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CREATING EVIDENCE-BASED CHANGE THROUGH A TRAUMA-INFORMED LENS: TRANSLATING PRINCIPLES INTO PRACTICE
No full textWhen programs and services incorporate an understanding of trauma and its impact on an individual’s behaviour and ability to cope, the potential for misdiagnosis and inadequate treatment planning is significantly reduced. Incorporating trauma-informed approaches into service delivery is an essential component to developing programs that accurately address the needs of youth and their families. The organization involved in this study, in the Province of British Columbia, Canada, provides an extensive array of services to youths aged 12 to 18 years who have significant emotional, behavioural, and psychiatric difficulties. In a joint multidisciplinary effort to better support traumatized young people and their families, the organization embarked on an in-depth evaluation of its service delivery. Together the team co-created a shift in practice that supported the translation of trauma-informed principles into practice and developed valid and measurable methods for evaluation through the adoption of a participatory action framework. Four semi-structured interviews were developed for collecting qualitative feedback from clients, stakeholders, and staff who experienced the change in service delivery across 5 clinical cases over the course of 8 months. The feedback confirmed that the shift in practice was effective in cultivating an environment of safety, choice, and collaboration for clients. This resulted in the development of an evidence-based shift in service delivery as well as identifying training needs and developing plans to integrate this change into broader practice throughout the organization
STREET CHILDREN IN INDIA: A STUDY ON THEIR ACCESS TO HEALTH AND EDUCATION
No full textStreet life is a challenge for survival, even for adults, and is yet more difficult for children. They live within the city but are unable to take advantage of the comforts of urban life. This study focused primarily on access to health and education in street children from 6 to 18 years old in the Indian metropolises of Mumbai and Kolkata. The study also aimed to assess the role of social work interventions in ensuring the rights of street children. A combination of quantitative and qualitative research methodologies was used. Convenience sampling was used to recruit 100 children. Data were collected on a one-to-one basis through semi-structured interview schedules and by non-participant observation. Findings revealed that extreme poverty was the primary cause for the increasing numbers of street children. Lack of awareness among illiterate parents regarding educational opportunities kept most children away from school attendance. Factors such as lack of an educational ambience at home made it difficult for the children to work on their lessons outside the premises of the institution. It was evident that those living with their parents had better access to health care facilities than did those living on their own; however, nongovernmental organizations made significant efforts to redress this imbalance, setting up health check-up camps at regular intervals. Although exposure to harsh reality at an early age had resulted in a premature loss of innocence in most, making them sometimes difficult to work with, the nongovernmental organizations were striving to ensure child participation and the growth of individual identity. The interventionists therefore focused on developing a rights-based approach, rather than a charitable one
DEVELOPMENTS WITHIN SOCIAL PEDAGOGY IN AUSTRIA: PERSPECTIVES FOR WORK WITH CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE
No full textThis article traces the history of social pedagogy in Austria, which shows some differences from the German history of social pedagogy. In the 1920s and the first half of the 1930s, the development of social pedagogy led to interesting approaches in the field of children’s residential care. During the National Socialist era, the emergence of social pedagogy was cut short. After the end of the Second World War, social pedagogy developed step by step into its currently established form, without ever reviving the thinking of the 1920s and 1930s. Nevertheless, I would like to show how the basic concepts of that period offer some inspiration for work with children and young people today. Based on a single case example, I propose a specific approach to social pedagogy, one that seeks to enable educational processes by reflecting and using the opportunities offered by social environments conducive to education. This focuses less on working with and upon the child, and more on changing the relation between child and environment, the “child/environment nexus”
(YOU GOTTA HAVE) FRIENDS: CARE LEAVING, FRIENDSHIPS, AND AGENCY INTERVENTION
No full textThis article is based on a presentation at FICE Austria in 2016 that reported on the findings of a qualitative study that explored the perceptions of friendships held by young people in and formerly in care. Eleven young people from the care system and three frontline child and youth care workers were interviewed with a focus on the effects of out-of-home placement on the development of peer relationships. Results suggest that there are significant obstacles to the development of age-appropriate friendships both within the care system and between youth in care and their community peers. These findings are discussed in light of the evidence that friendships are critical for healthy development and can serve as a buffer against stigma for youth who have been placed in out-of-home care. The study reported here is part of a larger program of research, the goal of which is to identify protective mechanisms or developmental assets in the transition to adulthood that could be better cultivated for youth aging out of placement
ACKNOWLEDGING THE COMPLEXITY OF PROCESSES LEADING TO FOSTER CARE BREAKDOWN
No full textFamily-based solutions for children in care are the preferred option in European countries on the grounds of both cost and quality. Yet, too often, foster care placements intended to be long term are terminated unexpectedly early. Few studies have identified factors leading to unexpected breakdown and fewer still have translated such findings into practical guidance for professionals. This article outlines: (a) the ambiguity and contradictions in the use of terminology (e.g., instability, breakdown, disruption) in several international studies; (b) the adoption of a one-sided, file-based, systemic perspective in recent studies of foster care instability, breakdown, and disruption; and (c) empirical data collected from interviews with foster children. Foster care breakdown is shown to be a process that takes place on several levels. In addition to the actual breakdown event, the situation of the child before the placement, the situation during the placement, the emergence and development of the crisis and the consequences of the breakdown for all those involved are all part of the process. It is only in retrospect that the ending of a foster care process is perceived as a breakdown. Assessments of whether it was planned or unplanned, expected or unexpected, and desirable or undesirable are meaningful only from an individual perspective. Such a perspective must be clearly identified: different people experience and remember the same breakdown in different ways, and its significance for their personal biographies may vary
