Impact of Therapeutic Camping.

Shniderman, Craig M.

The article presents a report on therapeutic camping. During the past twenty-five years there has been growing interest in the provision of innovative psychotherapeutic services to children. One innovative treatment modality is the therapeutic camp program. Although most therapeutic camps train professionals and preprofessionals in group work and individual counseling techniques, their primary purpose is providing mental health service that is diagnostic therapeutic and prescriptive. Diagnosis is appropriately based on firsthand experience with the campers and trained observation of them both individually and among their peers. A former director of the University of Michigan Fresh Air Camp noted some sixteen years ago that no formal evaluation of that programs therapeutic effectiveness had been made. There is still a dearth of research on the efficacy of camping as treatment. Campings origin in the world of recreation rather than psychotherapy may help explain the lack of investigation. The experimental group and a control group were matched on several relevant criteria. The author used two behavior frequency rating scales and a third instrument dealing with the subject's self-perception of his behavior.

CHILD mental health services; PSYCHIATRY; SELF-perception; PATHOLOGICAL psychology; MENTAL health services; CLINICAL sociology; COMMUNITY centers

Social Work, 1974, Vol 19, Issue 3, p354

0037-8046

Academic Journal

10.1093/sw/19.3.354