1
NATSAP/ IECA Best Practices
Between Educational
Consultants and Program
Members
2015
National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs
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Contents
Introduction………3
Educational Consultant Demographics ……….4-5
Referral Preferences ………..6
Tour Preferences ………..7-9
Program Marketing ……….10
Aftercare Preferences ………..10
Visiting Clients ………11
Link ‘n Learn Attendance ……….…..12
Program Member Demographics ……….………13-14
Consultant Visits ………...15-16
Consultant Referrals ………17
Consultant Engagement ………..……….18-19
Open Questions ………..…20-35
Conclusion………...35
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NATSAP/IECA Best Practices Between Educational Consultants and
Program Members
Introduction
The information included in this document was collected during a survey conducted in December 2015. The answer selections were assembled from 157 programs and educational consultants across North America. There were 128 program responses and 29 Educational Consultant responses. For this survey, programs included therapeutic schools, residential treatment centers, wilderness therapy programs, and transitional living/young adult programs. Multiple responses from programs were allowed on this survey as an admissions representative may have different experiences than a marketing outreach coordinator.
All responses were assembled from a SurveyMonkey questionnaire. As such, the results should be examined with the knowledge that there could be variations based upon how much time each responding program or educational consultant put into each survey question. Unfortunately, we have no way of measuring this.
Some questions were skipped by various respondents, causing different questions to receive varying levels of participation.
Responses were broken down into the following regions:
NORTHEAST AND MID ATLANTIC- Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New
Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington DC, West Virginia. SOUTHEAST- Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia
SOUTH- Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas. MIDWEST- Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Nebraska, Wisconsin.
NORTHWEST- Alaska, Northern California, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington State. SOUTHWEST- Arizona, Southern California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah.
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Educational Consultant Demographics
Educational Consultants Responding by RegionThere were no Educational Consultant responses from the South or Northern Rocky Mountain Regions.
Do you work with international clients?
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Northeast and Mid Atlantic
Southeast Midwest Northwest Southwest
Educational Consultants by Region
Regions
64% 36%
Educational Consultants: Do You Work with
International Students?
5
Years in the Educational Consultant Field
Do you possess any Masters or Doctoral level degrees?
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1-3 years 4-6 Years 7-9 Years 10-12 Years 13-15 Years 16-20 Years 21+ Years
Educational Consultants: Experience in the Field
Experience in the Field
20%
53% 20%
7%
Degree
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Likelihood of referring to a program that you have not toured or visited?
Describe Your Level of Agreement with the Following Statement: If a Program is too geographically difficult for me to access for a visit or tour, I am still likely to refer to it given I believe the student
would be a good fit.
4%
10%
62% 24%
Likelihood of Referring to a Program that you have not
Toured
Highly Likely Likely Unlikely Highly Unlikely
10%
48% 21%
14%
7%
Level of Agreement: If a Program is too geographically difficult for me
to access for a visit or tour, I am still likely to refer to it given I believe
the student would be a good fit.
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What types of tours do you prefer?
How much time do you need on a tour to feel you have an adequate understanding of a program?
For this question we had two write in responses that stated they prefer to sit in with a therapy group or treatment session and would like separate time to meet with their clients. The other write in responses mentioned that a first visit would be longer than subsequent visits.
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Program Arranged Consultant Arranged Private Company Arranged No Preference
Tour Preference
Tour Preference 4% 39% 48% 9% 0%How much time do you need on a tour to feel you have an
adequate understanding of a program?
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When Visiting a Program, How Important are the Following Factors
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 Receiving Marketing Materials Receiving Information about the Overall Treatment Model
Receiving Information about Program Services
Touring the Facilities
Importance of Factors when Visiting a Program
Very Important Somewhat Important Neutral Somewhat Unimportant Very Unimportant
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Meeting New Program Staff
Meeting with Program Students/Residents
Connecting/Socializing with Program Colleagues on Property During Office
Hours
Connecting/Socializing with Program Colleagues
off Property After Office Hours
Importance of Factors when Visiting a Program
(Meeting/Networking)
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Open Question: Of the Items above, what is the most important to you in the tour process?
