Review of a partial care program for severely emotionally disturbed youth

Abstract

The need for research on programs for Emotionally Disturbed (ED) children and adolescents is great. The present study examined a partial care program for ED youth in New Jersey. There were 120 subjects in this study. Several characteristics of these subjects were examined – gender, race, age, diagnosis, and family status. The study also examined the subjects\u27 average length of stay in the program.and reasons for being discharged. In addition, the ratio of clients to staff was studied. The data was collected by examining the files of past and present clients to gather the necessary information. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the results. The majority of the subjects were African American males between the ages of 12 and 15 years. Most were either diagnosed Conduct Disorder or Oppositional Defiant Disorder and most lived with a single parent. The overall length of stay for the subjects was 8 months. Most of them were discharged due to refusal of service or to another placement. The ratio of clients to staff varied from 6 to 1 to 3 to 1 over the three year period studied

    Similar works