The Toughest Cases: How Interagency Collaboration and Trauma-Informed Policies within Child Welfare and Criminal Justice Systems Could Better Help Serve Crossover Youth in Alberta
| dc.contributor.advisor | Wells, Lana | |
| dc.contributor.author | Passi, Jenna | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2018-12-12T19:09:07Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2018-12-12T19:09:07Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2018-08-31 | |
| dc.description.abstract | This report looked at Albertan crossover youth using information from the AIS-2008 survey. By utilizing systems change and trauma-informed theories, this capstone provides recommendations as to how Children's Services and Justice and Solicitor General Ministries can collaborate to better serve crossover youth in Alberta by enhancing the Youth Criminal Justice Protocol (YCJP). Using complex trauma and systems change theoretical approaches together allows for the analysis and recommendations of this report to consider the broader context of a crossover youth that extends between individual, familial, and systemic factors. Results from an independent samples t-test, cross tabulations, and a logistic regression showed that individuals with crossover status had experienced more types of trauma or adverse experiences during a maltreatment investigation than their counterparts who had only had child welfare system involvement. An independent samples t-test showed a significant difference between those who had crossover involvement and those who only had Child and Family Services (CFS) involvement, with crossover cases experiencing higher levels of trauma or adversity. Cross tabulations added further support and showed that youth with crossover status had less representation within the group experiencing less trauma or adversity (1 or fewer events). Finally, a logistic regression showed that lower socioeconomic status was significant and youth with this characteristic were approximately 3 times as likely to experience 5 or more traumas or adversities. Interaction effects showed that females who had crossover status were 4 times as likely to be in the group with higher trauma or adverse experiences than females without crossover status. In contrast to this, males with crossover status were 8.1 % less likely to be in the group with higher trauma or adverse experiences than males who were in the CFS-only group. Finally, those between 12-15 years of age with crossover status were 3.2 times more likely to experience 5 or more traumas or adversities than their CFS-only involved counterparts. Older youth (16-17 years old) with crossover status were 47.7% less likely to be in the group experiencing higher numbers of trauma or adversity than those with only CFS involvement. The results of this study confirm the importance of socioeconomic status and intersecting qualities between demographics, sex and age, and crossover status regarding experiences of trauma or adversity. Recommendations were made for how the existing YCJP can better serve crossover youth using the Crossover Youth Practice Model (CYPM) as a comparative program. The recommendations to enhance the Alberta YCJP policy are as follows: 1. Integrate Gender Based Analysis Plus (GBA+) and trauma-informed trainings for workers involved with crossover youth to build their capacity and understanding of crossover youth and their complex needs. 2. Ensure that workers within both Ministries have an easy and efficient way to quickly identify crossover youth as they enter the system. 3. Design clear reference points that treatment plans, assessment measures/tools, and outcomes can be compared to in order to gauge if an intervention plan is effective. 4. Prioritize collaborative effmts through the creation of specialized units trained to address family, environmental needs (such as socioeconomic status), and adverse experiences within the home environment when planning treatment for crossover youth. 5. Educate existing leadership within the two Ministries so they prioritize crossover youth and provide a larger thrust behind the YCJP's intention to serve crossover youth in a targeted and collaborative way. 6. Amend current legislation, the YCJA and CYFEA, to ensure they reflect the current science on trauma and specifically identify crossover youth as a population needing better support from both Ministries. Together, these recommendations address top-down and bottom-up considerations in order to give effective, lasting change a real chance by building the capacity within both Ministries to understand the distinct nature of crossover youth and the relevance of their intersecting qualities on their needs and experiences. These are areas where the services under the current YCJP can be enhanced and/or assessed in relation to the current levels of collaboration on cases involving crossover youth. | |
| dc.identifier.citation | Passi, J. (2018). The Toughest Cases: How Interagency Collaboration and Trauma-Informed Policies within Child Welfare and Criminal Justice Systems Could Better Help Serve Crossover Youth in Alberta (Unpublished master's project). University of Calgary, Calgary, AB. | |
| dc.identifier.doi | http://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/34940 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/1880/109318 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | |
| dc.publisher.department | School of Public Policy | |
| dc.publisher.faculty | Faculty of Graduate Studies | |
| dc.publisher.institution | University of Calgary | |
| dc.title | The Toughest Cases: How Interagency Collaboration and Trauma-Informed Policies within Child Welfare and Criminal Justice Systems Could Better Help Serve Crossover Youth in Alberta | |
| dc.type | master thesis |
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