A method for supporting intake decisions in residential child and youth care: Initial experiences and a case description

From the point of view of professional care providers, residential treatment can be conceived as a decision process. Three decision points can be distinguished which appear to be crucial: Admission to residential care, treatment planning and implementation, and termination of a stay. Research shows that these intervention decisions can easily be affected by subjective or coincidental factors, posing a threat to the methodical character of the treatment process. At Leiden University we developed a method to support a more structured approach of decision-making related to admission, theIntake-Decisional Balance Sheet (IDBS). In the paper the theoretical background, the format, and the usefulness of this method will be discussed. An application of the IDBS is illustrated with a specific case.[PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]