Abstract
This paper argues that most "traditional" models of residential care of irresponsible adolescents ignore the context within which adolescents and their families make sense of placement. The meaning of placement is often one that exacerbates feelings of failure and removes responsibility from the family. The role of context in determining meaning is discussed, and a contextual model presented which seeks to place residential care within a context of success and responsibility. Placement is seen as a rite of passage, which marks the change of context to one in which the family is able to stand up to the problem together. Principles of cybernetic family therapy are used to construct a new description for the placement and a discussion of how every aspect of placement relates to this description follows. The paper uses the case of a twelve-year-old who entered placement for 'intensive itch-fighting training" to illustrate the model.
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