Creating sanctuary in residential treatment for youth: from the "well-ordered asylum" to a "living-learning environment."

Abstract

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.