Description and evaluation of a trial program aimed at reunifying adolescents in statutory long-term out-of-home care with their birth families: The adolescent reunification program

Abstract

• The ARP appears to be a rare reunification program with few parallels in the world. • The ARP is a strengths-focused program tailored to the specific needs of families. • The trial program evaluation showed promising results for successful reunification. • Adolescent reunification programs may reduce numbers of children in long-term care. A significant international child protection issue is the gradual increase in the number of children in statutory out-of-home care (OOHC). This has led to strong policy interest in family reunification or family restoration; however, dedicated reunification programs that aim to reunify children who have been in care longer-term appear to be rare. In this paper, we describe the development, piloting and evaluation of a dedicated, intensive program for adolescents in long-term OOHC and their families of origin – the Adolescent Reunification Program (ARP). The ARP evaluation involved a mixed methods approach through the compilation of both quantitative data (the number and characteristics of families referred, and their outcomes) and qualitative interviews with participating families and ARP workers. Of the 36 participating families, two-thirds (66%) achieved successful reunification, with young people remaining at home for at least six months. Thematic content analysis of interview data provided insight into the factors that facilitated, or acted as barriers to, reunification. Overall, the evaluation indicated that strengths-focused, adolescent reunification programs have considerable potential to reduce the number of young people who remain in long-term care. Inspection of both national and international evidence suggests that by providing a dedicated, intensive reunification service for adolescents on long-term orders, the ARP is a very rare program that has few parallels anywhere in the world.