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There are currently five specialist family homes throughout New Zealand which have been developed under a new initiative aimed at high risk youth. High risk youth are young people who have been identified as being at high risk of offending, reoffending and/or of being abused.
A young person must be in the custody of the Chief Executive of Child, Youth and Family before they can be given a place in a specialist family home. Placements can range from six to 18 months and the referrals are made by the young person’s social worker.
Introduced as part of our Youth Services Strategy, specialist family homes have enabled a number of high-risk young people to access the services that they need to help them to make positive life changes.
Although still a relatively new programme, some young people have made huge advances in how they relate and respond to others and in their general wellbeing. All of these changes dramatically improve their chances of a better future.
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One-to-one specialist caregivers
As well as the specialist family homes, Child, Youth and Family also contracts with one-to-one specialist caregivers for high risk youth as identified above. These caregivers work with young people requiring an intensive level of care, and for whom living in a group situation is inappropriate. The young people live in the specialist caregiver’s own home while strategies aimed at improving their well-being are put in place. This ‘wraparound programme’ accesses services such as counselling, mentors and family/whanau therapy.
The specialist caregivers receive in-depth training and are identified as having the necessary skills to help the young people improve their behaviour and overall well-being. In every other respect, the conditions and parameters of this programme are the same as outlined above for the young people in specialist family homes.
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