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5 March
NO 1273
Teaching-Family model
The integrated therapeutic interactions described in this manuscript have been developed as an important part of the Teaching-Family Model. The Teaching-Family Model for the treatment of troubled youths has been evolving since 1967 (Phillips, Phillips, Fixsen, & Wolf, 1974). Beginning with a series of research studies at "Achievement Place," a group home for delinquent adolescents in Lawrence, Kansas, the Teaching-Family Model has developed into an integrated service delivery system (Blase, Fixsen & Phillips, 1984). Today, there are over 250 group homes across the United States that have met the requirements to be called Teaching-Family Homes. These homes serve delinquent, pre-delinquent, abused, neglected, emotionally disturbed, autistic and mentally handicapped children and young adults. In addition, the Teaching-Family Model has been adapted for use in parent training, specialized foster care, youth assessment systems, and public and private schools.
After nearly twenty years of research and program development the Teaching-Family Model has evolved a systematic, integrated approach to treatment. Treatment procedures have been discovered through research or borrowed from the literature and the experience of others. These treatment procedures have been integrated into the daily living patterns of staff and youngsters residing in a group home setting. Every interaction becomes a treatment interaction and opportunities for treatment are not restricted to time or place. The treatment procedures and daily-living patterns have been carefully described and analyzed so they can be taught more readily to new staff and so that the processes of treatment can be monitored by all concerned. Administration, treatment supervision, and staff training are integrated to reduce confusion and focus all attention on the treatment goals for those in care.
The general approach centers on providing individualized treatment in a family-style, community-based environment. The treatment program is implemented by the Teaching-Parents, a married couple who live and work with about six youths in the home. The carefully selected and specially trained Teaching-Parents are "teachers" responsible for the social education of the youths. They also are "parents" who look after the whole child in all of his or her environments. The focus is on teaching each youth how to live successfully in a family, attend school, and live productively in a community. This means proactively teaching each youth an individualized curriculum of new skills and social competencies in the family-style environment of the home and working closely with parents, teachers, peers, employers, neighbours, and relatives to help each child internalize the healthier ways of behaving in all aspects of his or her life.
KAREN A. BLASE AND DEAN
L. FIXSEN
Blase, K.A. and Fixsen, D.L. (1987). Integrated therapeutic interactions. Journal of Child Care, 3, 1. p. 60.
REFERENCES
Blase, K.A., Fixsen, D.L., & Phillips, E.L. (1984). Residential treatment for troubled children: Developing service delivery systems. In S.C. Paine, G.T. Bellamy & B. Wilcox (Eds.), Human Services that Work: From Innovation to Standard Practice. pp. 149-165. Baltimore, MD. Paul H. Brooks Publishing Company.
Phillips, E.L., Phillips, E.A., Fixsen, D.L., & Wolf, M.M. (1974). The Teaching-Family Handbook. Lawrence, Kansas. University Printing Service.
