The Lives of Young Adults Who Have Graduated from Residential Children\u27s Mental Health Programs (FULL REPORT)

This report presents the results of a research process in which 59 young adults who had received residential mental health treatment in the past were sorted into descriptive profiles based on the information they shared about their lives and personal functioning with researchers. Five different groups of young adults emerged from this process and represent the clearest categorizations for understanding this particular sample of young adults from across Southern Ontario who received residential treatment. Sorting young adults into distinct groups based on their functioning within key life domains (like education, employment, social connections, personal functioning) is useful to understanding the long term community adaptation of youth previously involved in children’s residential mental health treatment. Through a process of describing the defining characteristics of particular groups of young adults we can begin to think about adapting services and supports to meet the unique needs of distinct groups of youth as they transition into young adulthood

Bridging or Maintaining Distance: A Matched Comparison of Parent and Service Provider Realities (FULL REPORT)

When service providers and parents engage with each other to improve family circumstances, do they have similar impressions of what is important and what is helpful? Our purpose in interviewing parents who have been involved in child protection services and their service providers was to understand how parents and service providers view each other, their interactions, and the services they are engaged in. We were also interested in the “official record”—the files that describe parents, children, their needs, and the services provided in response. A comparison of the perspectives of service providers, parents, and files highlights some of the barriers and assumptions at work when service providers and parents engage with each other to improve family functioning. Contrasting these three versions of events highlights how differences are bridged or maintained. To begin our matched comparison of parent, file, and service provider realities we present a “case study” summarizing a parent’s perspective, the corresponding service provider’s perspective, as well as an excerpt taken from this particular parent’s file with the Children’s Aid Society. In presenting this individual matched comparison, we offer a glimpse of the data that was used to form the basis for this report. It illustrates the nature of the information, the types of comparisons undertaken, as well as more generally to provide a sense of the three perspectives included

The Lives of Young Adults Who Have Graduated from Residential Children\u27s Mental Health Programs (SUMMARY REPORT)

What happens to children and youth after they leave residential mental health treatment? How do these youth navigate normative developmental transitions like finishing school, getting a job, and finding a place to live? What types of assistance might facilitate these transitions? Despite the critical importance of these questions for youth themselves, for the educational, justice, and mental health systems, and for the development of more appropriate transitions to community programming, surprisingly little is known about what happens to these children and youth over time. This report presents the results of a research process in which 59 young adults who had received residential mental health treatment in the past were sorted into descriptive profiles based on the information they shared about their lives and personal functioning with researchers. Five different groups of young adults emerged from this process and represent the clearest categorizations for understanding this particular sample of young adults from across Southern Ontario who received residential treatment. Sorting young adults into distinct groups based on their functioning within key life domains (like education, employment, social connections, personal functioning) is useful to understanding the long term community adaptation of youth previously involved in children’s residential mental health treatment. Through a process of describing the defining characteristics of particular groups of young adults we can begin to think about adapting services and supports to meet the unique needs of distinct groups of youth as they transition into young adulthood

Bridging or Maintaining Distance: A Matched Comparison of Parent and Service Provider Realities (SUMMARY REPORT)

When service providers and parents engage with each other to improve family circumstances, do they have similar impressions of what is important and what is helpful? Our purpose in interviewing parents who have been involved in child protection services and their service providers was to understand how parents and service providers view each other, their interactions, and the services they are engaged in. We were also interested in the “official record”—the files that describe parents, children, their needs, and the services provided in response. A comparison of the perspectives of service providers, parents, and files highlights some of the barriers and assumptions at work when service providers and parents engage with each other to improve family functioning. Contrasting these three versions of events highlights how differences are bridged or maintained. To begin our matched comparison of parent, file, and service provider realities we present a “case study” summarizing a parent’s perspective, the corresponding service provider’s perspective, as well as an excerpt taken from this particular parent’s file with the Children’s Aid Society. This offers a glimpse of the data that was used to form the basis for the report. It illustrates the nature of the information, the types of comparisons undertaken, as well as more generally to provide a sense of the three perspectives included

Stories of Children, Youth, and Families’ Adaptation to Community Living in the First Year after Involvement with Children’s Residential Mental Health Programs

