THE LITTLE TURTLES PROGRESS - A RECONSIDERATION OF THE SHORT VERSUS LONG-TERM RESIDENTIAL-TREATMENT CONTROVERSY

This study reviews a number of arguments often given in support of the increased use of short-term residential treatment and examines some of the assumptions underlying those arguments. It concludes with the detailed description of an individual psychotherapy case study of a young child in long-term residential treatment. That case presentation indicates a number of clinical issues which appear to contraindicate the use of either brief therapy or short-term residential treatment, and which illustrate the need for the preservation of long-term residential treatment options for certain severely disturbed children and adolescents.