Stability of post-treatment functioning after residential treatment: The perceptions of parents and adolescents

a r t i c l e i n f o Introduction: The present study examined parents' and adolescents' perceptions of adolescent functioning after being discharged from residential treatment as well as the stability of functioning over time. Method: Data for the study were collected as a part of a continuous process of evaluating post-treatment functioning. Adolescents and their parents were interviewed at home at 3 months (T1), 6 months (T2), and 18 months (T3) after discharge. Several outcomes were evaluated: living situation, contact with parents, social network, school/work, behavior problems, use of soft drugs, police contacts and well-being. The sample was divided into two subsamples: parents (n = 82) and adolescents (n = 75) participating in all three waves (sample 1) and parents (n = 288) and adolescents (n = 317) participating in at least one wave (sample 2). Results: Cautioned by the inevitable high rates of attrition and the risk of selective bias in this type of study, there is preliminary evidence showing that adolescents generally show positive outcomes after residential care. Moreover , the outcomes were stable over time: adolescents who showed positive outcomes directly after discharge also showed positive outcomes at T2 and T3, and vice versa. Parents reported less positive outcomes than adolescents did. Discussion: An important contribution of this study is that it provides longitudinal data supporting the notion that outcomes from residential treatment may be more sustainable over time than previously thought. Clinical and research implications are discussed. Adolescents referred to residential care have serious and multiple problems in different areas. Placement in a residential institution, which includes care and cure, education, leisure activities, and specific individual as well as family interventions, is often said to be a 'last resort'. While studies show that adolescents make significant progress during treatment (e. (2011) examined the extent to which residential institutions measured their outcomes. They found that 96% of the institutions measured client satisfaction and that about 50% measured other outcomes after discharge, such as living situation, school performance, and clinical functioning. These studies were mostly cross-sectional and measured outcomes within six months after discharge. Brown et al. (2011) concluded that little is known about residential outcomes and that monitoring these outcomes should be encouraged. Prior studies have shown that the scores for symptom severity within the clinical range dropped from 81% at the time of admission, to 55% 12–18 months after discharge and to …