New Hope for the Teenage Outcast: The Family Placement of Disturbed and Delinquent Adolescents
| Date | 01 January 1982 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0306624X8202600110 |
| Published date | 01 January 1982 |
| Author | K. Nancy Hazel |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
62
New
Hope
for
the
Teenage
Outcast:
The
Family
Placement
of
Disturbed
and
Delinquent
Adolescents
K.
Nancy
Hazel
ADOLESCENTS
with
severe
problems,
who
cannot
live
with
their
own
families,
have
traditionally
been
considered
as
unsuit-
able
for
fostering
on
the
dual
grounds
that
no
other
family
would
accept
them
and
that
their
difficult
behavior
is
not
amenable
to
treatment
by
lay
people.
The
Kent
Family
Placement
Project
dis-
proved
both
statements.
What
is
an
Expert?
This
is
not
the
place
to
question
medical
and
educational
exper-
tise,
which
may
be
based
on
knowledge
not
available
to
the
general
public,
but
the
expertise
required
to
&dquo;treat&dquo;
or
&dquo;cure&dquo;
disturbed
or
delinquent
adolescents
is
generally
a
matter
of
skill
in
human
relationships
coupled
with
a
good
knowledge
of
available
resources
-medical,
educational,
recreational,
employment,
etc.
It
is
the
belief in
the
competence
of
&dquo;experts&dquo;
which
deeply
divides
the
policies
of
the
N.W.
European
countries
where
the
placement
of
adolescents
is
concerned.
All
the
countries
agree
that
the
first
objective
of
social
policy
is
to
maintain
children
and
young
persons
in
their
own
homes,
but,
where
placement
becomes
unavoid-
able,
the
policies
diverge
widely.
For
example,
Belgium
still
believes
in
large
institutions
where
it
is
possible
to
assemble
a
team
of
experts
-
psychiatrists,
psychologists,
pediatricians,
specialist
residential
staff,
teachers,
speech
therapists,
remedial
gymnasts,
social
workers,
etc.,
who
will
pool
their
findings
at
case
conferences.
This
is
an
expensive
system
which
may
provide
a
description
of
the
child’s
background
and
behaviour
in
the
institution
but
which
has
produced
no
evidence
of
effectiveness
in
producing
positive
change.
Other
countries,
such
as
Sweden,
have
trusted
lay
people,
working
in
their
own
homes,
to
undertake
even
the
most
difficult
tasks
and
have
reduced
the
numbers
held
in
residential
establishments
to
a
small
&dquo;hard
core&dquo;
group.
Kalvesten
(1976)
provides
an
interesting
description
of
the
foster
care
of
disturbed
teenagers
in
that
country.
The
United
Kingdom
has
traditionally
developed
foster
care
for
younger
children
requiring
a
substitute
home,
but
failed
to
develop
a
spectrum
of
family
placements
where
clear
job
descriptions
to-
gether
with
appropriate
remuneration
and
support
would
enable
almost
any
kind
of
problem
to
be
tackled
in
a
family
setting.
Where
adolescents
are
concerned,
entry
to
care
tends
to
be
via
a
juvenile
court-which
reflects
our
reliance
on
coercion-where
the
first
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