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. 2018 Apr 16;6(1):8.
doi: 10.1186/s40352-018-0066-5.

Improving the evidence base for services working with youth at-risk of involvement in the criminal justice system: developing a standardised program approach

Alice Knight  1 , Myfanwy Maple  2 , Anthony Shakeshaft  3 , Bernie Shakehsaft  4 , Tania Pearce  2
Affiliations

Improving the evidence base for services working with youth at-risk of involvement in the criminal justice system: developing a standardised program approach

Alice Knight et al. Health Justice. .

Abstract

Background: Young people who engage in multiple risk behaviour (high-risk young people) such as substance abuse, antisocial behaviour, low engagement in education and employment, self-harm or suicide ideation are more likely to experience serious harms later in life including homelessness, incarceration, violence and premature death. In addition to personal disadvantage, these harms represent an avoidable social and economic cost to society. Despite these harms, there is insufficient evidence about how to improve outcomes for high-risk young people. A key reason for this is a lack of standardisation in the way in which programs provided by services are defined and evaluated.

Methods: This paper describes the development of a standardised intervention model for high-risk young people. The model can be used by service providers to achieve greater standardisation across their programs, outcomes and outcome measures. To demonstrate its feasibility, the model is applied to an existing program for high-risk young people.

Conclusions: The development and uptake of a standardised intervention model for these programs will help to more rapidly develop a larger and more rigorous evidence-base to improve outcomes for high-risk young people.

Keywords: Complex intervention; Evaluation; High-risk young people; Intervention; Multiple risk behaviour; Young people with multiple and complex needs; Youth program.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Ethics approval and consent to participate for the BackTrack body of research, for which this is one paper, was granted by the University of New South Wales, University of New England, James Cook University, the University of Queensland, and the NSW Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council.

Consent for publication

Informed consent was obtained from all participants included in this study.

Competing interests

Two authors (AS & BS) are brothers. Authors BS and MM are, or have been, on the BackTrack Management Advisory Committee (in a voluntary capacity). BS is the manager of the BackTrack program.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

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