COME ALONG WITH ME: LINKING LGBTQ YOUTH TO SUPPORTIVE RESOURCES
No full textIn this study, we examine how lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) youth, who tend to experience greater feelings of isolation and discrimination than heterosexual youth, find and become integrated into supportive activities and resources. As part of a larger study on supportive lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer youth environments, 66 go-along interviews with LGBTQ youth, from Massachusetts, Minnesota, and British Columbia were conducted. Analysis of these interviews identified important cues that prompt self-agency and integration into supportive environments and affirmative identities. In particular, we argue indirect links or cues such as media and print advertisements increase awareness of supports and resources, while personal links, such as referrals from trusted friends, adults, and regularly attended programs, can help youth form denser networks of support
HEALTH-RELATED FAMILY QUALITY OF LIFE WHEN A CHILD OR YOUNG PERSON HAS A DISABILITY
No full textParents of a child or young person with disability face not only the same challenges as parents of typically developing children and young people, but also the extra challenges of supporting the child or young person with disability in such a way as to maximise both their own quality of life (QOL) and family quality of life (FQOL) for all family members. Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) encompasses not only physical health but also mental and emotional health, equally important for FQOL. This article builds on information from previous publications, and illustrates relevant issues and the innovative methods parents, caregivers, and professionals have devised to enhance the HRQOL for children and young people with disability, and to improve FQOL. The author draws upon her personal lived experiences of having two daughters, the eldest an adult with disability, as well as being the medical consultant and manager of a newly created health unit tasked with supporting students with disability, who often have high health needs, in educational settings. The health conditions selected are those that have a major impact, not only on the young person with disability but also on family members. Vignettes, all deidentified true stories, will be included to illustrate the multiple issues faced by children and young people with disability, their families and extended families, and treating clinicians. These stories will hopefully resonate with families in particular
TOURISM, CHARITY, AND FATHERS’ FUNDRAISING STRATEGIES FOR THEIR CHILDREN’S EDUCATION ON THE KENYAN COAST
No full textIncreasing empirical evidence shows that child-raising and children’s formal education are influenced by and embedded in cross-border processes and constellations. In Kenya’s South Coast region, widespread support for children’s education is taking place through the long-term relationships local men and women are establishing with tourists from the global North. In this regard, seemingly casual beach encounters initiated by local fathers — who invite western tourist acquaintances to visit their villages and homes — have become a common parental strategy for engaging with tourists who have the potential to become sponsors for their children. In this article we look at the social, economic, and political background against which the quest for sponsors through “village visits” has emerged. We unveil the complex and interrelated factors at global, national, and local levels that shape these livelihood strategies. Based on a case study in which we analyze a beach worker’s efforts to engage tourists as sponsors for his child’s formal education during a village visit, we argue that these village visits are fundraising strategies that are similar to those employed locally by child-oriented non-governmental organizations, and are shaped by the region’s deeply rooted “culture of charity”
Co-constructing simple and complex frames using repetition and evaluation in Taiwanese family dinner talk
No full textBuilding on past research that uses Goffman’s (1974) framing theory to analyze family interaction, I use discourse analysis to demonstrate how a frame, or “definition of the situation,” can be co-constructed by using repetition as a linguistic strategy and evaluation in stancetaking per Du Bois’ concept of the “stance triangle” (2007). I also adopt Gordon’s (2009) theorization that frames can be “laminated” when participants interpret the current event as having more than one definition. This suggests that frame is an interactive achievement that requires collaboration of both speakers and listeners. I examine four excerpts of dinner talk in Mandarin Chinese among members of a Taiwanese family to illustrate how “topic structure” and “participant orientation,” as outlined by Schiffrin (1993) in the delineation of multiple frames, play a key role in the co-construction of both relatively simple and more complex frames. Findings show that family members may attend to different words or other linguistic units and position themselves to different stance objects. As they evaluate the topics differently in the stance triangle, their evaluations influence how the frames in the interaction are co-constructed. Whether a frame is created as intended depends not only on the speaker’s production but also on the listener’s corresponding response. Also, by establishing different alignments and assuming relational roles, family members can evoke several frames that are layered in complex configurations, such as a parenting frame laminated on top of a reporting frame when the father reports medical test results as a topic while orienting to the son in a parent-child alignment by evaluating the son’s behaviors. The study contributes to the extant research on framing theory by considering repetition and evaluation as resources to flesh out participant alignments and adds to the literature on family discourse a case study of a Taiwanese family
