So for those that dont know, an STRTP (short term residential therapeutic program) is the highest level of care in California for foster and probation youth before a psych hospital or juvenile detention center. From my experience, and to my knowledge, therr is very little institutional collaboration or meaningful standardization of care across all agencies. STRTPs have to be licensed and usually accredited, but what services they offer and how their programs are structured vary wildly. I do not consider any program that punishes children to be a humane or effective program, but punishment is the norm. Where I work, we are consistently manipulating our youth with promises of "privileges" like enrichment, visitations, and literally cash, while threatening to take those things away from them should the youth disobey staff. Instead of creating individualized plans where we prioritize the behaviors and dysfunction that inhibits our residents the most, we judge all of them equally on cleanliness, organization, and emotional stability (even if a youth is sharing a room with another youth who bullies them or is for whatever reason unpleasant to cohabitate with).
Our system is very, very broken. We are almost guaranteeing that children will be abused, and absolutely guaranteeing that they will be traumatized or retraumatized. Either by staff, the institution, or by other youth.
But there is hope!! There are some group homes that have improved outcomes for their youth, and much much much research on trauma, child development, and parenting to draw from. We could, if we put the care and effort, create a system that heals generations of trauma. That catches our most vulnerable youth and stabilizes them, assists overburdened social workers and probation officers in finding their clients permanency. We could model STRTPs after emergency psych wards, hospitals, and schools. We could create a network of specialized, differentiated programs that allow all youth an optimal environment to heal, regardless of culture, ethnicity, ability, learning style, orientation, and trauma history. We just need the attention and will of the public.
And to murder the profit incentive lmao
