models used by most residential centers; and discusses four longstanding debates that have complicated the development of a consistent therapeutic approach for residential programs. It concludes with a description of The Sanctuary Model. Integrating a variety of treatment approaches, this trauma-based systems approach to care was first used with adult inpatients traumatized as children. It is now being introduced by a major social agency into three of its residential centers to provide a systematic treatment model for use in their schools, living units, and treatment sessions.
Abramovitz
Robert
R
Center for Trauma Program Innovation, Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services, New York, NY 10019, USA. rabramovitz@jbfcs.org
Bloom
Sandra L
SL
D000293:Adolescent; D000296:Adolescent Psychiatry / Q000379:methods; D002648:Child; D002665:Child Psychiatry / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration; D009518:New York; D012114:Residential Treatment / Q000458:organization & administration*; D012944:Social Support; D013808:Therapeutic Community