A unique partnership between academe and two local businesses will enable families with troubled teens to receive counseling in their own homes while generating the basis for a study on the effectiveness of in-home family therapy.

A $15,000 grant from the Boyd Gaming Corp. will fund the cooperative project that will be coordinated by UNLV and will also involve Harmony Counseling, a local private mental health agency.

Through the project, families of Boyd Gaming Corp. employees will be able to receive free in-home counseling from Harmony Counseling, which currently has a service agreement with the Boyd Gaming Corp. to provide mental health services to its employees. As part of the project, UNLV researchers will analyze how well the in-home therapy is working, according to project coordinator Tom Sexton, a UNLV counseling professor.

"What is so unique about this project is the collaboration between the university, a local health care organization, and a local business," Sexton said. "We have joined together to develop a project for evaluating the effectiveness of a particular kind of family therapy treatment. The Boyd Gaming Corp. gets to find out what helps their employees the most, the health care organization gets to refine their services and train their therapists, and we get to ... just learn."

Participants in the study will be 12 volunteer families of Boyd Gaming Corp. employees who have sought the services of Harmony Counseling for the treatment of adolescents diagnosed with conduct disorders, according to Sexton.

"Intensive in-home family therapy allows for therapists to work with clients within the natural environment of the family group, thereby improving assessment, problem conceptualization, and successful intervention," Sexton said.

"It is a privilege for Boyd Gaming to participate in this project," said Jim Hippler, senior vice president of administration for the Boyd Gaming Corp. "It's a win-win-win situation. It's an opportunity to support the university, to contribute to the development of more effective behavioral therapeutic approaches, and, most importantly, to help some of our Boyd Gaming families improve the quality of their lives."

"Harmony is excited to be involved in such an innovative program," said Harmony Counseling CEO Carole Gordon. "This unique support system is designed to meet the needs of a family in crisis in their own environment. It is intended to work within the family structure to motivate the members to assist each other with the guidance of a skilled professional facilitator."

The study will be conducted in conjunction with the Functional Family Therapy Program at the University of Utah, which has co-developed the research methods and materials that will be used in this project.

Once the study participants have been selected, they will be assigned to one of three teams of family therapists who will provide the in-home counseling services. The team, which is composed of one licensed marriage and family therapist and one marriage and family therapy intern, will be trained in in-home therapy.

The families will receive counseling twice a week for 90 days.

Several families who have sought counseling but who do not want to participate in in-home therapy will be asked to volunteer as members of a comparison group, Sexton said. They will receive office-based therapy.

Throughout the study, the therapist teams will meet weekly with Sexton to discuss the cases and treatment strategies, he added. At the last in-home therapy session, the families will be asked to evaluate the therapy as well.

For more information about the project, call Sexton at 895-3935.