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

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 (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

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

Transforming Front-Line Child Welfare Practice: The Impacts of Institutional Settings on Services, Employment Environments, Children, and Families (SYNTHESIS REPORT)

In 2006, the Ontario government launched an ambitious and multi-faceted Transformation Agenda for child welfare services. Among this Agenda’s objectives was the development of more cooperative helping relationships in child welfare, reducing the system’s reliance on legal authority to engage families, creating community and service partnerships and increasing child welfare capacity to respond differentially to families. Within this shifting child welfare context, the Transforming Front-line Child Welfare Practice Project research’s main purpose was to understand how centrally located service delivery settings and service delivery settings that were more accessible to families affected front-line child protection practice. A second encompassing objective was to examine how partnerships with other service organizations and neighbourhood associations affected front line child welfare practice. This Transforming Front-line Child Welfare Practice research examined eleven separate accessible and central child welfare service delivery sites at six child welfare agencies in Ontario. These sites were selected to vary on these two dimensions of accessibility and partnerships. These two dimensions have also been identified in the literature as contributing to child welfare capacity to respond differentially or flexibly to familes (Cameron, Freymond, & Roy, 2003; Schene, 2001, 2005). With one exception, accessible service delivery models in this research embedded front line child protection service providers in neighbourhoods or schools so that service providers would be more familiar and accessible to families. The philosophies of accessible programs emphasized collaboration with other community service providers, local community building and prevention. Central models located child protection service providers in agency premises that generally were not physically close to most of the families served. This was the more common service delivery setting for child protection services in the participating agencies and in other Children’s Aid Societies in Ontario. Earlier exploratory research through the Partnerships for Children and Families program of research (Frensch, Cameron, & Hazineh, 2005a) at Wilfrid Laurier University found that different child protection service delivery settings had notable impacts on child protection service delivery including: (1) service provider accessibility to children and families, (2) the development of cooperative helping relationships with children and families, (3) the development of partnerships with other service organizations, (4) the development of partnerships with neighbourhood associations, (5) the levels and types of assistance provided to children and families, and (6) client and community image the child welfare agency. This more extensive research built upon this earlier exploratory research. More specifically, this multi-faceted longitudinal research incorporated: An assessment of the impacts of accessible and central service delivery models on family functioning indicators and child protection system indicators (e.g. formal court applications, out-of-home placements of children, etc.). An exploration of how these different child welfare service delivery settings affected front line child protection service providers’ satisfaction with their work with children and families. An exploration of how these different child welfare service delivery settings affected parents’ satisfaction with their child welfare service involvements. An examination of how these different child welfare service delivery settings influenced the services and supports available to families. An assessment of the impacts of accessible and central service delivery settings on front line helping relationships in child welfare. An exploration of how accessible and central service delivery settings affected employment satisfaction and sustainability. This research also discusses the development requirements of the accessible service delivery models and what practical lessons can be gleaned from these experiences. Finally, it looks at broader implications for how we understand and organize our efforts to keep children safe and help families

Retrospective Technical Report: Accessible Program Parent Survey Results from Case Opening and Follow Up (Using Retrospective Data)

This retrospective technical report supports the summary of outcomes of accessible and central child protection service delivery as found in the Synthesis Report (Cameron, Hazineh & Frensch, 2010): Transforming Front-Line Child Welfare Practice: The Impacts of Institutional Settings on Services, Employment Environments, Children, and Families. The focus of this and other working reports is on the inclusion of all information relevant to the specific topic of investigation. The intent of working reports is to inform the synthesis report and include more information than what appears in the synthesis report. Less emphasis, however, is placed in the working reports on style and efficiency of presentation than on inclusion of information. The non-retrospective technical report supporting the outcomes in the Synthesis Report can be found on the Partnerships for Children and Families Project website. The main synthesis report and other working reports are also available through the Partnerships for Children & Families Project web site

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