Families and Retention in Treatment

“The second reason for working with families is that families are powerful groups of people who exert significant influence on their members. In treatment, families can either be a tremendous support or an impediment which can undermine and sabotage treatment. From a practical standpoint it is wise to involve families in treatment to engender their support. A recent study found a significant difference between two similar treatment facilities in the dropout rate when family therapy was used. In one treatment facility families were involved in family therapy. Within the first week the adolescent was in treatment and continued on a regular basis. This facility had a significantly lower drop out rate than the similar facility which did not involve families in treatment until the third or later month and did not have family therapy as a required treatment component. There was also a significant relationship between the number of family therapy sessions attended and the drop-out rate in that the more family therapy sessions attended the less likely it was that the youth would drop out of treatment” (Weidman, 1985).