Comparative Analysis of Residential Treatment Programs, William Aaron - Essay Example

The disorders are also likely to cause the youths to commit suicide. Thus, a need for health care is vital, to prevent the escalation of the disorders, which is likely to cause more harm to the individuals themselves through self-injury, as well as damaging actions to the wide society.

The paper employs an empirical research method of research. This is so because it applies an observation of the activities/operations taking place in various residential treatment facilities, in a comparison manner with the institution in question. The aim is to establish where it falls in this category of institution, based on its performance in residential treatment. The unit of analysis applied in this paper is the residential treatment program. The paper compares the success of different treatment programs. It also seeks to establish the relationship between the staff-to-patient ratio, and its impact on the performance of these institutions. The paper also tried to seek the relationship between the state licensing/certification of the staff, and the program performance. The aim was to know whether the certification affects performance, which was found to be unlikely.

The type of data collected is nominal (Richard). This refers to that data that use names in establishing relationships. The paper is developed based on a set of treatment programs, compared per their performance. Ordinal data are also used in this paper. The treatment programs are ranked based on their percentage performance in inpatient treatment. Ratio data are also collected and used in this paper. There has been a computation of the staff-to-patient ratio. This is then applied to seek whether there is a relationship between this ratio and the program performance. The paper has applied various data collection tools. The rating scale is one of them, where the programs are rated in success percentage (Richard). Document review is also applied as a tool since information regarding to staff and patient numbers are obtained from the programs’ documents. The institutional schedule is yet another tool employed. The paper seeks to compare the average treatment times of different programs.

The paper applies correlation and regression, as its tools of analysis. These were applied to seek the relationship between the patient/ staff ratio and the level of success of the programs. The same tools were also applied in comparing the staff certification, with the success levels of their programs. The findings are that a lot still needs to be done to make the programs completely successful and effective, in terms of increasing the patient-to-staff ratio.

Though the paper recommends further, it fails to indicate which specific areas should be addressed by further study. The paper would have been done better if it involved a descriptive design of research (Richard), and described all the activities in the programs in question. A case study, as a design, would also be appropriate. Read More