Two Events
I’ve just returned encouraged and invigorated from two events - the 60th Conference of the renamed Association of Children’s Residential Centers (ACRC) in Chicago at the end of March and an International Summit on Therapeutic Residential Care held in Loughborough, England at the end of April. The Summit was initiated by my colleagues Drs. James Whittaker (University of Washington, Seattle), Jorge del Valle (Universidad de Oviedo), and Lisa Holmes (Loughborough University)–-in part as a follow-up to their 2014 publication Therapeutic Residential Care for Children and Youth-–and was attended by 31 experts from 13 countries. Participants reported on concerning developments as well as promising models in residential care in their respective countries. The meeting again pointed to distinct culturally embedded conceptions of residential care, different challenges and roles for residential care within the various social welfare/child-serving systems, and also sparked debate about how to think about promising, evidence-based, evidence-informed, etc. models given different knowledge traditions and the complexities of residential care as a service and therapeutic setting.
In one of the upcoming issues of the journal, a Consensus Statement outlining the conclusions and recommendations of the discussions and deliberations at the International Summit will be published in RTCY, and at that time, I will share some of my thoughts and impressions with you through this venue. Both events–-the ACRC Conference and the International Summit–-emphasized the urgent need for constructive and evidence-informed dialogue between researchers, residential care providers, and policymakers to reduce misunderstanding and understand the real-world challenges of residential care while advancing its science. The discussion with the larger field will be continued at the Conference of the European Scientific Association on Residential & Family Care for Children and Adolescents in Oviedo, Spain, to be held September 13–16, 2016, and at the Association for Children’s Residential Centers (ACRC) in Portland, Oregon at the end of April in 2017.
This Issue
The team at Taylor & Francis and I are pleased to finally publish the first issue of RTCY for 2016. We apologize for the delay in getting this issue out to you and are hopeful that the second issue can follow soon.
As we engage in dialogue about the future of residential care, I want to revive and invite commentaries and Letters to the Editor in a special section of the journal. You are therefore officially invited to submit thoughtful commentaries on issues pertaining to the field of residential care in general and in response to published articles in particular! In this spirit, the current issue contains a clarifying response from Martha Holden, developer of Therapeutic Crisis Intervention, to an article published by Van Loan et al. in Issue 32(2).
In this issue, you will also find a position statement by the ACRC (written by Mira C. Krishnan, Christopher Bellonci, Robert Foltz, and Robert E. Lieberman) on psychotropic medication use in residential care. This is the eleventh in a series of papers issued by the ACRC regarding key issues faced by the field in response to emerging research, policy, and best practice. Given the controversy surrounding psychotropic medication use and the risks for the youth involved, this paper deserves particular attention. This paper is followed by an informative review article by Shamra M. Boel-Studt and Lauren Tobia that summarizes “trends and findings from research related to the interconnected concepts of quality and effectiveness” of residential care. Knowledge about “what works in residential care” and about “promising models” is dynamic and in need of regular updates. Of particular importance within this context is ongoing debate about our rules in determining what works. It is quite clear that fundamental differences in how we understand evidence and misconceptions about evidence-based practice(s) continue to lead to misunderstandings and to the adoption of interventions, which may not be appropriate for residential care.
Three articles from three countries conducted in highly restrictive care round out this issue and capture the breadth of research found in residential care. Claire Reilly and Dan Johnson present a phenomenological analysis of fire-setting in adolescent males in secure care in the UK. Flint M. Espil, Andres G. Viana, and Laura J. Dixon examine the role of emotion regulation in the relationship between PTSD and depression among 50 adolescents in inpatient psychiatric care in the U.S. Lastly, Joe Persi, Brian M. Bird and Christina DeRoche investigate differences in voluntary and involuntary admissions to inpatient psychiatric care in Canada.
Given that we are not yet in a position to thematically bundle our articles, I am quite pleased with the collection of articles in this issue. The more quality submissions we receive, the more we will be able to publish future issues with a focus on specific topics. For this year, the (modest) hope is to catch up, present authors with timely and strong reviews, and publish issues with articles of interest to the field of residential care. As we gain our stride, we will announce several Calls for Papers over the next few months that will reflect topics of relevance and interest to the field.
Editorial Board
Last but not least, I want to extend my sincerest gratitude to members of our previous Editorial Board. We are highly appreciative of your years of service to RTCY. A few members have agreed to stay on, and I am currently in the process of assembling a new Board that reflects the international focus and outreach of this publication. I would like to take the opportunity and officially welcome my colleagues who have already agreed to serve on the Editorial Board (please see the updated list of Editorial Board Members in this issue). While the Editorial Board will be key to providing quality reviews for submitted articles, we are continuously searching for willing and capable reviewers. A journal is only as good as its reviewers! I want to thank those of you who approached me following the Chicago conference and expressed their interest in being involved with the journal. You will certainly hear from me!
For today, I extend my kindest regards,
Editor-in-Chief, Residential Treatment for Children & Youth
Professor, Loma Linda University, CA