Outcome-Network.org

Paper

Family social work in the residential setting of the Otto Gerhard Heldring Stichting: is it relevant?

• issue: Issue 3 / 2008
• authors: Jelle Drost, Jana Knot-Dickscheit
• keywords: The Netherlands, evaluation study

• views: 3391
• downloaded: 0
• download pdf (70 Kb)

abstract

Background. This paper presents the research findings of a study (process and outcome evaluation) of the effectiveness of family social work within the Otto Gerhard Heldring Stichting, a young offenders' institution which accommodates young people with serious developmental and behavioural problems. The question is whether support in the form of family-centred social work enhances the development and reintegration of these young people.

Purpose. The Otto Gerhard Heldring Stichting is a private young offenders' institution with 125 treatment places for young people aged 12-23 with serious developmental or behavioural problems in combination with psychiatric problems. The Heldring Stichting falls under the responsibility of and is funded by the Ministry of Justice.

The young offenders, who have been sent to the institution as a result of civil or criminal proceedings, are placed in assisted living groups or in individual units. In conjunction with the young person and his or her family (or social context) the treatment coordinator draws up an individual treatment plan for each young person. The treatment method used at the Heldring Stichting is based on the social competence model and system theory, supplemented by individual treatment variants. One of the individual treatment variants is family social work. On the basis of a system-oriented approach, the Heldring Stichting offers the young offenders and their parents a family social work treatment programme to enhance reintegration into society. The family social work is carried out by well trained and experienced family social workers. The study focused on answering the following questions:

• What are the criteria for the indication of family social work?
• How is the family social work treatment module given shape?
• Is the intended target group reached, is the family social work treatment programme carried out as intended, and to what extent has the programme been implemented?
• What are the effects of the family social work treatment programme on the way the family functions?

To answer question 1, all treatment coordinators (N=8) were given questionnaires. In addition, extensive standardized analyses of the young offenders' files (both with and without indications for family social work) were conducted. To answer the second and third questions all family social workers (N=3) were interviewed (individually and in a group setting) about the organizational and substantive aspects of the family social work programme. A literature study was also carried out.

File analysis was used to answer the fourth research question. Because of the limited time available for the study the analyses focused on only two effectiveness indicators: problem reduction and goal realization. Because the indications for family social work predated the study, a quasi-experimental design was used. The research units were divided into an experimental group (young people in the assisted living group with an indication for family social work) and a control group (young people in the assisted living group without any supplementary indications). The study focused on showing a significant difference between the experimental group and the control group with respect to the indicator problem reduction. It also examined whether there was a difference between the two groups with respect to the number of goals attained (goal realization).

The Vragenlijst Taken en Vaardigheden van Adolescenten (TVA) (Questionnaire on adolescents' tasks and skills) (Beenker, Bijl & Van der Knaap, 2004) was used to evaluate the treatment. With the help of this questionnaire scores for behavioural skills in six different areas were mapped out. The underlying theory of this questionnaire is that if adolescents' behavioural skills improve, their problem behaviour will be reduced (ibid., 2004). The research group was formed by selecting the files of young people for whom TVA questionnaires had been completed both when they entered the institution (T1) and when they left it (T2).

Key findings

1. The results show that as far as the assignment of an indication for family social work is concerned there is little consistency, both in regard to the individual traits of the young person in question and his or her parents and family and to the assessment of the recorded and observable data concerning the young person and his or her family. The views of the treatment coordinators involved in the decision-making process vary widely and show little consensus. Most of the treatment coordinators regard impaired family relationships as the most typical problem of the young offenders. They are all convinced that the young offender's problems are caused by a combination of the young person's own characteristics and those of his or her parent and family. This may go some way towards explaining the lack of consensus among the treatment coordinators as far as individual traits are concerned. Ultimately ten criteria could be distinguished with regard to the assignment of an indication for family social work:

• the relationship and contact between the young person and his or her parent or parents (and other family members);
• impaired family interactions: parentification, symbiotic relationship or perverse triad;
• the young person has experienced a traumatic incident;
• the young offenders given an indication for family social work exhibit less extreme withdrawn and depressive behaviour;
• problematic relationship between the parents; problematic parenting styles: neglect and over-protection;
• the parent or parents are able to indicate that they themselves are part of the problem, or the parent or parents have some insight and take responsibility;
• the parent or parents have personal and externalizing problems;
• a problematic parenting situation, manifestations of parental neglect: sexual abuse, physical and psychological abuse;
• structural problems in the family, such as divorce (Kamping & Pol, 2005).

2. The data were processed by means of qualitative analysis and on this basis three individual methods were developed which were combined to create one joint method description. The interviews reveal that the three family social workers have many of the same ideas and working methods as regards duration, interviews and visits, and reports. Their working methods have many similarities with the system theory and in particular the multi-system theory. The parenting training given by the family social workers has many similarities with functional family therapy (Koerts & Van der Koppel, 2005).

3. File analysis of the experimental group (N=15) showed that as regards the treatment goals of the family social work programme:

• not one of the goals in the treatment plans was formulated specifically;
• 22 of the 24 goals in the treatment plans were formulated in a measurable way;
• 62.5% of the goals were not formulated in a time-bound way (fifteen of the twenty-four goals).

A statistically significant relationship was found between the object of the goals formulated and the treatment given to a young offender. Within the experimental group (N=15) more goals were focused on the 'family'. In the control group (N=27) most of the goals formulated were related to the objects 'child' and 'environment' (Groot & Werners, 2007).

4. No significant difference in skilled behaviour with respect to the six domains of the TVA was found in the experimental group (N=12) or the control group (N=16) between the beginning and the end of treatment. According to the theory behind the TVA this would mean that no problem reduction had taken place as a result of the treatment. The study of goal realization failed to produce any helpful data. Many of the young offenders' files were not suitable for further analysis, for example because essential information (such as the final report) was missing or because the treatment had not yet been completed. Moreover, although most of the goals were formulated in a measurable way, at the Heldring Stichting there are no criteria by which to determine whether the goal has in fact been attained (Groot & Werners, 2007).

Key references

Beenker, L. G. M., Bijl, B., & Knaap, L. M. van der (2004). Handleiding Vragenlijst Taken en Vaardigheden van Adolescenten. Duivendrecht: PI Research.

Groot, T. de, & Werners, V. (2007). Gezinsmaatschappelijk werk op de Otto Gerhard Heldringstichting. Evaluatieonderzoek naar het effect van gezinsmaatschappelijk werk. Unpublished Master's thesis, University of Groningen, Department of Special Education and Child Care, Groningen.

Kamping, E., & Pol, A. (2005). Gezinsmaatschappelijk werk op de Heldringstichting. Onderzoek naar de criteria betreffende de indicatie gezinsmaatschappelijk werk. Unpublished Master's thesis, University of Groningen, Department of Special Education and Child Care, Groningen.

Koerts, H., & Koppel, D. van der (2005). Wat doen we nou eigenlijk? Wat vindt men ervan? Een methodebeschrijving en de ontwikkeling van een tevredenheids-vragenlijst. Unpublished Master's thesis, University of Groningen, Department of Special Education and Child Care, Groningen.

Contacts: Jelle Drost, University of Groningen, Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences, Department of Special Education and Youth Care, Grote Rozenstraat 38, 9712 TJ Groningen, The Netherlands, E-mail: j.y.drost@rug.nl, Phone +31 (0)50 363 6493.