experience, like retelling stories and writing letters. children admitted to a residential treatment center have behavior problems so extreme that residential treatment is their last hope. parents seem to think the child is the problem needed to be fixed, and everything will be okay; on the other hand, the child generally sees themselves as a victim. narrative therapy enables these perspectives to be broken down and troubling behaviors of the child to be externalized, which could encourage both the child and the family members to achieve a new perspective no one feels prosecuted or blamed. multi systemic therapy: the model has shown success in sustaining long-standing improvements in children's and adolescents' antisocial behaviors. families in mst have demonstrated improved family stability and post-treatment adaptability and growing support, and reduced conflict- hostility the method's ultimate objectives include a) eliminating behavior problems, b) enhancing family functioning, c) strengthening the adolescents' ability to perform better at school and other community settings, and d) decreasing out-of-home placement controversy disability rights organizations, such as the bazelon center for mental health law, oppose placement in rtc programs, calling into question the appropriateness and efficacy of such placements, noting the failure of such programs to address problems in the child's home and community environment, and calling attention to the limited mental-health services offered and substandard educational programs. concerns specifically related to a specific type of residential treatment center called therapeutic boarding schools include: inappropriate discipline techniques, medical neglect, restricted communication such as lack of access to child protection and advocacy hotlines, and lack of monitoring and regulation. bazelon promotes community-based services on the basis that they are more effective and less costly than residential placement. a 2007 report to congress by the government accountability office (gao) found cases involving serious abuse and neglect at some of these programs. from late 2007 through 2008, a broad coalition of grass-roots efforts, as well as prominent medical and psychological organizations such as the alliance for the safe, therapeutic and appropriate use of residential treatment (astart) and the community alliance for the ethical treatment of youth (cafety), provided testimony and support that led to the creation of the stop child abuse in residential programs for teens act of 2008 by the united states congress committee on education and labor. jon martin-crawford and kathryn whitehead of cafety testified at a hearing of the united states congressional committee on education and labor on april 24, 2008, and described abusive practices they had experienced at the family foundation school and mission mountain school, both therapeutic boarding schools. due to the absence of regulation of these programs by the federal government and because many are not subject to state licensing or monitoring, the federal trade commission has issued a guide for parents considering such placement. residential treatment programs are often caught in the cross-fire during custody battles, as parents who are denied custody try to discredit the opposing spouse and the treatment program. research on effectiveness studies of different treatment approaches have found that residential treatment is effective for individuals with a long history of addictive behavior or criminal activity. rtcs offer a variety of structured programs designed to address the specific need of the inmates. despite the controversy surrounding the efficacy of (rtcs), recent research has revealed that community-based residential treatment programs have positive long-term effects for children and youth with behavioral problems. participants in a pilot program employing family-driven care and positive peer modeling displayed no incidence of elopement, self-injurious behaviors, or physical aggression, and just one case of property destruction when compared to a control group (holstead, 2010). the success of treatment for children in rtcs depends heavily on their background i.e., their state, situation, circumstances and behavioral status before commencement of treatment. children who displayed lower rates of internalizing and externalizing behavior problems at intake and had a lower level of exposure to negative environmental factors (e.g., domestic violence, parental substance use, high crime rates), showed better results than children whose symptoms were more severe (den dunnen, 2012). additional research demonstrates that planned treatment, or knowing the expected duration of treatment, is strongly correlated with positive treatment outcomes. long-term results for children using planned treatment showed that they are 21% less likely to engage in criminal behavior and 40% less likely to need hospitalization for mental-health problems (lindqvist, 2010). further evidence exists supporting the long-term effectiveness of rtcs for children exhibiting severe mental health issues. preyde (2011) found that clients showed a statistically significant reduction in symptom severity 12–18 months after leaving an rtc, results which were maintained 36–40 months after their discharge from the facility. however, although there is a great deal of research supporting the validity of rtcs as a way of treating children and youth with behavioral disorders, little is known about the outcomes-monitoring practices of such facilities. those that track clients after they leave the rtc only do so for an average of six months. in order to continue to provide effective long-term treatment to at-risk populations, further efforts are needed to encourage the monitoring of outcomes after discharge from residential treatment (j.d. brown, 2011). one problem that hinders the effectiveness of rtcs is elopement or "running". a study by kashubeck found that runaways from rtcs were "more likely to have a history of elopement, a suspected history of sexual abuse, an affective-disorder diagnosis, and parents whose rights had been terminated." by employing these characteristics of patients in the design of treatment, rtcs may be more successful in reducing elopement and otherwise improving the probability of clients' success.