The Uniqueness of Child and Youth Care: A Personal Perspective

Abstract

The author draws upon 30 years of experience in the child and youth care field, personally carrying a “dual diagnosis” as a professional child and youth care worker and a professional social worker for most of that time. A definition of child and youth care is offered, and differences in focus and emphasis within the two disciplines are explored. Two underlying paradigms are suggested as contributing to the tensions apparent between the professions internationally, and the author concludes that the continuing struggle to develop a free-standing profession of child and youth care needs to be vigorously pursued because competent child and youth care workers are good for children and play a unique role in their lives.