Youth Protection Services Research Articles

YOUTH AS TRUTH-TELLERS AND RIGHTS-HOLDERS: LEGAL AND INSTITUTIONAL REFORMS TO ENABLE YOUTH HOUSING SECURITY

In the first pan-Canadian study on youth homelessness, 57.8% of youth reported prior involvement with child protection services. Indeed, transitions from government institutions (e.g., child/youth protection, inpatient mental health treatment, the youth justice system) represent common pathways into homelessness for youth across North America. This article examines young people’s experiences navigating youth protection services to identify institutional, legislative, and policy processes that pose problems for youth experiencing or at risk of homelessness, as well as processes that show promise for the promotion of the interests, protection, and well-being of youth. Our participatory youth research team explored homeless youth’s histories of involvement with youth protection services, seeking to clarify the sociolegal mechanisms in and beyond the youth protection system that make young people vulnerable to homelessness. Youth and adult co-researchers interviewed 38 individual youth (aged 16–29) who completed 64 qualitative institutional history interviews. According to our analysis, young people identified the following sociolegal practices as implicated in their experiences of homelessness: the use of totalizing institutions, the criminalization of runaways, the abrupt cessation of service delivery at 18 years of age, a systemic failure to view youth as rights-holders, and an overly complex emancipation process.

The Engagement Challenge: Feasibility and Acceptability of Cognitive Remediation for Teenagers in the Care of Youth Protection Services

Background: History of childhood maltreatment is recognized as an important risk factor for the development of mental health and cognitive difficulties. Cognitive difficulties are associated with impairments in everyday functioning in different domains such as school or work. To date, no study has evaluated the feasibility and acceptability of cognitive remediation therapy (CRT) for teenagers with a history of childhood maltreatment. Objective: The objective was to assess the acceptability and feasibility of the CIRCuiTS program for teenagers in youth protection services and to explore the preliminary effect on clinical and neuropsychological outcomes. Methods: Ten participants were first assessed with clinical and neuropsychological measures. They then received a mean of 16 CRT sessions with the CIRCuiTS program adapted for teenagers. The same measures as a baseline were repeated directly after the end of treatment, as well as 3-months and 1-year post-treatment. Descriptive statistics were used to assess feasibility and acceptability, while the preliminary effect of CIRCuiTS was assessed with Reliable Change Indices (RCIs). Results: CIRCuiTS was considered acceptable by both participants and therapists for the attractiveness of the program, its easiness of use and understanding, and its cultural adaptability. However, the feasibility was limited, with only 50% of participants having completed CIRCuiTS. This was mostly explained by contextual factors. RCIs revealed significant improvements in several neuropsychological domains, as well as a decline in other domains. Conclusion: This pilot study highlights challenges that must be addressed to promote engagement with CRT for teenagers in the care of youth protection services.

Leaving care in Quebec: The EDJeP Longitudinal Study

Abstract
 This article reports results from the first longitudinal and representative study of a cohort of youth leaving care in Quebec (EDJeP study). Focusing on education and residential stability, we show that youths from youth protection services accumulate important vulnerabilities that make their transition out of youth protection services very challenging. In particular, compared to their peers in the general population, youth leaving care have significant educational delays that complicate their integration into the labor market. Our data suggest that a system that better encourages school perseverance and success would limit these academic delays and promote graduation. We also find that nearly half of the youths from the protection system experienced residential instability in the months following their release from placement and that 20% of them experienced at least one episode of homelessness. These last elements clearly show the extent of the vulnerability of youth leaving the protection system. We suggest some areas of reflection to improve this situation.

Foster family assessment: The assessor's perspective - A qualitative study

Children in foster care are more likely to exhibit emotional, behavioral, social, and developmental problems. Accordingly, foster families should provide them with a safe family environment that promotes their development. Therefore, to ensure that foster families adequately meet children's needs, it is crucial for youth protection services to properly assess prospective foster family applicants. However, the specific assessment methods are understudied. This study aims to capture the experiences of caseworkers and the challenges they face in assessing and selecting potential foster caregivers, as well as their needs for support to perform the assessments. Focus groups were held in child protection services agencies in the province of Québec (Canada). Three group interviews with a total of 15 caseworkers were transcribed and subjected to content analysis using NVivo 11. The caseworkers identified nine most important dimensions for assessing prospective foster families, notably motivation and engagement. Differences in the assessment process between caseworkers were observed, particularly for the type of foster family assessed. The caseworkers reported certain common needs for assessment training, primarily in interview techniques and the handling of multicultural issues. They also complained of lack of time allocated for clinical support during assessments. The results call for collaborative efforts between researchers and practitioners to provide appropriate training and tools to support the assessment process.

