Opening the black box:Toward classifying care and treatment for children and adolescents with behavioral and emotional problems within and across care organizations

Objective: The Taxonomy of Care for Youth was developed to gather information about the care offered to children and adolescents with behavioral and emotional problems in various care settings. The aim was to determine similarities and differences in the content of care and thereby to classify the care offered to these children and youth within and across care organizations.Method: Interventions (N = 56) offered in primary health care, child and youth care, and mental health care were assessed by using descriptors. Professionals scored the degree of applicability of these descriptors and interventions with similar descriptors were merged.Results: As a result, the interventions could be classified into 7 main types of support and the total number of interventions reduced to 27.Conclusion: The descriptors used in this study were able to classify the various kinds of care offered based on their content, thereby creating an overview of distinct interventions.