Authors: Carolien van Dijk, Rachael Bride, Kate Lessing, Philippa Hemus, Michael Tidhar, Rebecca Egan
Year: 2017
Event: 2017 TheMHS Conference
Subject: Research & Evaluation Informing Practice,Trauma-informed care,Lived Experience, Recovery
Type of resource: Conference Presentations and Papers
Abstract: Youth residential recovery services are the only long-term, intensive, daily support available to young people outside of hospital settings. To date, almost no research has been conducted to determine the degree to which these services meet the needs of young people. Neami residential recovery services are designed to create a nurturing, recovery-oriented and therapeutic environment.
To fill this gap in the literature, Neami National have partnered with Orygen, The National Centre of Excellence in Youth Mental Health to identify what matters most to youth in their residential-based recovery support. The project is using participatory research action methods to ensure findings are promptly integrated back into service delivery for the direct benefit of the young people.
Positioning the voice of young people as central in the development, delivery and evaluation of services is fundamental to best practice and aligns with contemporary policy informed by recovery oriented and trauma informed paradigms. The project utilises an innovative co-design approach and is led by a steering group, with youth representatives contributing equally to overseeing the evaluation process.
This presentation will detail the design and process of the evaluation along with preliminary findings from the qualitative interviews conducted with residents of the recovery-focused residential units.
Learning Objectives
Learning Objective 1: Conference participants will understand our co-design approach and what we learned; the unexpected, the rewards and ideas for improvement. They will also learn what the young people participating told us about what matters in residential recovery services.
Learning Objective 2: Positioning the youth voice as central to service design, delivery and evaluation is critical to maximising control and empowering individuals who access services, and ensuring practice and research is aligned with contemporary policy.
References
Crane, P. & O'Regan, M. (2010). On PAR : Using Participatory Action Research to Improve Early Intervention. Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Australian Government, Canberra.
Victorian Council of Social Service (2015). Walk alongside: Co-designing social initiatives with people experiencing vulnerabilities. Retrieved from http://vcoss.org.au/document/walk-alongside-co-designing-social-initiatives-with-people-experiencing-vulnerabilities/
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