Walking off the Mountain: Planning Aftercare Support for Adolescents in Wilderness Therapy and Their Families

Abstract

This chapter describes the process of developing an appropriate aftercare plan for discharge from a wilderness therapy program by answering die following questions: (1) Why is additional treatment necessary after wilderness therapy? (2) How is the aftercare plan determined and what factors are considered? (3) How can treatment providers support families making aftercare decisions? And, (4) Why is wilderness therapy necessary if longer term treatment is indicated? Throughout this chapter, the term parents will be used for ease of reading. However, it is more appropriate to recognize the many people responsible for parenting children, such as grandparents, aunts and uncles, guardians, foster parents, same-sex partners, stepparents, etc. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)