From Breath to Beadwork: Lessons Learned From a Trauma- Informed Yoga Series With Indigenous Adolescent Girls Under Youth Protection


 
 
 This paper explores the promising practice of an emerging culturally adapted, trauma-informed yoga program for Indigenous adolescent girls. I draw from my experiential learning during a series of 12 yoga sessions over 2018 and 2019 with eight Indigenous girls (ages 13–17) from rural and remote Inuit communities in Quebec, Canada. Participants had experienced varying degrees of child maltreatment and interaction with the child welfare system, and they were all under the care of youth protection services in a residential facility. The yoga and mindfulness intervention provided weekly 60-minute sessions in the residential unit. Yoga sessions integrated a blended model of cultural teachings, group dialogue, and trauma-informed yoga. The approach included circle sharing, cultural teachings, gentle progressions of physical postures, guided meditation, breathing techniques, centring practices, and beadwork. This promising practice explores trauma-informed yoga as a strengths-based community strategy for relational healing that promotes cultural connectedness, safety, and resilience among Indigenous adolescent girls removed from their rural and remote communities to a residential facility in an urban area. This paper outlines an introductory framework for health professionals, paraprofessionals, program administrators, and staff working with Indigenous children and youth in residential facilities. Specifically, this promising practice builds on existing findings of trauma-informed yoga with adolescents, as well as movement and centring approaches through an Indigenous lens of relational healing.
 
 

“The least loved, that’s what I was”: A qualitative analysis of the pathways to homelessness by LGBTQ+youth

Little information is available regarding how young lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) individuals enter homelessness. This qualitative study documents the variations in LGBTQ + youth’s pathways to homelessness via 16 interviews with youths aged 17–25 years. All LGBTQ + youths reported having lived in a family environment marked by neglect, which had led to the loss of self-confidence and trust in their families. These experiences of family neglect constitute the starting point of three different trajectories toward homelessness: (1) being evicted by families that perpetuate heterocisnormative victimization; (2) aging out of youth protection services without a safety net upon exiting; and (3) fleeing from bullying at school in search of freedom and support. Results show the importance of developing homelessness prevention strategies for LGBTQ + youth that consider the heterocisnormativity experienced in their different life environments.

Mentalization-Based Interventions in Child Psychiatry and Youth Protection Services I: Objectives, Setting, General Principles and Strategies

ABSTRACT Many of the children who receive services in child psychiatry or are in the care of Youth Protection Services present with complex, multiple and often severe problems. Classic psychodynamic psychotherapy seems to be of little benefit to them. The majority of these children tend to not use symbolic play as a means of expressing their intrapsychic conflicts or relational difficulties and they do not verbally communicate much with clinicians. They are more likely to display an imaginative poverty that translates into boredom, motor discharge, and an inability to use the material put at their disposal for therapeutic purposes. The systematic and rigorous observations of these children in Quebec revealed that the majority of them present with severe mentalizing difficulties. They often show attitudes and behaviors linked to the prementalizing modes of psychic functioning. This article presents a mentalization-based intervention adapted to these children’s difficulties. The objectives, adaptation of the work setting, and general principles underlying this intervention are discussed. In addition, general intervention strategies are also covered. These interventions are considered as preparatory work whose principal purpose is to enable children to benefit later on from psychodynamic psychotherapy. The authors also recommend specific intervention strategies adapted to children’s predominant mode of psychic functioning. The details of these strategies will be shared in a separate article.

