This report of a panel discussion focuses on the design, rationale, and evaluation of the Adolescent Crisis Unit for Treatment and Evaluation (ACUTE), a program of crisis intervention for young adolescents. An overview of the structure of ACUTE's clinical program describes the efficiency of the program in seeing referrals at the time of crisis, and outlines the treatment lnvolving collaboration with other community agencies. ACUTE's staff is multi-disciplinary and includes social workers, a clinical psychologist and a child psychiatrist. The model underlying ACUTE's approach is presented as an integration of six theories: (1) crisis intervention; (2) brief, task-oriented treatment; (3) psychoanalysis; (4) network/systems; (5) family systems; and (6) Stierlin's dialectical theory. ACUTE's ongoing evaluation research program is discussed, along with some of the methodological and practical difficulties of conducting research in a community setting. (Author/NRB)