The young person who is addressed in the famous Beatles' song Help! stands for a huge number of children and adolescents in need of support all over the world. In high-income countries approximately one in every four to five young people meets criteria for psychosocial problems (Verhage et al.,2014) and/or mental disorders with severe impairment across their lifetime (Merikangas et al.,2010). As a consequence, more than ever before there is a strong need for intervention programmes and services that, according to sound evidence, 'work'. This means that young clients and their parents are effectively supported in better coping with or finding enduring solutions for the problems and disorders referred to above.
Against this background nowadays in an increasing number of countries child welfare professionals experience pressures to work according to the principles of evidence-informed practice (EIP). Gambrill (2008) updated the original medical scheme (Haynes et al.,2002) to a model of EIP in the child and family welfare field wherein practitioners, working with clients, are supposed to be fed by three sources of information: (1) clients' characteristics and circumstances (including clinical state, risks and opportunities), (2) clients' preferences and actions (including motivation, cultural affiliations or barriers), and (3) research evidence on psychosocial interventions. The question I want to reflect upon is: Regarding the third source, what evidence or knowledge on services could be valuable for practitioners, and what can be done to facilitate the learning from and incorporating of that evidence in practice?
Given this question I would like to comment on experiences and findings in a partnership in the northeastern part of the Netherlands (600,000 inhabitants): the academic Collaborative Centre on Care for Children and Youth (C4Youth), aimed at children and adolescents with emotional and behavioural problems and their families. An academic collaboration centre is a (knowledge-centred) infrastructure in which research, practice, education and policy engage in long-term collaboration to enhance the quality of care and treatment of vulnerable groups in the (local) society. The primary goal of C4Youth is to promote the exchange of knowledge between the realms of research, practice, education and policy (Knorth et al.,2011). Its second goal is to gather evidence on both the functioning of the entire chain of care for children and adolescents and on long-term outcomes, realized by the implementation of a longitudinal prospective cohort study called TakeCare (Tracing Achievements, Key processes and Efforts in professional care for Children and Adolescents Research ─ Van Eijk et al.,2013; Verhage et al.,2014). The study covers the fields of preventive child healthcare (PCH), child and adolescent social care (CASC), and child and adolescent mental healthcare (CAMH). The aim of this major study is not only to gather knowledge about the care and treatment offered to children and families but also to explore and share the implications of the evidence with all the parties concerned. Results regarding macro-, meso- and micro-levels of outcomes and implementation will be discussed.
Selected References
Knorth, E.J., Reijneveld, S.A., Van Eijk, L., Noordik, F., & Tuinstra, J. (2011). Sticking closely to the social-emotional development of three thousand children inside and outside care. Kind en Adolescent Praktijk, 10(4), 192-194 (in Dutch).
Van Eijk, L., Verhage, V., Noordik, E., Reijneveld, M., & Knorth, E.J. (2013). TAKECARE Province Groningen! A study of characteristics of young people and their parents in relation to child and family services offered. Groningen: UMCG, Department of Health Sciences/University of Groningen, Department of Education Sciences (in Dutch).
Verhage, V., Noordik, F.W., Knorth, E.J., & Reijneveld, S.A. (2014). Cohort Profile: Tracing Achievements, Key processes and Efforts in professional care for Children and Adolescents REsearch; TAKECARE. International Journal of Epidemiology, 1-9, doi:10.1093/ije/dyu237.
