Developing Close Bonds: One-to-One Intermediate Treatment in Children’s Services in Germany

Vera Taube

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Developing Close Bonds: One-to-One Intermediate Treatment in Children’s Services in Germany

Vera Taube

Medailon autora:

Vera Taube, Master’s in Social Work, is working on her PhD at the University of Eastern Finland.
In order to develop a theoretical knowledge base for the social work practice field of child and
family support in Germany, she is investigating an exemplary case of one-to-one intermediate
treatments in foreign countries.

Abstrakt:

The article presents a specific practice field of social work addressing a target group characterized by severe behavioral problems in combination with a lack of capability to enter relationships. Labeled as “hopeless cases” these mainly young people are not only marginalized in society but also in the support system. Starting with basic information about one-to-one intermediate services in Germany including the legal framework, target group, types of provisions, previous research, and theoretical references, the article then emphasizes the special peculiarity of the German Child and Youth Services Act to provide that support also outside Germany. As an example for implementation of one-to-one intermediate care in a foreign country, the article introduces the work of EAL3, a provider working with young people who cannot be reached by the common support system. EAL is also the object of a current doctoral thesis research aiming to develop a practice model for the particular practice field. Summing up challenges and demands within this particular practice, the article offers theoretical foundation as a proposed solution to face difficulties arising from the task to re-integrate marginalized young people into the common child support system and offer them a perspective.