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Admitting whole families: an alternative to residential care
B J Dydyk1, G French, C Gertsman
1INTERFACE, Thistletown Regional Centre, Rexdale, Ontario.
Insights
This family-centered treatment program effectively reduced the need for residential care for children and decreased treatment length. The intensive assessment and treatment model also achieved significant cost savings compared to traditional methods.
Area of Science:
- Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
- Family Therapy
- Healthcare Management
Background:
- Traditional residential treatment for symptomatic children can be lengthy and costly.
- A family-centered intensive assessment and treatment program was developed to address these issues.
- The program aims to prevent or reduce the need for residential care for children admitted with their families.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the effectiveness of a whole-family, short-term intensive assessment and treatment program.
- To determine if the program could eliminate or decrease residential care for children.
- To assess the program's cost-effectiveness compared to conventional residential treatment.
Main Methods:
- Utilized pre- and post-treatment measures to assess outcomes.
- Compared treatment group data with a control group for length of stay.
- Analyzed cost savings associated with the family-centered approach.
Main Results:
- Half of children recommended for inpatient treatment successfully avoided it for six months.
- A 35% reduction in the length of residential care was observed for children in the program.
- Over $12,000 per case in cost savings was realized compared to residential treatment.
Conclusions:
- The family-centered intensive assessment and treatment program is effective in reducing residential care needs for children.
- This model offers significant cost savings while maintaining or improving treatment outcomes.
- Whole-family admission for intensive assessment and treatment is a viable alternative to conventional residential care.
Abstract:
This paper is an examination of the effectiveness of a programme (described in detail elsewhere) designed to admit whole families for short-term intensive assessment and treatment. The goals of this programme are to eliminate residential care for symptomatic children who are admitted with their families to this service, to decrease the length of stay of the symptomatic child in residential treatment, if this is required following admission of the whole family to this unit, and to provide these services at costs comparable to or less than that currently being spent with conventional residential treatment. Results stemming from a number of pre- and post-treatment measures indicate that one half of the children initially assessed and recommended for inpatient treatment had successfully avoided inpatient treatment for six months following admission of their family to this unit. For children recommended for residential care after admission of their families to the family unit, a reduction of approximately 35% of total time in residence occurred (when compared with a comparison group). A cost saving of over +12,000 per case was realized as a result of admission of the whole family when compared with residential treatment.