Ouders betrekken in de residentiële jeugdzorg. Een onderzoek naar inhoud en uitkomsten van contextgerichte hulpverlening

PhD ceremony: mw. E.M.W. Geurts, 14.45 uur, Academiegebouw, Broerstraat 5, Groningen

Thesis: Ouders betrekken in de residentiële jeugdzorg. Een onderzoek naar inhoud en uitkomsten van contextgerichte hulpverlening

Promotor(s): prof. E.J. Knorth

Faculty: Behavioural and Social Sciences

During the past two to three decades there was a paradigm shift from an individual, child-focused approach towards a contextual, family-focused approach in residential youth care. Family-focused residential youth care focuses on the youth as well as the parents and the family. Working with the child and the family was expected to improve the outcomes. To test this hypothesis research was done in two residential centres; one offering a programme, called Youth Care in Context (JIC), that enhances the involvement of the family in the care process, the other offering care as usual (CAU).

The participating youths (between 6-18 years of age) share characteristics like severe behaviour problems, disturbed family relations, and limited social networks. Compared to CAU the JIC-programme proves to offer a higher level of family-centred activities and generates better outcomes on indicators like family-focused treatment goals, treatment completion, experienced effectiveness and client satisfaction. Youths in JIC are doing slightly better at the end on general behavioural functioning; youths in CAU show more positive outcomes on internalising behaviour problems. The evidential value of the research is indicative.