At the same time, the clinicians are in close contact with the child psychiatrist while they conduct the multiple systems oriented therapy-family work, school intervention, vocational planning, tutoring, other case management, and naturally, individual work with the adolescent. These different interventions, including the use of medications for the teen or the parent, are coordinated. Interventions occur in the different realms simultaneously. It also seems to address the practical, clinical needs of the case quite well. The medications for the teen typically target symptoms such as depression and anxiety, and they can facilitate the adolescent's or parent's participation in the individual, family, or group behaviorally-oriented treatments.
Residential treatment falls on the end of the spectrum.
It is an intensive intervention and represents a restrictive kind of care. A stay at a residential care facility can interrupt the cycle of drug taking and the deepening of a drug using lifestyle. Residential treatment needs to be understood as part of a continuum of services that teens and families require. In other words, without a change in the teen's post-residential care environment, residential treatment alone is unlikely to be effective. This is where aftercare or outpatient services enter the picture.