NATSAP Outcomes & Evaluation Report

This report summarizes an evaluation of the therapeutic impact of member programs of the National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs (NATSAP). Fifty-one NATSAP programs collected and contributed data that measured the mental, behavioral, and relationship health of their clients between 2017 and 2023.

The project was initiated by NATSAP program leaders who recognized the value in scientifically demonstrating the impact of out-of-home care. Data were collected by programs and housed securely by the software OutcomeTools. Another software company, Petree Consulting Inc., exported and prepared the data for research and evaluation purposes.

The Outdoor Behavioral Healthcare Research Center at University of New Hampshire (UNH) served as a gatekeeper for those interested in accessing the data for scientific studies; this process was approved by UNHs Research Ethics Board.

THE PROJECT collaboration has resulted in dozens of academic manuscripts published in peer-reviewed journals and thus has advanced knowledge on the impact of NATSAP programs, on factors that predict health improvement, and on mechanisms of treatment change.

NATSAP celebrates these accomplishments but saw a need for a publicly available report that summarized the data from all contributing programs . This evaluation report serves this purpose.

This work is a testament to the work of the programs and to their monumental efforts to collect client health data. The report provides an understanding of treatment impact, validates the work of these programs, and offers suggestions for quality improvement. The results of the report are provided briefly in this executive summary, with details in the full report that follows.