Determining Readiness for Therapeutic Adventure Programs: The Transtheoretical Model

The purpose of this paper is to present the findings of a New Zealand based study on youth-at-risk readiness for therapeutic adventure programs. Central to the project was documenting current selection practices and viewpoints from the perspective of four program managers. This included investigation on how readiness was determined within their programs and the methods used to identify participants in different stages of readiness. The advantages and disadvantages of determining readiness were also discussed. In addition, the Transtheoretical Model of behavioural change (Prochaska and DiClemente, 1982) was examined as a possible mechanism to determine readiness and was used to provide a framework for part of the study.