Integrating an Existential Perspective in Youth Care: A Care Ethical Argument

Abstract

The biographies of youngsters placed in youth care are burdened with deeply impacting and often traumatizing experiences of abuse, neglect and violence. These experiences raise existential questions that play a pivotal role in the development of these youngsters. In this paper, our purpose is to make clear that good, effective youth care integrates paying attention to these existential aspects. First, we elaborate on the debate on the effectiveness of youth care. Our goal here is to draw attention to the importance and relevance of this dimension of youth care, and embed it in a care ethical point of view. Second, we give a more elaborate account of this existential dimension of youth care, from both the perspectives of the care receiver and the caregiver. We discuss the relation to identity formation of young people, to various forms of sense making and to the symbolic character of the existential dimension of care which is visible in play. Third, we point out several aspects of professional competence that seem crucial to integrate the existential dimension in youth care practice.