Rural Treatment Programs: Do Adolescent Youth Benefit from Treatment Programs Designed toReduce At-Risk Behaviors to Self and Others?

The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of treatment programs used to reduce behavior problems of residents at the Cathedral Home for Children over three consecutive years beginning in July 2007 through January 2010 based on single-subject data sets used to identify four different levels of behavior showing the reduction (or increase) of at-risk behavior. The risk assessments show data at the 30 day/baseline and every six months following the initial assessment on 40 residents. These secondary data sets represent performance measures such as Risk to Self, Risk to Others and Property, Social and Adaptive Functioning, Substance Abuse Risk, Family Functioning Risk, Social Skills and Total Risk. In addition to the factors used to determine the level of at-risk behavior, components of the risk assessments will determine how the residents respond to treatment classified as Treatment Resisters, Highly Distressed Treatment Resisters and Treatment Thrivers. Charts of each consecutive year will indicate the change in behavior over time. We expect to find an improvement in the behavior of residents who are considered at-risk as a result of the treatment programs provided in the group homes, the crisis center and independent living facilities under the Cathedral Home for Children's care.