Staff and youth views on autonomy and emancipation from residential care: a participatory research study

• Autor(a) principal: Calheiros, M. M.
• Data de Publicação: 2013
• Outros Autores: Patrício, J. N., Graça, J.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10071/7255
• topic: Participatory Research Approach; Services Design; Residential Care; Transition to Independent Living

The use of participatory approaches in designing services is still relatively uncommon. In this study, we helped design a service to support the transition of youth from residential care to independent living by exploring the perspectives of staff and of youth regarding: a) the concept and development of autonomy; and b) key factors in developing this type of service. We gathered the data through 10 interviews with staff (n = 10) and 4 focus groups with youth (n = 21), and subjected the data to a thematic content analysis. Staff defined autonomy as self-regulation and self-care, and identified three paths to foster autonomy - a sense of normality, meaningful relationships, and planning for emancipation. The staff and youth identified the following important aspects in designing the service: achieving normality (e.g. limited number of residents), promoting youth capacity (e.g. skill-building activities), providing social support (e.g. trust and respect between residents), and assuring guidance and boundaries (e.g. supervision of youth).