Referring young people to psychosocial support in the context of a youth active labour market/education strategy

ABSTRACT

This study explores how experienced Danish caseworkers who work with young people at municipal job centres justify and make decisions regarding referring young clients to psychosocial interventions. Twelve caseworkers and a line manager from two municipalities were interviewed. A thematic analysis was conducted. Key themes were: in-house and out-of-house collaboration; referral as an ongoing process; matching the young person with the service provider based on information about the service providers’ target groups, and information about personal factors and individual contextual factors; dealing with regional gatekeepers; and the role of financial constraints and bureaucratic procedures. The caseworkers experienced a high degree of autonomy and were pragmatic in their approach to referring their young clients to service providers.

KEYWORDS:

• referrals
• activation
• treatment
• decision-making
• social work
• discretion

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Novo Nordisk Fonden: [grant number NNF18SH0035326].

Notes on contributors

Thomas Mackrill

Thomas Mackrill is a reader at the Institute for Social Work at Copenhagen University College, Denmark. He trained as a clinical psychologist and has a PhD from Copenhagen University. Thomas has worked in a wide range of counselling settings in Denmark, both in the public and private sectors, in child protection, schools, child, family and youth counselling, and working with refugees. He spent several years developing a nationwide organisation for young adults from families with alcohol problems as a practitioner, consultant and researcher. Thomas’ research has focused on client agency, qualitative methods, case studies, theory development, families with alcohol problems, statutory social work, the interface between counselling and social work, and the use of digital technologies.

Julia Salado-Rasmussen

Julia Salado-Rasmussen is an Assistant Professor (PhD) at the Institute for Social Work at Copenhagen University College, Denmark. She is affiliated with the research programme Social Work with Vulnerable Adults at Copenhagen University College and the Research Centre for Disability and Employment at Aalborg University, Denmark. Julia has worked with higher education as an evaluation consultant at the Danish Evaluation Institute and been a board member of the Danish Evaluation Society. She researches active labor market policies, vulnerable unemployed, and evaluation using qualitative and quantitative methods. Julia is part of a larger intervention project that supports young unemployed with symptoms of anxiety and depression in getting into education or employment (www.reconnect-kp.dk).

Inge Storgaard Bonfils

Inge Storgaard Bonfils is a reader at the Institute for Social Work at Copenhagen University College, Denmark, and holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Copenhagen. She is head of the research programme Social Work with Vulnerable Adults at Copenhagen University College, and principal project manager for the research project “Reconnect”, an intervention project that supports young unemployed with symptoms of anxiety and depression in getting into education or employment. Inge’s research focuses on social work and work rehabilitation for people with mental health problems and people with disabilities, qualitative methods, and case-studies. She is a board member of the Danish Network on Disability Research.