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Adolescents with intellectual disability in residential child care are a highly vulnerable population. The main goal of this study is to explore the characteristics of young people with intellectual disability in therapeutic residential care (TRC) in Spain and to identify the key variables associated with their referral to these services. The total sample consisted of 473 young people in residential child care in Spain (63.8% boys), aged between 12 and 17 years (M = 15.32), divided into three different groups for comparison. An ad hoc questionnaire and the Youth Self-Report were used to collect information. Participants with intellectual disability in TRC presented a higher frequency of externalising problems and risk behaviours than adolescents with disability in general residential programmes. However, it was lower than that of their peers without disability in TRC. Needs of adolescents with intellectual disability should be assessed before a referral to these facilities, in order to adapt the interventions provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children and young people in residential care have often lived lives saturated with loss, neglect, rejection, and traumatic experiences. Children express the pain of trauma in various ways, namely pain-based behaviors manifesting in ways that often leave their care givers confused, frustrated, frightened, angry or exhausted. For residential caregivers to respond to children and young people in a consistent and therapeutic manner, residential environments must provide an ethos of respect, caring, and trust, creating a safe place for children and staff to live and learn together. This paper describes the Children and Residential Experiences (CARE) model, its implementation, and evidence for its effectiveness. CARE is a trauma-informed, principle-based, multi-component program designed to enhance the social dynamics in group care settings and help agencies create a living environment that provides developmentally enriching experiences for children in their care. By incorporating the CARE principles throughout all levels of the organization and into daily practice, the CARE program model has been shown to improve the capacity of staff to establish positive developmental relationships with the children in their care, offer developmentally enriching experiences and a “sense of normality”, and create cohesion and congruence throughout the organization. Through consistent and predictable compassionate and responsive interactions with adults, as well as opportunities to overcome challenges and to experience successful learning opportunities, children can grow, develop and thrive.

Background: Residential child care is a very complex measure and has been the subject of heated debate in many countries. However, there is a paucity of studies that examine quality assessments of these services, much less that have asked the children and young people receiving those services about their own evaluations. Method: This study interviewed 209 young people between 11 and 20 years of age, in 21 residential facilities, about their degree of satisfaction with the care they receive. These residential facilities are differentiated into three types of programs that will be compared: preparation for adult life (PAL), therapeutic care for behavioral problems (TRC) and general programs for children and young people without any specific profile (GRC). The instrument used is an interview that includes both quantitative and qualitative assessments. Results: The results show a trend toward positive average scores on practically all aspects, highlighting the support from as well as the connection they feel with the educators who care for them. On the other hand, young people in TRC displayed lower scores on almost all aspects evaluated while those in PAL were the most positive. Conclusions: The main implications for the practice will be discussed from these youths' perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children and young people in residential care have often lived lives saturated with loss, neglect, rejection, and traumatic experiences. Children express the pain of trauma in various ways, namely pain-based behaviors manifesting in ways that often leave their care givers confused, frustrated, frightened, angry or exhausted. For residential caregivers to respond to children and young people in a consistent and therapeutic manner, residential environments must provide an ethos of respect, caring, and trust, creating a safe place for children and staff to live and learn together. This paper describes the Children and Residential Experiences (CARE) model, its implementation, and evidence for its effectiveness. CARE is a trauma-informed, principle-based, multi-component program designed to enhance the social dynamics in group care settings and help agencies create a living environment that provides developmentally enriching experiences for children in their care. By incorporating the CARE principles throughout all levels of the organization and into daily practice, the CARE program model has been shown to improve the capacity of staff to establish positive developmental relationships with the children in their care, offer developmentally enriching experiences and a "sense of normality", and create cohesion and congruence throughout the organization. Through consistent and predictable compassionate and responsive interactions with adults, as well as opportunities to overcome challenges and to experience successful learning opportunities, children can grow, develop and thrive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many developed countries around the world residential care interventions for children and adolescents have come under increasing scrutiny. Against this background an international summit was organised in England (spring 2016) with experts from 13 countries to reflect on therapeutic residential care (TRC). The following working definition of TRC was leading: “Therapeutic residential care involves the planful use of a purposefully constructed, multi-dimensional living environment designed to enhance or provide treatment, education, socialization, support, and protection to children and youth with identified mental health or behavioral needs in partnership with their families and in collaboration with a full spectrum of community based formal and informal helping resources”. The meeting was characterised by exchange of information and evidence, and by preparing an international research agenda. In addition, the outlines of a consensus statement on TRC were discussed. This statement, originally published in English and now reproduced in a Spanish translation, comprises interalia five basic principles of care that according to the Work Group on Therapeutic Residental Care should be guiding for residential youth care provided at any time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article will address a brief history of the nature and definition of translational research and introduce several relevant debates within the field of translational research, specifically the relationship between practice-based knowledge and research in therapeutic residential child care. We offer a model of translational research developed by Hamilton (2014), particularly for work related to youth development that has the potential to bring the child care practitioner to the centre of the process to improve the outcomes of high-needs children. Finally, we provide some lessons learned from the implementation and evaluation of two major programmes designed to improve the quality of therapeutic residential care.