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The Troubled Teen Industry / Carlbrook
« on: December 28, 2006, 05:14:08 PM »
Curious that everyone talks about studies and evidence-based therapeutic methods, and yet I could never find a single study of TBS youth outcomes. There was that NATSAP-sponsored b.s. a couple months ago, but that was too obvious and too easy to shred.
What about wilderness? There are lots of studies. Sure you can debate and shred the peer reviewers, bias or lack thereof, but still there is some evidence, and not all of it smells like b.s. and not all of it is rosy pro-program results.
The Wilderness Research Center at the University of Idaho has published several studies, as has the Wilderness Research Center at the University of Minnesota. Some but not all of these are sponsored by the Outdoor Behavioral Healthcare Research Cooperative, which I am well aware is something of a trade group like NATSAP.
The most interesting finding I recall was a study that showed treatment outcomes after 2 years were about the same for the group that did community-based therapy after wilderness as for the group that did TBS after wilderness. Not much of an argument for sending your child away and spending 10s of thousands of dollars, yet this is the most common scenario for most kids who attend wilderness -- anywhere from 75-90% go on to residential "aftercare."
I can't find the study right now, but I'm sure my son can. He referenced it in a paper he wrote for school on the subject of wilderness therapy. I find that pretty ironic, since the assignment was to write a term paper on a controversial topic of current interest. Well, it sure as hell was of current interest to him at the time, being only a few months away from the Utah dirt! And no doubt it is a controversial subject, whether you believe it has any "therapeutic" value or not. He felt that it did, at least for him.
What about wilderness? There are lots of studies. Sure you can debate and shred the peer reviewers, bias or lack thereof, but still there is some evidence, and not all of it smells like b.s. and not all of it is rosy pro-program results.
The Wilderness Research Center at the University of Idaho has published several studies, as has the Wilderness Research Center at the University of Minnesota. Some but not all of these are sponsored by the Outdoor Behavioral Healthcare Research Cooperative, which I am well aware is something of a trade group like NATSAP.
The most interesting finding I recall was a study that showed treatment outcomes after 2 years were about the same for the group that did community-based therapy after wilderness as for the group that did TBS after wilderness. Not much of an argument for sending your child away and spending 10s of thousands of dollars, yet this is the most common scenario for most kids who attend wilderness -- anywhere from 75-90% go on to residential "aftercare."
I can't find the study right now, but I'm sure my son can. He referenced it in a paper he wrote for school on the subject of wilderness therapy. I find that pretty ironic, since the assignment was to write a term paper on a controversial topic of current interest. Well, it sure as hell was of current interest to him at the time, being only a few months away from the Utah dirt! And no doubt it is a controversial subject, whether you believe it has any "therapeutic" value or not. He felt that it did, at least for him.