Top 3 Responses:
Meeting with students/residents/staff Touring facility
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How important to you are a program’s marketing/outreach efforts?
Analysis: Consultants did not rate receiving marketing materials at tours as being very important. This
may be from a desire to not become over-burdened if they are visiting several programs in one day or from a logistic standpoint of having to ship items back to their office.
Regarding aftercare following treatment, which do you prefer?
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Website Newsletter Print Materials Social Media
Importance of Program Marketing/Outreach Efforts
Of little importance neutral Somewhat Important Very Important
3%
38% 59%
Aftercare Treatment Preference
Program has their own developed in-house care
Program suggest that the client consult with their Education Consultant regarding next steps Both
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How typical is it for you to visit a student on location during the course of treatment (Wilderness Only)?
How typical is it for you to visit a student on location during the course of treatment (Non-Wilderness)?
17%
38% 38%
7%
Likely to Visit a Student in Wilderness?
Very Likely Somewhat Likely Somewhat Unlikely Very Unlikely
24%
59% 17%
0%
Likely to Visit a Student (Non-Wilderness)
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Have you attended a NATSAP/IECA Link ‘n Learn?
In the open responses to this question, education consultants mentioned the following reasons for not having attended a Link ‘n Learn
1) Timing
2) Unaware of what it was
3) Prefer to see programs themselves
4) Do not receive much value from it as it is attached to a conference.
62% 38%
Attended a NATSAP/IECA Link 'n Learn?
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Program Member Demographics
When we requested responses from programs, we asked for multiple responses as those in different positions will have different experiences with Educational Consultants. Unfortunately, due to the anonymous nature of this survey, we were unable to ascertain how many individual programs responded.
From the choices below, what region best described your business location?
Program Members identified as:
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Regions
Regions 19% 44% 12% 23% 1% 1%Program Type
Wilderness Therapy Program Residential Treatment Center Young Adult/Transitional Program Therapeutic Boarding School Specialty Psychiatric Hospital Other
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How many years has your program been in operation?
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 1 to 3 4 to 6 7 to 9 10 to 12 13 to 15 16 to 20 21+
Length of Program Operation
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In the past 12 months, how many consultants have toured your program?
Educational Consultant Visits Compared to Program Years of Operation
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 None 1 to 5 6 to 10 11 to 15 16 to 20 21 to 25 25+
Number of Consultants Touring
Number of Consultants 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1-3 Years 4-6 years 7-9 years 10-12 years 13-15 years 16-20 years 21+ years
Visits Compared to Years of Operation
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In the past 12 months, what percentage of consultants who have visited your program are new consultants (less than 1 year consulting)?
8%
27%
27% 19%
19%
New Consultants Touring
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What percentage of your population comes from Educational Consultant referrals?*
*Unfortunately, this information is missing both the 40-50% and 70-80% values. Program members mentioned that they rounded up or down to the percent that was closest to their correct amount of
referrals.
In the past 12 months, estimate how many referrals has your program provided for Educational Consultants? 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 None 1-10% 10-20% 20-30% 30-40% 50-60% 60-70% 80-90% 90-100% All
Referrals
Referrals 9% 37% 22% 7% 5% 5% 9% 6%Referrals to Educational Consultants
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In your program’s experience, what percentage of consultants are engaged with the family and program throughout the entire course of treatment?
In your program’s experience, what percentage of consultants are seldom heard from until the end of treatment? 4% 5% 4% 5% 8% 15% 15% 13% 14% 16% 1%
Engaged Throughout Treatment
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% 12% 31% 17% 16% 14% 5%0% 4% 0% 1%0%
Seldom Heard From Until Discharge
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In your program’s experience what percentage of consultants are never heard from following the initial referral? 35% 32% 21% 5% 3% 4% 0%0%0%0%0%
No Communication after Placement
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21 In the open responses, Education Consultants listed the following as their top 3 mistakes that programs make:
Inconsistent/non-communication from program
Making recommendations/referrals without consulting the Education Consultant Informing parents of an issue with treatment/the child before informing the Education
Consultant
Program Members: What are the consultant characteristics or practices that hamper a healthy working relationship?
