Leaving Germaine Lawrence

Each year in Massachusetts, about 2000 adolescents undergo psychiatric treatment in residential facilities.

One of these facilities is the Germaine Lawrence School, in Arlington, which specializes in the treatment and rehabilitation of girls struggling with substance abuse, eating disorders and aggressive behavior.

Katrina, who has asked we not use her last name, is one of these students. She's now seventeen years old, and spent more than two years at Germaine Lawrence for cocaine and opium addictions.

She completed the program recently, and kept an audio diary of her last few days there.

Click the listen link to hear her audio diary.