An evaluation of trauma-informed enhanced case management within a youth justice service: practitioners’ perspectives

Purpose The Trauma-Informed Care Enhanced Case Management (TIC-ECM) pathway aims to support practitioners working with young people within the Youth Justice Service (YJS). The pathway includes psychological case formulation meetings where clinical psychologists and YJS case managers understand the young person’s history and its influence on their offending behaviour through a trauma-informed perspective. This paper aims to evaluate the impact of the TIC-ECM pathway on the young person’s care team across several domains and explore any benefits or improvements that may be made to the process based on practitioners’ perspectives. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from pre-and-post formulation questionnaires completed by attendees of TIC-ECM formulation meetings. Measures of practitioners’ knowledge, confidence, motivation, understanding and satisfaction were examined. Qualitative data on the benefits of the TIC-ECM pathway and how this could be improved was also collected and analysed through a content analysis. Findings Results showed improvements across all domains. Qualitative analysis identified five key themes of what was useful about the process, including multidisciplinary discussion, enhanced understanding, timeline development, recommendations and advice and positive feedback on effective strategies. The analysis underscores the value of multidisciplinary perspective in case formulation. Originality/value This study expands on an initial 2022 pilot evaluation and presents a novel content analysis exploring the benefits of the TIC-ECM pathway and considering areas for improvement. The findings inform the development of the current pathway and provide recommendations for further pathways in collaboration with the Youth Justice Service.