This report discusses the need to teach critical thinking and study skill strategies to improve the problem-solving ability, study habits, and knowledge of subject content to students in psychiatric treatment centers. The report asserts that this type of curriculum will assist students in comprehending new information and utilizing thinking skills to overcome everyday obstacles. Study strategies described include: (1) "SQ3R" (survey, question, read, recite, review); (2) paraphrasing; (3) guided questioning or self-questioning; (4) heuristic problem-solving (approaching a problem, understanding the problem, and arriving at a solution to the problem); (5) keyword method (the student is asked to associate an abstract word with a concrete word that sounds like it and use this information to create the new image to recall); (6) pegword method (memorizing a list of words that can be recalled readily and linking these words with the items that must be memorized); and (7) first letter mnemonics. Critical thinking strategies include analysis of choice making behaviors and use of weekly brain teasers. Procedures for assessing students academically and for implementing a study skills and critical thinking skills curriculum are outlined. (Contains 17 references.) (CR)