23 Program respondents highlighted the following characteristics:
Rigidity and over reactiveness
Siding with parents without discussing complaints with programs
Poor communication (not reading client updates or missing client update calls) Ethical issues
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Educational Consultants: What are the things that programs do that you most appreciate?
Of the 25 responses we received for this question, 22 respondents mentioned consistent in depth communication as what they most appreciate from programs. Although we did not ask about what would be the preferred frequency of communication, several Educational Consultants mentioned a preference for monthly updates.
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Program Members: What are the characteristics of consultants who are known for working well with your program?
27 Overwhelmingly Programs mentioned the following characteristics:
Objective and non-reactive
Clinically knowledgeable about the treatment process and disorders that a program works with Works with the entire family throughout the process and helps to manage parent’s anxiety. Involved and engaged in the process
Educational Consultants: What do you wish programs would do when a mistake is made?
Respondents overwhelmingly replied that programs should acknowledge the mistake, correct the error and show steps taken to ensure that it does not happen again. Several respondents mentioned that they want to hear about the error from the programs, not from the parents.
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29 The respondents overwhelmingly requested that the educational consultant contact the program directly to discuss the mistake and to keep the lines of communication open as the program worked towards a solution.
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Educational Consultants: What tips would you give program personnel in working with highly anxious, reactive parents?
In the open responses, Education Consultants listed the following tips: Make sure that the parent works with their Educational Consultant Be clear with both expectations and boundaries
Build trust through honest communication
Several consultants mentioned that after trust has been established, the program should let parents know the role they play in the problems they are facing with their child.
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Educational Consultants: Describe the ideal working relationship between a program and an Educational Consultant?
The respondents overwhelmingly stressed that communication, collaboration and honesty are the keys for a successful relationship. While some consultants mentioned that they do not want to be involved with the therapeutic process, others wanted to be part of the treatment team.
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Program Members: Describe the ideal relationship between an educational consultant and your program.
Overwhelmingly, the respondents said that working as a collaborative team is the best relationship between an Educational Consultant and a program. The following response summed it up best: “Collaborative, built on mutual respect and acknowledgement of skill and character. The therapist shares his or her conceptualization and plans with the consultant as a sounding board. The consultant helps emphasize and support the therapists’ messages to the family. The consultant helps with
resources and options for the student upon discharge. It is helpful for a consultant to be well connected to local resources.”
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Educational Consultants: What changes have you seen in your field in the past 5 years?
The results for this question were mixed but themes did occur. When discussing clients, Consultants emphasized that the clients (and parents) have grown more complicated and complex (ex: more anxiety versus acting out). Some Consultants expressed concern with the large growth of their field and how that may lead to unqualified people calling themselves education consultants. Many respondents expressed concerns over program closures/ownership changes and a sense of a “corporate takeover” of services. The consultants also mentioned that treatment has grown more sophisticated and that
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35 Several respondents for this question mentioned the influx of new Educational Consultants but were mixed on whether they viewed this as favorable. Programs also mentioned that they have seen a larger push by parents to have insurance cover program stays as well as younger clients being referred to programs. Echoing what was said on the Educational Consultant version of this question, programs mentioned the increased specialization of programs and the lack of “general” programs.
Conclusion
Thank you for your assistance in completing the 2015 Best Practices Between Educational Consultants and Program Members. We could not have gathered this information without the direct involvement of our members.
We hope this information proves to be a useful reference. As always, please be sure to contact NATSAP directly if you have any questions regarding this data.
Thank you for your membership! -The NATSAP Team
