Residential treatment may be necessary if a teenager refuses to cooperate with efforts to intervene in his or her home community. In a structured residential program, a teen will receive supervision, intervention and/or various therapies 24-hours a day, seven days a week.

These programs may serve girls alone, boys alone, or co-ed populations. A residential program may help teens cope with earlier sexual abuse, low self-esteem, bi-polar disorder, learning disorder, truancy, self-medication with drugs or alcohol, ADHD, and destructive behavior.

Sometimes the troubled or anti-social behaviors are responses to local situations. Removing the teen from the inappropriate environment allows recovery to begin.