Ouders betrekken in de residentiëele jeugdzorg:een onderzoek naar inhoud en uitkomsten van contextgerichte hulpverlening

During the past two to three decades, it is becoming more and more accepted that families can and should play a critical role for their son or daughter who is temporarily living in a residential treatment center. This is a paradigma shift from an individual, child-focused approach towards a contextual, family-focused approach in residential care. A number of factors have contributed to this shift. There are, for example, substantive arguments to make residential youth care more family-focused. These arguments are based on theoretical models, such as the ecological model, the transactional model, the multiple risk model, and system theory, that emphasize that the family is the major resource for the child. At the same time, research has shown that working with the child and their family improves the effectiveness of residential care. This study highlights the evaluation of a new approach, 'Jeugdzorg in Context (JIC) [Youth Care in Context], in the residential facilities of the Dutch youth care institution STEK. This study has been conducted because an imbalance was experienced between and individual, child-focused approach and a contextual, family-focused approach: there was a relatively strong emphasis on the counseling/treatment of the youth, while there was relatively little attention for the youth's social system (primarily parents and family). This one-sided focus on the child seem to lead to a long-term treatment in residential care. A solution for these problems was sought in the direction of getting the (family) system more involved in youth care. The present study examines what a more family-focused approach within STEK entails and to which results this leads in daily practice