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Authors: Diana Kajic (Jönköping University), Therése Skoog (University Of Gothenburg), Tina M Olsson (Jönköping University)
Background: Social workers face unique challenges in meeting the developmental needs of young people in out-of-home care (OHC). Supporting transition from OHC to independent adulthood includes dealing with adverse experiences of the past, placement insecurities, and developmental challenges in the present, as well as developmental needs of the future, such as autonomy and skill development. Youth in OHC are often reliant on professionals for transitional support. How social workers perceive the adolescents they meet as well as their own role in this endeavour has consequences for the ultimate success of the support provided to adolescents.
My Choice-My Way! is a newly developed intervention based on youth centred principles that provides social workers with tools for supporting autonomy, competence building, and relatedness with youth in transitional care.
This study explores how the implementation of a youth centred intervention is influenced by social workers´ beliefs about youth in OHC.
Methods: Ten semi-structured interviews with social workers implementing My Choice-My Way!, a youth centred programme for transitional support for OHC-youth, were analysed for narratives about their beliefs about youths´ needs and abilities, and how those beliefs influenced implementation of the programme.
Results: results show three different patterns of how professionals describe youth in OHC; youth as learners, youth as partners, and youth as victims, and that these different descriptions are connected to beliefs about youths´ needs, and ultimately influence if, and how, the youth centred programme is delivered.
Discussion: the role of the deliverers’ beliefs in the implementation process, and implications for training of deliverers are discussed.
| Conflict of interest | There are no conflicts of interest to declare |
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