Long-term residential care for youths in Sweden - Approaches to treatment

Abstract

This article reports on a survey carried out in all homes for care or treatment in Sweden for long-term care of youths. The aim was to investigate what therapeutic underpinnings are involved in long-term residential care for youths in Sweden. A major problem in descriptions of treatment is the variation in the use of concepts. To overcome some of these difficulties operational definitions were created for five approaches. Each approach was defined by three or four statements. Factor analyses of all statements resulted in five factors that corresponded with the five approaches. Despite the diversity of therapeutic underpinnings it was possible to identify five different approaches to care and treatment. These approaches did not exclude each other. They were agreed with to different extent by different homes. In this study different approaches have been found to be related to the variety within residential care.