Mentalization-based Interventions in Child Psychiatry and Youth Protection Services II: A Model Founded on the Child’s Prementalizing Mode of Psychic Functioning

ABSTRACT The systematic and rigorous observations of children in child psychiatry and Youth Protection Services in Quebec revealed that most of these children presented multiple, complex and often severe problems, and did not seem to benefit much from classic psychodynamic psychotherapy. Owing to a poorly developed mentalizing capacity, many of these children did not use symbolic play as a means of expressing their intrapsychic conflicts and relational difficulties and did not communicate much verbally with clinicians. It was noted also that these children’s inner world was dominated by prementalizing modes of thinking, namely, the teleological mode, the psychic equivalence mode, and the pretend mode. This article is the last in a series of three. The first concerns the clinical assessment of prementalizing modes of psychic functioning in children and their parents. The second lays out the general objectives, principles and interventions of a mentalization-based treatment for children. This third article presents specific intervention strategies adapted to children’s predominant mode of thinking. The objectives and techniques regarding each mode are discussed. Three clinical examples serve to illustrate the interventions. The authors suggest that these children must develop a certain degree of mentalizing capacity before they can benefit from classic psychodynamic psychotherapy.

Incidence of Maltreatment of Aboriginal Children Reported to Youth Protection in Quebec: Intercultural Comparisons

The purpose of the study is to examine reported cases of maltreatment in Aboriginal children and compare them with cases involving non-Aboriginal children based on a sample of such cases reported to Youth Protection services in Quebec. Results indicate that, in Quebec, cases involving Aboriginal children compared with cases for non-Aboriginal children are characterized by living situations such as subsidized housing, substance abuse in parents, an increased number of children in the family, the fact that a case reported was a ‘social emergency’and that a case was less reported by the mother. Intervention plans with Aboriginal families and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Clinical Assessment of Prementalizing Modes of Psychic Functioning in Children and Their Parents in the Context of Trauma

ABSTRACTAs psychoanalytic psychotherapy for children depends on their capacity to mentalize, it is essential to integrate this dimension in their psychological assessment. Mentalization refers to the capacity to identify and comprehend the mental states (feelings, thoughts and intentions) underlying and explaining one’s own behaviors and those of others. This vital ability, which develops during the first five or six years of life in the context of a secure parent-child attachment, is often impaired in children subjected to neglect and maltreatment. Based on rigorous and systematic clinical observations made in youth protection and child psychiatry services, the authors suggest that the children in these settings, along with their parents, frequently present a prementalizing mode of psychic functioning. Further, the authors propose operationalizing the teleological, psychic equivalence, and pretend modes as they might be observed in older children and their parents. To this end, they begin by identifying behaviors, attitudes, and relational patterns potentially linked to each of these modes within a theoretical framework. Next, they describe the characteristics of these children’s narratives, play, and artistic productions. Lastly, three clinical vignettes are used to illustrate how the prementalizing modes are manifested. The results of this clinical assessment can guide the choice of techniques to be used in child psychotherapy.

Adapting Personality-Targeted Interventions for Reducing Substance Misuse and Related Outcomes in Youth in Youth Protection Services

Adapting Personality-Targeted Interventions for Reducing Substance Misuse and Related Outcomes in Youth in Youth Protection Services

Représentations d’attachement et capacité de mentalisation d’enfants d’âge scolaire en contexte de protection de l’enfance : une étude préliminaire

IntroductionMost children under the Youth Protection Services have experienced early relational trauma in the relationships with their significant caregivers (e.g., neglect, physical and sexual abuse), which may compromise the quality of their attachment representations as well as the development of their mentalizing capacity. These elements would play a key role in the children's emotional and behavioral regulation and influence their subsequent interpersonal functioning. ObjectivesThis exploratory research aims to describe the attachment representations and mentalizing capacity of children living in foster care and to empirically study the relationship between these two variables. MethodEighteen children aged 6 to 11 participated in the Attachment Story Stems as well as in the Child Attachment Interview. The Attachment-Focused Coding System was used to explore the attachment representations of children. The Child and Adolescent Reflective Functioning Scale was used to assess their mentalizing capacity. ResultsThe average mentalizing capacity of all participants is considered absent. Significant links were found between mentalizing capacity and emotional dysregulation through the child's attachment stories, and between emotional openness, use of examples, and preoccupied anger towards the father in the child interview about attachment. ConclusionThe results describe the mentalizing capacity of children under the Youth Protection Services and explore the relationships between this variable and the different elements of the attachment representations. This study supports the importance of integrating interventions based on attachment and mentalization into the clinical work in order to facilitate the rehabilitation process of children under the Youth Protection Services.

