Arrive

Out-of-home care, biography work, educational group intervention, youth welfare services

• Archbishop's children's home Haus Nazareth, Sigmaringen

• Albert-Schweitzer-Kinderdorf e. V., Waldenburg

• St Anna Foundation, Leutkirch

• eva Heidenheim, Heidenheim an der Brenz

• Neuhausen Children's and Youth Welfare Centre, Neuhausen/Fildern

• eva Stuttgart, Schorndorf

• Oberlin e.V, Ulm

• Graf children's home, Ellwangen

• Centre >guterhirte<, Ulm

• Therapeutic residential groups of the specialised clinics in Wangen, Wangen i.A.

• Hoffmannhaus Wilhelmsdorf, Wilhelmsdorf

• Rummelsberger Dienste für junge Menschen gemeinnützige GmbH, Schwarzenbruck

• Bruderhaus Diakonie Youth Welfare Centre Deggingen, Deggingen

10/2019 - 09/2022

Children and adolescents in out-of-home care are often exposed to major difficulties: In addition to the accumulation of psychosocial and biological risk factors in this population, out-of-home care itself can also represent a critical life event and lead to severe identity crises.

Biography work is a method that is particularly suitable for helping people to overcome crises or turning points in their life story. Biography work is a guided process in which past life events are remembered and documented. The aim is to help those affected to make sense of the current situation by coming to terms with the past in a structured way. Findings on the positive effects of biography work on self-confidence, well-being, identity formation and dealing with difficult emotional situations as well as on the quality of relationships with the people involved in the biography work underpin the effectiveness of this method.

Against this background, the idea was born to develop an easily implementable group intervention with biography work methods for young people in out-of-home care together with partners from youth welfare services and to evaluate its effectiveness. The aim of the intervention is to address psycho-emotional stress in connection with out-of-home care at an early stage and to provide targeted support for the young people concerned in their biographical categorisation and coping with out-of-home care. This could help to reduce the stress associated with external placement, reduce drop-out rates and improve the chances of success of the support measure. The project name "Arriving" is intended to symbolise both the process of arriving at the new centre of life and the need for an environment that is experienced as safe and supportive.

The implementation of the intervention in the cooperating youth welfare centres is organised by the centres' own coordinators and is carried out by two trained group leaders. Three to six young people aged between 12 and 17 who live in the respective centre can take part in each group. The group sessions take place weekly and are organised in three phases:

• The first phase serves to prepare the biography work. The young people are given in-depth knowledge about the reasons, goals and processes of external placements. Strategies for recognising and modulating emotions are also developed.
• The focus of the second phase is on biographical work, with particular emphasis on the previous move to the current facility. In addition, topics relevant to the young people such as stigmatisation and conflicts of loyalty are addressed.
• The third and final phase serves to integrate the experiences made and develop positive future prospects.

The "Ankommen" project is divided into three project phases: Preparation phase (May 2019 to January 2020), pilot phase (February 2020 to September 2021) and follow-up phase (October 2021 to August 2022).

In the preparatory phase, cooperation was entered into with youth welfare centres, a workbook and user manual were created to accompany the intervention, focus groups were held with the young people concerned and trial runs were carried out in two centres. The experience gained during the trial run enabled the workbook and user manual to be optimised. The next steps within the pilot phase are the implementation of the intervention and data collection. The evaluation will take place in a total of 13 cooperating youth welfare centres, which will use their existing educational structures to recruit the study participants. Standardised, psychometrically robust questionnaires will be used to record the psychological stress, self-esteem, self-efficacy and behavioural problems of the participating young people. In the follow-up phase, the findings will be analysed and published. A particular focus of this phase is the sustainable implementation and dissemination of the intervention.

UNIVERSITÄTSKLINIKUM ULM
Clinic for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry/Psychotherapy

Steffen Läntzsch, M.Sc. Psych.

Steinhövelstraße 5 (postal address)

D-89075 Ulm

Phone: 0731 500 - 62630

Mail:projekt.ankommen@uniklinik-ulm.de