Times during transition for young people with complex support needs: entangled critical moments, static liminal periods and contingent meaning making times

Abstract

ABSTRACTYouth studies has called for new ways of thinking about transitions for young people. This paper argues for new ways of understanding times during transition, particularly for young people with complex support needs. Young people (16–26 years) with complex support needs are those who experience multiple forms of social disadvantage, and who depend on siloed services to support them. Complex support needs are created by the intersection between a person and a complex system of services including education, health, disability, health, mental health, homelessness, youth justice and child protection. In this context, transition has been understood as a physical movement between and within separate services. Using the arts based method of body mapping with 31 young people with complex support needs from three Eastern states of Australia, this paper reports on how young people themselves experience transition. Young people identified three distinct times during transition that resonated with existing literature on critical moments, liminal periods and meaning making times. However, these times were not sequential or singular, nor were they a reflection of service transitions. Instead, this paper contends that times during transition were not as much about moving forward, as about simultaneously living with complex and chaotic pasts and presents.