Práticas colaborativas dos psicólogos escolares portugueses: Uma análise de tipologias e contextos

A colaboração entre psicólogos escolares e os vários serviços e profissionais da comunidade educativa é essencial para a prestação de serviços compreensivos, integrados e eficazes a alunos e famílias. Tendo por base a resposta de 477 profissionais a um inquérito eletrónico, este estudo investiga as práticas colaborativas intra e interinstitucionais dos psicólogos escolares portugueses. Os resultados encontrados sugerem que estes profissionais colaboram de forma regular, e com uma vasta gama de propósitos, com uma grande diversidade de entidades, serviços e equipas, internos e externos à escola. Entre as práticas colaborativas reportadas com mais frequência, destaca-se a colaboração dos psicólogos escolares com conselhos de turma, equipas de educação especial, comissões de proteção de crianças e jovens, e serviços de saúde. Os objetivos e a natureza das atividades desenvolvidas no contexto destas e de outras colaborações são explicitados, permitindo concretizar e colocar em evidência a natureza multifacetada do papel dos psicólogos escolares e os seus múltiplos contributos para as escolas. Implicações para a prática profissional, o desenvolvimento da profissão e futuras investigações são apresentadas.

Estimating the prevalence of borderline personality disorder in mothers involved in youth protection services.

Characteristics of borderline personality disorder (BPD) can undermine maternal capacity and in some cases lead to involvement with youth protection services (YPS). Yet, few studies exist on the prevalence of maternal BPD in this context and on the comparison of these families with families with other maternal psychiatric disorders or families with no mental illness within YPS. The current study surveyed 291 caseworkers working with mothers whose children and adolescents are followed by YPS. After reported prevalence was adjusted with validation procedures, the prevalence of maternal BPD in a sample of 1875 mothers was 34.3%. Comparison of three groups of families suggest that some risk factors, including substance abuse and severe conjugal conflicts, were more frequent in mothers with BPD than in mothers with other psychiatric illness or none. Furthermore, results revealed that 48.9% of mothers with BPD had a history of being followed by YPS in their childhood. Finally, children of mothers with BPD were placed at a younger age than the other children and were less often reported for conduct disorder. These results call for more attention to these highly vulnerable parents and children in both research and in adult and child mental health services. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Embedding the Notion of Child- and Family-Centered Care into Organizational Practice: Learning from Organizational Visioning

ABSTRACTChild- and family-centered care has permeated the practices of child welfare as a means to address fragmentation. Case management appears promising, but the approach is still in its infancy. This article aims to provides an understanding of the emergent organizational vision of a new approach to case management at multiple organizational levels. The authors conducted a case study on the implementation of Intensive Family Case Management in a Dutch organization that provides child and youth protection services. The focus is on the continuous and bottom-up process of visioning, which has helped to define the shared organizational vision. The key finding was an emerging, widely shared vision that is congruent at many organizational levels and that contrasts starkly with the old work approach. The conclusion is that innovative child- and family-centered approaches to case management are inherent to a multi-level organizational system that is consistent with the approaches it advocates, being embedded in organizational structures and embodied in practitioners’ mindsets.

Case management for child protection services: A multi-level evaluation study

This article presents an evaluation study of a case management method for child protection services, the Delta Method for Family Supervision, in terms of supervision order duration and occurrence and duration of out-of-home placements. Additionally, case and case manager characteristics were examined. Data was collected about 224 cases, 58 case managers and 30 team managers of all 15 offices of the Child and Youth Protection Services in the Netherlands. In all cases the Delta Method was applied. Data were obtained by interviews, questionnaires and case files. Multi-level analysis was performed to study the influence of independent variables on supervision order duration, and the occurrence and duration of out-of-home placements. Case characteristics related to 87% of the differences in the duration of supervision order, case manager characteristics to 13% of the differences. Some case manager characteristics about applying the Delta Method were significantly related to shorter duration of the supervision order and the occurrence and duration of out-of-home placement. Case characteristics also showed strong relations. Together with the more general aspects of case management supported by this study, such as a one family and one worker approach, this contributes to a more effective practice of case management for child protection services.

