Drug Strategies compiles and updates its report on adolescent treatment programs.

One group has spent several years identifying and updating the top adolescent treatment programs in the country. With input from a number of experts, Drug Strategies has created a list of reputable programs for adolescent substance abuse treatment, eventually gathering 144. Then it compiled a list of nine elements that would be expected in a quality program and it surveyed the programs on whether they implemented those elements.

Now the group is on working on a new analysis on how those programs have changed.

"Nobody had even identified 144 leading adolescent programs," Mathea Falco, the head of Drug Strategies, told ADAW.

The group's 2003 book on that analysis, "Treating Teens, A Guide to Adolescent Drug Programs," has already become something of a standard in the field as an overview of what is out there, what things parents and others should look for in a program, and what the programs are doing, at least for baseline discussion.

Most programs below par: Study

And what that compilation brought to light about what the programs do was eye-opening. Asked about five functions within each of the nine …