Parental involvement in residential treatment facilities for children

As the function of residential child care shifted from orphanages to treatment facilities, the attitudes toward parental involvement also changed. Parents were no longer viewed as interruptive, and the parent-child emotional bond was recognized as superseding physical separation (Simmons, Gumpert & Rothman, 1973). The advent of systems theory and family therapy brought new conceptualizations which added 1 the dynamics of interpersonal relationships to the intrapsychic behavioral modes, challenging child care professionals to integrate these theories into treatment programs