Outdoor Behavioral Health Care: A Longitudinal Assessment of Young Adult Outcomes

This article details a 3-year outdoor behavioral health care outcome study. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to analyze data from 186 young adults in a wilderness therapy program. Participants completed the Outcome Questionnaire–45.2 (Lambert et al., 2004) 6 times from Week 1 to 18-month postdischarge follow-up. Results indicated that clinically and statistically significant change occurred in treatment. Rates of change varied, and posttreatment scores remained stable, thus demonstrating that in-treatment gains were maintained. Implications and recommendations for future research are discussed.