Outcome Data

Parents often ask, “What is your success rate?” This is a difficult question to answer since each student comes to La Europa with similar but unique issues and at different places in the recovery process.  Our treatment is highly individualized to accommodate these differences, so the “success rate”  varies depending on how success is defined. La Europa knows that outcome research is important - being able to qualify and prove that treatment works, as well as receiving constant feedback and indicators for improvement. In spite of each student’s uniqueness, there are commonalities among the students that do allow us to define success and measure students’ progress.  At La Europa Academy, we have selected the Youth Outcomes Questionnaire (YOQ) as our tool to gauge student progress.  The YOQ is a valid and reliable instrument that is used across the country in a variety of treatment settings.  Using an instrument that has statistical validity and reliability helps ensure that our data is consistently and accurately measuring students’ progress. La Europa Academy also participates in a national research study that is using the YOQ to determine the effectiveness of residential treatment. La Europa is proud to be a Designated Research Program through NATSAP (National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs).   We ask both parents and students to fill out the YOQ when a student is admitting to La Europa Academy.  We also ask parents and student to complete the YOQ questionnaire at discharge, at 180 days after discharge and 365 days after discharge.  We then ask parents and students if they would be willing to fill out the questionnaire annually for up to 5 years past discharge/graduation.  

The graphs below show the accummulative numbers from the data we have collected for over 5 years.  We update these graphs once per year.  

Each of the above graphs starts with an indication of how much distress the student was in when they admitted to the program.  On the Youth Outcome Questionnaire, the higher the number, the more distress a student is reporting. As you can see, our students are scoring significantly above those of a teen not in clinical services when they admit to La Europa Academy.  Students tend to rate themselves lower than their parents as evidenced by the difference between the parent submissions and the student submissions.  The second bar on the graph indicates how students and parents are rating themselves upon discharge.  This bar shows the amount of progress our students have made during their time at La Europa Academy.  Our students leave treatment well below the dotted line which indicates where an average teenage who is not in treatment would fall in terms of their level of distress.  The biggest question, of course, is whether the students maintain the progress they made in treatment once they transition. Our data shows that they do as evidenced by the "180 Days After Discharge" and "365 Days After Discharge".  We actually expect a slight increase to occur at "180 Days After Discharge" because the "glow" of treatment is over and a teen is back in their regular environment experiencing day-to-day life.  At a year following treatment, we see that the majority of students level out scoring slightly higher than the "typical teenager", but with dramatically decreased clinical struggles.

Here are some of the highlights of our recent data: