NCJ Number
198906
Date Published
2003
Length
21 pages
Annotation
This chapter discusses the Phoenix Academy of Los Angeles (California), a long-term residential substance abuse treatment service for youth.
Abstract
Established in 1987, the program model, called Phoenix Academy, is a modified therapeutic community for adolescents that integrates an on-site public school into the treatment milieu. The model employs the view that substance abuse is the outward manifestation of a broad set of personal and developmental problems. Major modifications from the adult therapeutic community approach include an increased emphasis on recreation, a less confrontational stance, more supervision and evaluation by staff members, assessment of psychological disorders, a greater role of family members in treatment, and more frequent use of psychotropic medication for emotional disorders. There is an emphasis placed on education and the integration of the academic program with the treatment regimen. The treatment program has four phases: an orientation and a stabilization component, primary treatment, re-entry process, and aftercare. Phoenix Academy and other comparison group homes in this evaluation serve an ethically diverse community comprised primarily of adolescent probationers. The majority of the youths are male, ages 15 to 16, Hispanic/Latino, and domiciled in a family-owned house or apartment prior to their detention. Most participants met criteria for a lifetime substance use disorder or dependence. The majority of participants indicated marijuana as the drug for which they most needed treatment. Participants acknowledged considerable numbers of lifetime arrests for criminal offenses that led to formal charges. Considerable anecdotal evidence of the effectiveness of the Phoenix Academy approach exists with adolescent probationers. 1 table, 4 references