Stakeholder experiences collaborating with My Place: a service supporting pregnant and young parents in the child welfare system in metropolitan Adelaide

Abstract

My Place is a therapeutic and health service for high-risk, vulnerable children and youth (12–25 years), connected with the child protection system, who are pregnant or parents whose infants are at risk of removal. Qualitative interpretive phenomenology guided the focus group interviews with staff, stakeholders and health consumers (n = 30). My Place was reported to be trauma-responsive, culturally-sensitive model of care and was viewed as responsible for the development of trust, empowerment, and self-determination among young people due to therapeutic interventions, case management, health information and support with service system navigation. Contributing to practice-based evidence, stakeholders considered the programme delivered kind, gentle, and healing care to young people and developed collegial, trusting, and collaborative relationships with workers across service systems. Stakeholders reported that My Place improved their own trauma-responsive practices. My Place is an early intervention for young, at-risk cohorts, providing a foundation for trauma-informed child welfare systems across metropolitan Adelaide.

Keywords

• Health services
• young people
• child protection
• trauma responsive
• risk
• early intervention