Young People with Complex Needs: Designing Coordinated Interventions to Promote Resilience across Child Welfare, Juvenile Corrections, Mental Health and Education Services

Abstract

Young people with complex needs (YPCNs) use multiple services that are often poorly coordinated despite the best efforts of social workers to act as case managers. Based on two case studies from research with 116 youth who are multiple service users in Atlantic Canada, six principles for the design of services are suggested reflecting both this study's findings and the broader literature on YPCNs. Services that are (i) multi-level, (ii) coordinated, (iii) continuous over time, (iv) negotiated with users, (v) provided along a continuum from least to most intrusive and (vi) shown to be effective are more likely to meet the long-term needs of youth facing the cumulative disadvantages of family, community, school and individual challenges.