The implementation of life space crisis intervention in residential care and special education for children and adolescents with EBD: an effect study

Behavioral and Emotional Difficulties and Personal Wellbeing of Adolescents in Residential Care

This work studies the emotional and behavioural difficulties and the personal wellbeing of adolescents under protective measures. The sample is made up of 151 adolescents in residential care between 11 and 17 years of age. The instruments used were the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) and the Personal Wellbeing Index (PWI). The results indicate that a high percentage of adolescents have emotional and behavioural difficulties. We found a greater presence of behavioural rather than emotional problems in the adolescents. Similarly, we also found that females showed more emotional difficulties than the males. As for personal wellbeing, the results indicate that the adolescents are dissatisfied in several areas of their life, they feel insecure and have a pessimistic view of their future and of their achievements. Furthermore, those adolescents who were admitted to residential care due to something other than child abuse have a greater prosocial behaviour. It can be concluded that the more difficulties the adolescents experience (emotional, behavioural and with their peers), the lower the perception of their personal wellbeing will be. This study allows us to design interventions aimed at promoting psychological wellbeing among these adolescents.

The Effects of TIME-IN on Emotion Regulation, Externalizing, and Internalizing Problems in Promoting School Readiness

Children's readiness for school is often threatened by the occurrence of both externalizing and internalizing problems. Previous research has shown that Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is particularly effective for fostering children's behavioral skills and reducing externalizing problems. However, whether PBIS can enhance children's emotional skills and reduce internalizing problems is less clear. Therefore, TIME-IN was developed, which extends PBIS by also including emotional support systems. It was tested whether TIME-IN was effective for (a) improving emotion regulation and (b) reducing depressive symptoms. Furthermore, it was tentatively explored whether TIME-IN is accompanied by more than natural fluctuations in both children's externalizing and internalizing problems. The effectiveness of TIME-IN was evaluated in a non-randomized study, in which an intervention group was compared with a matched control group. Both research questions were addressed in a sample consisting of 81 children between 8 and 12 years of age with special educational needs. Questionnaires for teachers (i.e., TRF), children (i.e., FEEL-KJ and CDI), and their parents (i.e., CBCL) were administered at the beginning (T0) and the end of the school year (T1) using multi-informant assessment. Only indicative evidence was found for the hypothesis that TIME-IN improved children's emotion regulation. Practical implications, strengths, and limitations were discussed. Clinical Trial Registration: This work was retrospectively registered at International Standard Registered Clinical/soCial sTudy Number (ISRCTN) registry ISRCTN54456609 (Weymeis, 2017). Registered 28 March 2017.

Impact of a School-Based, Multi-Tiered Emotional and Behavioral Health Crisis Intervention on School Safety and Discipline

Schools across the United States are struggling with how to formulate comprehensive and effective programs to address the mental health needs of students and to promote school safety. This study, funded as part of the National Institute of Justice Comprehensive School Safety Initiative, employed a randomized controlled study design to evaluate the impact of a multi-component package of crisis prevention and response interventions on school safety and discipline outcomes, including suspensions, office discipline referrals, bullying reports, juvenile justice referrals, threat assessments, and follow-up procedures. Forty schools participated, all in a culturally diverse Mid-Atlantic, US school system spanning urban, suburban, and rural areas. The Emotional and Behavioral Health-Crisis Response and Prevention (EBH-CRP) intervention is a comprehensive training, organizational, and support protocol for school and community stakeholders aimed at increasing competence in preventing and responding to student EBH crises using multiple evidence-informed strategies that address emotional and behavioral health concerns across the continuum of supports. Results indicate that the EBH-CRP intervention had a significant positive effect on suspensions, office discipline referrals, and juvenile justice referrals for secondary schools. In addition, the intervention had positive effects on the number of bullying reports overall, with a particularly strong impact on primary schools. The intervention also had positive effects in maintaining more use of threat assessment and follow-up procedures. Although the intervention had a significant positive effect on secondary school-level suspensions, there was no impact on racial/ethnic disproportionality rates for this outcome. Implications for school safety prevention are discussed.

Eric Broekaert (1951-2016): the life and legacy of a TC pioneer and integrative thinker

Purpose

Eric Broekaert passed away shortly after the XVIth European Working group on Drug-Oriented Research (EWODOR)-conference in Rome on 28 September 2016. He was one of the great TC pioneers in Europe, who founded the first TC for addictions in Belgium (De Kiem) and co-founded the European Federation of Therapeutic Communities and EWODOR. He was a respected Professor of “Orthopedagogics” at Ghent University and a Member of the Editorial Collective ofTherapeutic Communities: the International Journal of Therapeutic Communities. The paper aims to discuss the overview of the career of Eric Broekaert.

Design/methodology/approach

In this obituary, the authors provide an overview of his career, major achievements and theoretical, methodological and integrative ideas, clustered around four typologies: university professor and scholar; manager and source of inspiration; TC pioneer and believer, and integrative thinker.

Findings

Besides his obvious merits as a TC researcher and advocate, one of his major theoretical contributions has been the introduction of the holistic, integrative approach and the idea that diverse types of interventions, as well as methodological approaches can alternatively go together.

Originality/value

He regarded TCs as the ultimate integration of various educational and therapeutic approaches to promote growth and quality of life among severely disadvantaged populations, such as drug addicts and children and adults with emotional and behavioural disorders.