Long-Term Outcomes of Residential Treatment for Children and Adolescents – The long-term outcomes of residential treatment for children and adolescents depends on many factors, which make it difficult to pinpoint what those long-term outcomes are right away. First, outcomes depend on the population of who is utilizing residential treatment. Population factors can be the disorders children are diagnosed with, legal situations, culture, family and living situation. Discharge planning is an important factor on long-term outcomes of residential treatment because it sets up resources for the child and family to use and for continuity of care. Family involvement plays a factor not only in long-term outcomes by making their own personal changes, but also in the treatment model a child might be in programs who have well-trained staff, are culturally sensitive, have better education programs, use evidenced-based models, are properly licensed and monitored, and are client-centered produce more positive long-term outcomes compared to programs who do not meet those criteria. Lack of access and funding for alternative, less restrictive treatment models is a barrier in improving the residential treatment model because of current public policy. Other improvements the residential treatment model can make is employing more evidenced-based practices, fine-tune requirements for licensing and monitoring across the board to eliminate inconsistency, effectively training staff in behavioral techniques, and become more culturally diverse with treatment models.