Twenty-two youth between the ages of 14 and 18 years old who were involved with residential programs from participating children’s mental health organizations in Southern Ontario, Canada during 2015 to 2017 participated in a study of adaptation to community living in the first year following program exit. Youth, parents, child welfare workers, and mental health workers took part in qualitative interviews up to three times during the study period. Interview comments were used to construct a narrative or “story” of the year following program exit that integrated multiple informants’ perspectives of how each youth was functioning within that timeframe. Stories for youth who returned home to live with their families (12 youth) were examined together to explore any common experiences or processes that described the post-discharge daily living of this group of youth and their families. Similarly, the stories of youth who resided in the care of the Children’s Aid Society following program exit (10 youth) were explored for commonalities that could offer insight into their community adaptation experiences. Study findings underscore the need for proactive and flexible aftercare programming to improve community living outcomes for youth leaving residential mental health programs

Working Report #5: Child Welfare Jobs (Service Provider Perspectives)

This report compares how service providers experience their employment realities across central, integrated, and accessible service models. Differences in job satisfaction, worker retention, and feelings about the work itself are examined

A Study of Three Community and School-Based Models of Child Welfare Service Delivery in Ontario: An Exploration Of Parents’, Service Providers’, and Community Experiences

This report highlights results from our study of three innovative child welfare programs in Ontario attempting to modify front line child protection practice. These programs endeavor to deliver child welfare services in ways that promote greater accessibility and acceptability of services for families, provide increased levels of assistance to families, afford a better understanding of daily living circumstances of children and families, and engage the community in protecting children. Study results confirm that the three programs were successful in accomplishing these goals. Parents’, service providers’, and community members’ perceptions of these programs showcase the positive helping relationships and community partnerships that are possible under existing child protection mandates

Transforming Front Line Child Welfare Practice: The Impacts of Institutional Settings on Services, Employment Environments, Children, and Families, NON-RETROSPECTIVE TECHNICAL REPORT: Accessible Program and Agency Based Program Parent Survey Results from Case Opening and Follow Up

Outcomes of accessible and central service models are assessed in this non-retrospective technical report using three criteria: (1) impacts on parent, child and family functioning; (2) impacts on system functioning (e.g. child placements, court involvements); and (3) impacts on parent and community attitudes towards child protection organizations

Working Report #8: Services and Supports (Parent Perspectives)

In this study, differences between accessible settings and centralized settings in terms of the range of services and supports that were reported to be available to clients were investigated. The numbers, types and variety of services described differed, as did the amount of advocacy and support in connecting with services. Also, client satisfaction with the services provided appeared to be somewhat different across models. Number, Types and Variety of Services In accessible settings families were being connected with at least twice as many different services and supports as in the centralized sites. There were a few exceptions to this trend in the accessible settings. Diversity of Service Connections Centralized settings offered a more standardized and narrower range of service options and were focused primarily on professional support. While both models could offer additional supports around food, clothing and shelter, these were more frequently provided in the accessible sites. Both models also used community supports such as recreation for children, however, the accessible sites seemed to offer a broader range with more local, neighbourhood based options. Service Facilitation and Advocacy It was clear that in accessible settings, there was more direct facilitation and assistance from workers when it came to connecting families to services. Examples of advocacy support were found in both types of settings but accessible settings appeared to facilitate advocacy more frequently and in more diverse ways. Satisfaction with Services The nature of comments varied in that positive comments from centralized settings, in regard to services and supports, generally stressed an appreciation for the professional services they were linked to while comments from accessible settings were more generally enthusiastic and suggested that some families felt extremely supported by the child welfare agency. Some of the positive comments about service supports from accessible sites stressed the lengths the agency went to get services as well as the diversity of benefits parents received from some of the service connections. Service Gaps and Criticisms There were more examples of dissatisfaction among parents at centralized sites, compared with accessible sites. The three themes summarizing criticisms that emerged were lack of services, perceived lack of responsiveness from the child welfare agency, and poor service fit or the provision of services that parents did not feel were useful. There were far more parents from centralized sites who were critical about the lack of services in particular. Waiting Lists and Access General satisfaction with the quality of services, supports, connections and referrals is comparable across models, however, there was somewhat more criticism for a lack of services in the centralized settings and a higher level of enthusiasm for the extent of support within the accessible models. Even though centralized models may have been good at connecting families with some useful professional services, accessible settings seemed to offer the added benefit of variety and more extensive service support. As a result, parent enthusiasm and praise for the supports they received appeared to be somewhat greater at accessible sites