Learn About What Makes Open Sky Effective
Research Director Discusses Effectiveness of Wilderness Therapy and the Successful Treatment of Adolescents & Young Adults at Open Sky
Aired on LA Talk on Monday, March 1st, 11am PST.
Listen to Archive here. Suggestion: Fast forward to the 4-minute mark to pick up where the interview starts.
Open Sky’s Research Director, Joanna Bettmann, PhD, LCSW was interviewed on LA Talk Radio’s Answers for the Family. Dr. Bettmann discussed the type of teens and young adults that are helped by wilderness therapy, what makes wilderness treatment considerably safer than many believe, and why it is often a more effective option than many conventional therapies.
Dr. Bettmann is a licensed clinical social worker and Assistant Professor at the University of Utah, College of Social Work. In addition to teaching, she serves as Open Sky’s Research Director researching outcomes of the program’s effectiveness as well as attachment issues as it relates to treatment in a wide range of settings.
“Open Sky conducts research with each and every student and family. We believe that empirically evaluating our students’ outcomes, in addition to their satisfaction with treatment, is critical to conducting an effective and powerful program,” says Dr. Bettmann. Most programs conduct satisfaction surveys at the conclusion of treatment with its students and families. These surveys are an important measure for customer service but not for determining if the program actually works.
According to Dr. Bettmann, “Our research suggests that Open Sky is successful at helping both adolescents and young adults. Our use of standardized measures shows us that our clients make significant reductions in mental health symptoms while they are with us and maintain those gains for at least a year after treatment.”
Despite the positive outcomes thus far, Dr. Bettmann believes it is important to continue researching wilderness therapy “because there are so many questions still left unanswered; (such as) what is the exact mechanism of change, what makes wilderness therapy effective and specifically which interventions are useful for which clients?”
Hear the March 1st archive.
Open Sky’s holistic wilderness therapy program is the most comprehensive and clinically sophisticated wilderness therapy program in the industry, and the only program in the country to continuously conduct empirically validated research to measure the success of its students. Open Sky sets the standard in the industry and employs the widest range of empirically supported interventions for young adults and adolescents in crisis.
