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NATSAP NUGGETS
By Loi Eberle, M.A., IECA
Educational Consultant,
Woodbury Reports Associate
loi@woodbury.com
The theme of the 2005 NATSAP Annual Conference
in Tucson, AZ, focused on "Working Together." I
observed the reflection of this theme throughout the presentations
and various conversations between attendees. Both the "program
people" and educational consultants, who attended, appeared
to be very serious about continually assessing and improving
the quality of the work they do. They expressed the idea that
this work is larger than the individual participants are,
and were grateful for the opportunity this conference created
to improve what we do.
Prescott College President, Dr. Daniel Garvey,
delivered the conference's opening keynote address. He stressed
the importance of ethical action, a theme touched upon repeatedly
throughout the various sessions. Garvey acknowledged that
working with therapeutic programs is like being in the "mental
marines." In other words, the experiences are so intense
that it is hard to articulate them to people who have not
been part of them. In that sense, it is similar to what Marines
experience when returning home from war.
Garvey asked the audience why they felt the
work they did was important; he summarized their activity
as "creating a positive impact on the world, one student
at a time." After establishing this common goal, he pointed
out that no research shows a correlation between people with
high self-esteem and how others view their actions. Garvey
emphasized that if you only focus on improving a student's
self-esteem without changing their moral structure, it only
makes them more unscrupulous. The challenge of our work is
to encourage students to not only feel more at peace within
themselves, but also to motivate them to care more about benefiting
others.
Ethics and morality are essentially the same,
Garvey explained, and differ from religion, which deals more
with belief systems. He quoted James Rest's definition of
ethics, as "the process of determining that one course
of action is better than another course of action in a particular
situation." Rest further elaborates, "The function
of morality is to provide basic guidelines for determining
how conflicts in human interests are to be settled and for
optimizing mutual benefit of people living in groups."
"What does ethical behavior look like?"
Garvey asked the audience, pointing out that it involves action,
perception and intellectualization. He said that often, the
real work is occurs internally rather than externally and
involves changing one's attitude about what one is doing.
Garvey explained that ethical behavior has
four characteristics, which include:
- " Recognizing when an ethical problem
exists. (It is impossible to intervene unless the problem
is recognized.)
- " Determining an appropriate and feasible method
for resolving the dilemma. (The response has to directly
apply to the activity and not be a substitute.)
- " Valuing being ethical more than being unethical.
(One needs to willingly forgo instant gratification for
the long-term feelings of being ethical. The challenge is
that ethical behavior is done for intrinsic reasons. Motivating
ethical behavior is difficult because people often get what
they want in the moment by being unethical.)
- " Following through with the plan designed to resolve
the ethical dilemma. (It is necessary to actually do the
right thing when the problem has been discovered and not
postpone taking the necessary actions to resolve the dilemma.)
According to Dr. Garvey, the task of those who
wish to inspire ethical behavior is to actually help the students
do the right thing, rather than feel the right way. The teacher/mentor
needs to directly connect the activities and their consequences.
The challenge is to instill the intrinsic reasons for ethical
behavior, because being unethical does get what one wants
in the short term.
Later that day, Dr. Michael Gass continued these
essential themes in his workshop by urging us to instill hope
and provide compassion. He explained that one way to initiate
this is to bring attention to the optimistic solutions in
client's stories. Another way is to only perform actions that
exemplify the highest degree of moral integrity and become
known by the empathetic path one walks.
Amidst a rousing standing ovation, Rob Cooley,
PhD, Catherine Freer Wilderness Therapy Expeditions received
the 2005 NATSAP Leadership Award. Later, he addressed the
group on two occasions. He spoke about NATSAP's past and future
directions, describing the "spirit of NATSAP," as
a willingness to share our personal lives and participate
in teamwork for the public good. According to Cooley, this
also includes learning to find the best treatment for our
clients and placing their needs above everyone else.
Dr. Cooley discussed the question, "What
has research accomplished for the public good?" He cited
some studies that showed wilderness therapy to be more effective
than standard treatment for some psychological disorders,
and standard medical/psychiatric treatments to be fairly ineffective
for most adolescents. He emphasized the need for further study,
some of which is currently underway by the Outdoor Behavioral
Healthcare Industry Cooperative (OBHIC).
Conference attendees were encouraged to strive
for excellence in their programs so that they can help give
the gift of successful, fulfilling and meaningful lives to
their clients. Part of that, Cooley cautioned, involved avoiding
dual relationships between programs and consultants, because
it puts clients and the industry at risk.
Sessions on admissions and program/ consultant
communication further addressed this issue of dual relationships.
A great deal of the discussions went into the challenge of
creating ways for consultants to learn about programs, without
creating conflicts of interest. Such as, the challenges faced
by programs and consultants on what is appropriate to accept
from a program in terms of travel and accommodations, and
how smaller programs with fewer resources can compete for
visibility. Program personnel and educational consultants
examined the various ways these issues were handled in the
past, giving examples of guidelines and problems that have
occurred in other fields. They acknowledged the large amount
of time and financial expenditure required for learning about
the growing number of programs. Since Independent Educational
Consultant Association (IECA) guidelines are in place to address
these issues, the outcome of this dialogue is that the IECA
will share their guidelines with NATSAP.
NATSAP's creation of guidelines for its member
programs reflects the general direction it has taken over
the last year. The current status of this work was presented
during a NATSAP panel discussion led by John Mercer from Mission
Mountain School, and included Pam Neilson, M.Ed. from Cedar
Ridge, Dr. Sid Parham from the Family Foundation School, and
Laurie Laird, M.Ed. from New Haven. Each panel member described
issues addressed in their newly drafted document, "Best
Practices in Education in Therapeutic Schools and Programs."
They explained that a large part of their focus is on ways
to integrate the curriculum into the school's milieu, while
also satisfying high school diploma requirements.
Part of the panel's work has also been developing
standards that would satisfy, and in some cases exceed, those
of regional, state and national accrediting bodies. Areas
of concern included mission driven education, program improvement
and long range planning, curriculum, educational services,
staff and professional development, teacher qualifications,
and budget/ finance issues. Once created, it is also necessary
to determine how to assess whether a program is meeting these
new standards.
The panel indicated a need for guidelines to
integrate curriculum and therapy, define the mission statement
and clarify a school's goals. They questioned whether the
therapeutic vs. emotional growth distinctions are only theoretical
at this point. The panel is also in the process of creating
a definition of NATSAP schools and programs that clearly differentiates
them from normal schools and treatment centers.
In the future, this panel plans to consider
upgrading NATSAP standards to help NATSAP schools and programs
become accredited as special entities. The recently drafted
"NATSAP Principles of Best Practice" helped to create
the new licensure standards proposed for therapeutic schools
in Utah. Since NATSAP's accreditation standards exceed those
of many accreditation groups, the panel expressed the need
to teach other accrediting agencies about the NATSAP accreditation
standards. According to the panel, "NATSAP is raising
the bar."
Indeed, the goal of creating excellence was
reflected in the high quality and wide variety of sessions
presented at the 2005 NATSAP Annual Conference. This continuing
goal is reflected in their call for ideas for the 2006 Annual
Conference, (due June 15, 2005), and in their plans to launch
a new professional journal.
Copyright ©
2005, Woodbury Reports, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
(This article may not be reproduced without written approval
of the publisher.)
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