The treatment of adolescents and their parents in group settings in a psychiatric hospital.

This paper describes the structure, composition, function and treatment methods in an adolescent unit containing 16-20 patients, at the Shalvata Psychiatric Center. Treatment is based on organizing the adolescents in a group setting with organized activities. Description of group therapy with the adolescents, their families and group sessions of the team receives special emphasis. Our objectives went beyond a symptomatic improvement and were towards strengthening and integrating the personality. Emphasis was thus placed on creating a therapeutic and educational milieu conducive to new developmental as well as corrective emotional experiences, rather than on economy in length of hospitalization and therapeutic hours invested. This demanded considerably more investment in terms of period of hospitalization and number of personnel than was the usual practice with adult patients in the hospital.