Breaking down violence detection: Combining divide-et-impera and coarse-to-fine strategies

In today׳s society where audio–visual content is ubiquitous, violence detection in movies and Web videos has become a decisive functionality, e.g., for providing automated youth protection services. In this paper, we concentrate on two important aspects of video content analysis: Time efficiency and modeling of concepts (in this case, violence modeling). Traditional approaches to violent scene detection build on audio or visual features to model violence as a single concept in the feature space. Such modeling does not always provide a faithful representation of violence in terms of audio–visual features, as violence is not necessarily located compactly in the feature space. Consequently, in this paper, we target to close this gap. To this end, we present a solution which uses audio–visual features (MFCC-based audio and advanced motion features) and propose to model violence by means of multiple (sub)concepts. To cope with the heavy computations induced by the use of motion features, we perform a coarse-to-fine analysis, starting with a coarse-level analysis with time efficient audio features and pursuing with a fine-level analysis with advanced features when necessary. The results demonstrate the potential of the proposed approach on the standardized datasets of the latest editions of the MediaEval Affect in Multimedia: Violent Scenes Detection (VSD) task of 2014 and 2015.

Twenty years of research and action for the well-being of children

The rates of child maltreatment and family violence are such that these problems are increasingly recognized worldwide as significant public health problems. In Canada, over the last 15 years, studies have allowed us to follow the development of indicators of child abuse and neglect. The most recent Canadian incidence study showed that 14 children in 1,000 were identified as victims following an evaluation of youth protection services in 2008; in Quebec the rate was 11 children per 1,000 during the same period. These rates do not include children considered ‘at risk’, nor victims of coercive parental conduct who are not brought to the attention of the authorities. In these cases, data from population-based surveys reveal rates 10 to 20 times higher, depending on the types of violence reported. Alarming in its scale, child maltreatment leads to many, welldocumented consequences, both physical and psychosocial. In spite of increased awareness, however, it remains difficult, even impossible, to determine its exact causes. Nowadays, theoretical models postulate that these various events have multiple, interrelated and cumulative causes. In this respect, ecological and transactional approaches suggest taking into consideration the mutual influence of a number of factors, including the characteristics of the child, the parents, the parent–child relationships, living conditions and the broader social environment. Recognition of the scope of the child maltreatment, its impacts and its etiological complexity has given rise, over the last several decades, to the adoption of a public health approach in order to grasp the problem as a whole. Public health has influenced a lot of research in the field of family violence, whether it be the definition and monitoring of the scope of the problem, the identification of its causes, the development and assessment of possible preventive actions or the implementation of preventive and curative interventions based on research results. Between 1992 and 2012, a team in Quebec made up of researchers, clinicians and stakeholders worked to implement such an approach by creating GRAVE (Groupe de recherche et d'action sur la victimisation des enfants), a research and action group on child victimization.

Sexual behavior problems in children in Quebec youth protection services: Associated factors

Summary The objective of this study is to explore the factors associated with sexual behavior problems (SBP) of children toward other. The sample is composed of 187 children aged six to 11, which sample was part of a more substantial study, which included a representative sample of children under the care of child protective services. Five factors appeared to be associated to SBP: the child's temperament (mood and persistence), the presence of violence in the family within the last 12 months, the psychological distress of parents, and a child sexual abuse. These results seem to support, in part, some theories which explain SBP's in children.

Un défi de taille pour les centres jeunesse. Intervenir auprès des parents ayant un trouble de personnalité limite

An exploratory survey of 68 youth protection services' workers in Montréal, who followed 1,030 children reveals that 39 % of these children have at least one parent who suffer from mental health problems. Among these parents, 48 % of mothers and 30 % of fathers have a personality disorder, and for the majority, a borderline personality disorder. This mental health problem is preoccupying for youth protection workers because of its high prevalence, its impact on children and case workers and the difficulties brought forth by having to intervene in a context of authority and within an organization not adapted to the management of this mental health problem. Some intervention's guidelines to work with these parents are presented as well as some challenges and future perspectives.