Health and Well‐Being Beyond Residential Care: Implications for Extended Care Service Responses for Young People

ABSTRACT Care leavers often encounter considerable health and well‐being challenges, underscoring the need for continued support into early adulthood. This small‐scale mixed‐methods study explored the health, well‐being and extended care experiences of participants in the South Australian Next Steps pilot program for residential care leavers, assessed by statutory child protection as having significant or extreme levels of need. There were two study components: (1) Longitudinal distance‐travelled analysis assessed changes in self‐reported health and well‐being at baseline and several time points during the pilot, and correlation analysis examined the relationship between two relevant indicators. (2) Thematically analysed semistructured interviews garnered insight into young people's lived experiences of support and outcomes. Findings revealed health and well‐being improvements alongside co‐ordinated holistic service access and supportive relationships with workers who acted as consistent sources of guidance. The stable and connected program environment enabled young people to navigate emerging adulthood, developed enhanced emotional regulation and health literacy and built confidence in accessing and effectively using services. Although findings indicate that Next Steps contributed to positive reporting of health and well‐being, further advancement of extended care policy frameworks is needed, given the complexity of support needs for residential care leavers and their persistent outcome disparities.