Therapeutic group home care for adolescent girls: an interagency development

In the District of Columbia, because of inappropriate placement resources, crisis units in mental health centers are keeping children long after treatment evaluation has taken place. It was thought that disturbed adolescents might be served in a small family-type setting with live-in house parents, direct clinical services, and back-up from the mental health center.This paper discusses an attempt to provide services to some disturbed adolescents in an interagency therapeutic group home. The study experience is limited, but the design of the program and the problems encountered may be of some value to health and child care agencies.