Combining Group and Casework Treatment in a Camp Setting.

This article describes an experiment in combining group and casework treatment in a camp setting with one professional person serving both therapeutic roles. There is already considerable literature which demonstrates that the camp setting can be used therapeutically and as a planned resource in the treatment of emotionally disturbed children. Many social agencies now use the "treatment" camp as an integrated part of their total treatment plan for a child and his family. For administrative reasons, the Jewish Family Children's Service of Minneapolis had been unable to establish treatment groups for children even when the diagnosis clearly indicated them as a desirable treatment resource; no such facilities exist in Minneapolis. There has been little in the literature concerning camp operation of both treatment and "normal" cabin groups simultaneously. Perhaps this is because of understandable questions as to whether one might interfere with the other. Despite the very considerable individual problems of some members of the treatment group, the unit as a whole was easily integrated into the total camp program.