Exploring Child Welfare Placement Pathways to Residential Treatment Settings: A Three Paper Dissertation

Abstract

Residential treatment settings (RTS) provide access to services in a safe environment for child welfare involved youth with behavioral health challenges. Despite the potential benefits of RTS, there are concerns that have led to legislation aiming to reduce their use. Policy that aims to reduce the use of RTS should be informed by an understanding of how youth enter RTS. This three-paper dissertation aimed to increase our understanding of how youth placement histories are related RTS entry in the context of youth behavior and development using secondary analysis of state administrative child welfare data. This dissertation also aimed to understand how caregivers experience accessing mental health care for youth through interviews. The first paper explored aggregate patterns of placement transitions and individual factors associated with risk of RTS entry. Findings include that transitions are most likely to occur between similar types of placement settings and that developmental period at first entry to out-of-home care is associated with RTS entry. The second paper explored the presence of unobserved subgroups of child welfare involved youth based on placement histories and whether youth move through these groups over time. The second paper found two subgroups of placement histories, multiple placements in group settings and stability in family care settings. The second paper further found that child behavior and developmental period at first entry to care were associated with group membership and transitions. The third paper identified that caregivers gain empowerment in decision making when accessing mental health services, but that this empowerment declines when accessing acute inpatient services. The third paper further found that accessing RTS was a challenging journey that impacted caregiver well-being, and that the decision to place a child in RTS came following a safety inflection point. Implications include that youth who enter out-of-home care in pre- and early adolescence and their caregivers may require additional support to remain stable in family placement settings. Further implications include the need to improve caregiver access to knowledge about the mental health care system to improve empowerment when making decisions and more resources for acute mental health service settings.