Date of Conferral

2022

Degree

Doctor of Social Work (DSW)

School

Social Work

Advisor

Martha Markward

Abstract

The wilderness environment has become recognized as a viable treatment modality for addressing the psychosocial and behavioral needs of treatment-resistant adolescents. Even though social workers provide services in these specialized programs, little is known about how they perceive the contributions they make to the outcomes of the adolescent participants. The conceptual framework of wilderness treatment with a focus on the wilderness experience, as well as on the physical, social, and psychosocial aspects of participant functioning guided this study. In this qualitative study, a semistructured interview guide was used to elicit the thoughts of five master’s level social workers (MSWs) regarding their contributions to the outcomes of adolescent participants in accredited wilderness therapy programs. The responses to the five interview questions posed to participants via the Zoom platform were coded to identify and give meaning to themes using NVivo and Quirkos, respectively. The findings suggest that social workers in wilderness programs perceive that they contribute to outcome of adolescents by using standard clinical approaches to treatment that includes assessment, intervention, and evaluation. The findings also suggest that parents provide social workers with an abundance of feedback regarding the process, which may affect the ethical obligation social workers have to focus on adolescents as their clients versus parents as clients. The findings in this study can be disseminated at conferences and in journals that focus on social work practice and/or that focus on the professionalization of wilderness programs. Findings may be used by social workers for positive social change to offer better services to adolescents in wilderness programs.

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