Individual, Family, and Community Education ETDs

Publication Date

7-3-1974

Abstract

Adolescents ore frequently finding that they are unable to cope with the challenging forces of today's chaotic world. Difficulty in dealing with school, family, and peer situations, coupled with the adolescent task of self-realization, often bring about dilemmas which leave the adolescent emotionally helpless. In such cases hospitalization may provide the means by which the adolescent is able to come to terms with himself and his environment.

Because of the accelerated increase in problems in these vital areas, in addition to the resulting increase in crime, suicides, and drug usage, private and state psychiatric hospitals are overflowing with young adults. With the greater demand for adolescent services comes the growing need to examine and evaluate adolescent psychiatric facilities and their treatment modalities.

The purpose of this study was to examine Nazareth Hospital's adolescent therapeutic community and evaluate its effectiveness in one particular phase of adolescent development, academic performance. An in-depth survey of the adolescent treatment program was presented, including the following therapeutic areas: (1) residential setting, (2) individual psychotherapy, (3) group therapies, (4) education program, (5) daily routines, (6) occupational and recreational therapies, (7) staffing, and (8) family counseling.

In the area of academic follow-up, the sample consisted of 47 adoles­cent patients between the ages of 13 and 18 who were admitted to Nazareth's adolescent unit. The 15 males and 32 females were exposed to the total adolescent milieu therapy program during the time period between September 1, 1972, and June 1 1973. All grade point averages which the patients earned the semester prior to admission were compared to those grades earned at least one full school term following discharge.

The results of the patients' overall achievement were significant. The overall G.P.A. for the total treatment population improved from 1.57 to 2 .32, representing a .75 increase. Included in this research's findings was a substantial decrease in the percentage of academic failure among the treatment group, a decrease of f m 28 percent to 3 percent. The study also showed that high school seniors and those patients having "depressive neurosis” diagnoses appeared to make the best overall adjustment in the areas of either school or occupation.

The major conclusions of the study were as follows: (1) The effectiveness of Nazareth's hospital milieu was evaluated by the patients' academic progress, which occurred following discharge. Accepting this assumption, and based upon the analysis of the collected data, it may be concluded that placement of an adolescent in Nazareth's therapeutic community is a beneficial approach in dealing with distressed young adults. (2) Short-term residential treatment, as defined in this study has been shown to provide a sufficient period of time for the establishing or re-establishing of basic foundations from which subsequent educational achievement may result. (3) Because of the fact that there were so many individual variables to account for with each patient, and because hospitalization was the one constant which all members of the treatment population had in common, it may be concluded that it was milieu therapy which precipitated academic change. (4) On the basis of follow-up data, it may be concluded that the majority of the treatment group who entered Nazareth Hospital with academic deficiencies were able to adequately compete with their peers upon discharge from the hospital and upon reinstatement into a public or private school system.

Document Type

Dissertation

Language

English

Degree Name

Counseling

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

Individual, Family, and Community Education

First Committee Member (Chair)

William Robert Fishburn

Second Committee Member

Marion Jacob Heisey

Third Committee Member

Robert Micali

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