In this seminal resource, Dr. Kiaras Gharabaghi identifies an underlying absence of unifying theory and practice in Canada's child and youth residential care and treatment services. By drawing on organizational examples from across Canada, Gharabaghi exposes how the historical dynamics of mediocrity and complacency have led to inadequate standards and practices within the system. More assuredly, this resource exposes readers to alternative ways of re-imagining a system that is designed from a space of care, healing, and growth that promotes autonomy for all young people.
This well-timed resource offers the child and youth services community a positive, constructive, and revolutionary framework for residential care and treatment that is fundamentally based on a partnership between caregivers and young people, their families, neighbourhoods, and communities. Dr. Gharabaghi’s sophisticated and provocative analysis of the system’s key issues is an essential resource for students, practitioners, and educators in the field of child and youth care and in the human services more broadly.
FEATURES
allows instructor flexibility with chapters that can be taught in any
preferred order
connects to concepts that are covered across child and youth care
program courses, strengthening student comprehension
“Dial Tone” by Cory MacKinlay
Introduction: The Problem of Translation
Chapter 1: The Voices of Young People
Chapter 2: Theoretical Foundations of Residential Care and Treatment in Canada
Chapter 3: Practice-Based Evidence for Excellence
Chapter 4: Institutional and Everyday Cultures
Chapter 5: Aesthetic and Sensory Contexts
Chapter 6: Beyond the Plan of Care
Chapter 7: The Lived Experience of Staff
Chapter 8: Networked Practices
Chapter 9: Residential Care and Treatment in the Context of Systems
Chapter 10: Re-Designing the Professional Landscapes for Residential Care and Treatment in Canada
Conclusion: The Case for a Democratic System of Care
References
Index
Biography
Kiaras Gharabaghi is a Professor in the School of Child and Youth Care and Dean of the Faculty of Community Services at Ryerson University, specializing in child and youth care ethics, organizational change, residential care and treatment, and international practice. He has over 20 years of front-line experience in the child mental health, child welfare, and youth homelessness sectors.
“This book comes from a place of genuine passion, sound academic knowledge, lived professional experience, and valid scholarship intended to ignite thinking differently and critically about actually translating the voices of young people into real action—a necessary transformation that is long overdue in residential care.”
—Deborah Megens, MSW, CYC-P, Child and Youth Care, Sheridan College
“Kiaras Gharabaghi offers a powerful call to arms for us to re-examine residential child and youth care practice with a focus on the quality and effectiveness of our efforts on the lived experiences of the youth we serve.”
—Jack Phelan, MS, Child and Youth Care, MacEwan University
