ABSTRACT
When youngsters are referred to residential treatment, the following background information is needed: age, reasons for referral, treatment history, and the youth’s legal status (for example, ward of a children’s aid society or county social service agency, young offender, persons in need of supervision, and so forth). Included in the referral package should be a social history, psychological assessment, medical report, mental status examination (for psychotic youngsters), case history, and academic evaluation or school records. This information details the youngster’s psychological functioning (incompleteness), cognitive abilities or limitations, quality of relationships, type of self-indulgence, nature of impulsivity, strivings for recognition, protective barriers, and emotional weaknesses. The youngster’s capacity for change and reintegration, the youngster’s objects of identification, and the nature of conscious and unconscious conflicts need to be addressed (Aldridge & Wood, 1998). A comprehensive psychosocial profile helps the treatment team to understand the source of behavioral problems and social conflicts experienced in the youth’s family, and the factors that led to the youth’s apprehension, detention, placement, and the like. Of importance is what has been tried with the youth and his or her family, the nature of progress, and the probable reason for any failures, such as their socioeconomic situation, relationship problems, community conflicts, and school adjustment difficulties (Kamphaus & Campbell, 2006).
