Meeting families' treatment needs through a family psychotherapy center

A small group of mental health professionals in St. Louis established a private-practice family therapy center staffed by therapists of various disciplines and theoretical orientations. Families receive a comprehensive, five-phase evaluation at the end of which the panel of evaluators recommends the type of family therapy and the therapist most suited to deal with the central problem. During the center's first two years of operation, 42 families received a complete evaluation and 36 began treatment, most of them in marital therapy. Of the 21 who completed treatment, 16 were rated as improved and five as unchanged. Thirty members within those 21 families manifested serious psychopathology, but none had to be hospitalized during treatment.