Development of an After-School Day Treatment Program for Children with Severe Emotional/Behavioral Disturbances

This article introduces Aizone, an after-school day treatment program for children with emotional/behavioral disturbances, and examines its effectiveness. Aizone targets children whose problems require intensive care, but are not severe enough to warrant hospitalization, and prioritizes those from low-income families. Based on the bio-psycho-social model, this program provides a variety of therapeutic interventions for both children and their parents, including individual and group therapy integrated under the concept of milieu therapy, as well as community linkage services. This study uses a prospective comparative method to examine the effectiveness of Aizone by comparing and validating the treatment outcomes of seven Aizone programs across Seoul. The Korean Child Behavior Checklist was administered by caregivers before and after intervention and the data was used in a repeated measures analysis. The effectiveness of the program in terms of reduction in emotional, behavioral symptoms, as well as the implications of the results are discussed.