Preliminary evaluation of children's psychosocial rehabilitation for youth with serious emotional disturbance

Objective: This article introduces and evaluates children's psychosocial rehabilitation, a home- and community-based treatment for children with serious emotional disturbance. Method: In an open-trial design, the author used repeated-measures analysis of variance and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests to assess preĝ€"post outcome ratings for 218 participants, ages 3 to 18, on the Child and Adolescent Functional Assessment Scale or the Preschool and Early Childhood Functional Assessment Scale. Average treatment time was 13 months. Results: Participants improved significantly in psychosocial functioning and psychological symptoms, with effect sizes ranging from large to small. Improvements were clinically significant for 78% of participants. Conclusions: Children's psychosocial rehabilitation shows promise as an empirically based treatment for serious emotional disturbance.