Background
The Youth Protection Authority (hereinafter, Authority) is a service in the Shalem Administration (lit. “whole”; also acronym of “rehabilitation, support, and prevention”) of the Ministry of Welfare and Social Affairs. The Authority oversees correctional out-of-home care as a strategy of intervention with adolescents at high risk of harm, danger, or delinquency. The Authority serves adolescents from age 12 to ages 18-19 (and at times even past age 19), who are at the extreme end of the risk continuum and for whom all previous interventions have failed. In 2019, 1,478 minors and young adults were treated in the Authority’s facilities. In addition, every year, approximately 1,200 adolescents, who have left home and are living in the streets in situations of risk and distress, are treated in shelters. These shelters are also included in the process described in this report.
Objectives
The Division of Research, Planning and Training at the Ministry of Welfare and Social Affairs and the Authority contacted the Outcomes Team at the Myers-JDC-Brookdale Institute, to develop a computerized system for the Authority in order to design the intervention plan and to measure its outcomes on an ongoing basis, based on the principles of the outcome-oriented thinking. This report addresses the first stage of the process, including: mapping the characteristics, needs, and strengths of the individuals in the Authority’s facilities, and assessing the suitability of the questionnaire developed for ongoing use.
Method
An interdisciplinary and multilevel team developed an assessment questionnaire to be completed by the Authority’s social workers. The questionnaire was mainly quantitative and included closed questions, as well as some open-ended questions for explanation and elaboration. The questionnaire included: the adolescents’ characteristics, previous interventions, the adolescents’ needs according to seven life areas, and their strengths.
A pilot of the questionnaire was conducted from January to March 2022. It was administered to all social workers in the Authority’s residential care facilities (105 social workers in 55 facilities). The questionnaire was completed by 71 social workers in 25 facilities for a total of 171 adolescents (a 54.9% response rate).
Findings
Most of the adolescents in the Authority’s facilities are secular Jews aged 16-18. Most of them have experienced familial abuse and neglect. About a third have complex post-traumatic stress disorder, and a similar rate have been diagnosed with ADHD or learning disabilities.
The needs (difficulties and concerns) of the adolescents were evaluated according to seven life areas, with the most frequently reported needs being in the emotional area. In addition, in the family area and in the area of experiencing harm outside of the family, high rates of abuse and neglect were found, although there was a high level of uncertainty on the part of the social workers regarding the full extent of abuse.
The social workers identified high rates of strengths among all adolescents, with no adolescents for whom no strengths were identified or identified only to a small degree.
Recommendations
- Working with the adolescents in the residential care facilities
- Services must be adapted to the needs of adolescents diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, ADHD and learning disabilities, as well as those who have left the ultra-Orthodox community or are children of immigrants.
- The intervention strategies must include trauma-informed care and the family’s participation in the therapeutic process.
- Implementing and using the computerized system
- The process of assimilating outcome-oriented language must be accompanied by assimilating the professional approach underpinning the system, and by instilling the relevant language, definitions, and terminology as bases for accommodating the computerized system in the spirit of these values.
- There should be an emphasis on a patient and respectful process, since it is natural that the staff in the field have difficulty changing their habits and work practices.
- Before the system is put into practice, we recommend comprehensive training and guidance focused on both technical and substantive issues.
Citing Suggestion:
Shapira, H., Bachar, H., & Arazi, T. (2023). Youth Protection Authority Residential Care Facilities: Summary of T-0 Measurement. RR-948-23. Myers-JDC-Brookdale Institute. (Hebrew)