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I’m Coming Home: A Retrospective Phenomenological Study on Former Adolescents’ Experience of Returning to Society after Residential Treatment
Abstract
For those suffering from serious mental illness and substance abuse, residential treatment centers have been a primary form of care, providing individuals with intensive therapeutic and rehabilitative services. Adolescent residential treatment centers have focused on providing these same services to a unique subset of the population. Though the adolescent residential outcome literature has highlighted gains made while in treatment, high recidivism rates and a return to poor baseline functioning not long after program discharge are also evident. Researchers have not yet examined how adolescents experience the transition home after completing residential treatment. The purpose of this phenomenological study is to understand former youth’s experience of reintegrating back into society post treatment discharge. Better understanding this phenomenon has the propensity to inform future step-down levels of care and reduce recidivism rates, and the frequency, duration, and intensity of mental health symptoms and substance abuse. This study also serves as a platform for former youth’s stories to be heard so that others may benefit from their journeys.
Subject Area
Counseling Psychology|Mental health
Recommended Citation
Kobashigawa, Wesley N, "I’m Coming Home: A Retrospective Phenomenological Study on Former Adolescents’ Experience of Returning to Society after Residential Treatment" (2023). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI30246135.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI30246135