Martha Holden - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Martha Holden

Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Problems, 1993

Children Australia, Aug 30, 2018

The International Work Group for Therapeutic Residential Care convened an International Summit on... more The International Work Group for Therapeutic Residential Care convened an International Summit on \u2018Pathways to Evidence-Based Practice\u2019 at Loughborough University (GBR), Centre for Child and Family Research on 27-29 April, 2016 with generous support from the Sir Halley Stewart Trust and in partnership with The European Scientific Association on Residential and Family Care for Children and Adolescents (NLD) (EUSARF), the International Association for Outcome-Based Evaluation and Research on Family and Children\u2019s Services (ITA) (IAOBER) and the Association of Children\u2019s Residential Centers (USA) and with the additional support of Action for Children (GBR) and the National Implementation Service (NIS) (GBR). Membership includes: Lisa Holmes (Chair), Director, Centre for Child and Family Research, Loughborough University (GBR); James K. Whittaker (Co-Chair), Charles O. Cressey Endowed Professor Emeritus, University of Washington, School of Social Work, Seattle (USA); Jorge Fernandez del Valle, Professor of Psychology and Director, Child and Family Research Group, University of Oviedo (ESP); Frank Ainsworth, Senior Principal Research Fellow (Adjunct), James Cook University, School of Social Work and Human Services, Townsville, Queensland (AUS); Tore Andreassen, Psychologist, The Norwegian Directorate for Children, Youth and Family Affairs (NOR); James P. Anglin, Professor, Faculty of the School of Child and Youth Care, University of Victoria (CAN); Christopher Bellonci, Board-Certified Child/Adolescent and Adult Psychiatrist; Associate Professor, Psychiatry Department, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, MA (USA); David Berridge, Professor of Child and Family Welfare, School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol (GBR); Amaia Bravo, Lecturer, Department of Psychology, University of Oviedo (ESP); Cinzia Canali, Senior Researcher, Fondazione Emanuela Zancan, Padova (ITA) and President, International Association of Outcome-Based Evaluation and Research in Family and Children\u2019s Services (IAOBER); Mark Courtney, Professor, School of Social Service Administration, University of Chicago (USA); Laurah Currey, Chief Operating Officer, Pressley Ridge, Pittsburgh, PA (USA) and President, Association for Children\u2019s Residential Centers, (USA); Daniel. L. Daly, Executive Vice President and Director of Youth Care, Father Flanagan\u2019s Boys\u2019 Home, Boys Town, NE (USA); Robbie Gilligan, Professor of Social Work and Social Policy, Trinity College Dublin IRE), Hans Grietens, Professor, Centre for Special Needs Education & Youth Care, University of Groningen (NLD) and President, European Scientific Association on Residential and Family Care for Children and Adolescents (EUSARF); Annemiek T. Harder, Assistant professor, Department of Special Needs Education and Youth Care, University of Groningen (NLD); Martha J. Holden, Senior Extension Associate with the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research and the Principal Investigator and Director of the Residential Child Care Project at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY (USA); Sigrid James, Professor, Department of Social Work & Social Ecology, School of Behavioral Health, Loma Linda University, CA (USA); Andrew Kendrick, Professor of Residential Child Care, School of Social Work and Social Policy at the University of Strathclyde (GBR) and Consultant at the Centre of Excellence for Looked After Children in Scotland (CELCIS) and the Centre for Youth and Criminal Justice (CYCJ) (UK); Erik J. Knorth, Professor, Department of Special Needs Education and Youth Care, University of Groningen (NLD); Mette Lausten, Senior Researcher at SFI - The Danish National Centre for Social Research, Copenhagen (DNK), John S. Lyons, Senior Policy Fellow at Chapin Hall, University of Chicago, IL (USA); Eduardo Martin, Lecturer at the Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology, University of La Laguna, Tenerife (ESP); Samantha McDermid, Research Fellow, Centre for Child and Family Research, Loughborough University (GBR); Patricia McNamara, Senior Fellow (Honorary), Department of Social Work, University of Melbourne (AUS); Laura Palareti, Assistant Professor in Social Psychology, Department of Education Studies, University of Bologna (ITA); Susan Ramsey, Parent and Former Children\u2019s Mental Health Advocate, The Walker School, Needham, MA (USA); Kari M. Sisson, Executive Director, Association of Children\u2019s Residential Centers (USA); Richard W. Small, Walker Executive Director Emeritus, The Walker School, Needham, MA (USA); June Thoburn, Emeritus Professor of Social Work, University of East Anglia (GBR); Ronald Thompson, Senior Director, Boys Town National Research Institute for Child and Family Studies, Boys Town, NE (USA); Anat Zeira, Professor, School of Social Work and Social Welfare, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Head of Research and Evaluation at the Haruv Institute (ISR). Our work group wishes to thank CFRC staffer Laura…

In many developed countries around the world residential care interventions for children and adol... more In many developed countries around the world residential care interventions for children and adolescents have come under increasing scrutiny. Against this background an international summit was organised in England (spring 2016) with experts from 13 countries to reflect on therapeutic residential care (TRC). The following working definition of TRC was leading: "Therapeutic residential care involves the planful use of a purposefully constructed, multi-dimensional living environment designed to enhance or provide treatment, education, socialization, support, and protection to children and youth with identified mental health or behavioural needs in partnership with their families and in collaboration with a full spectrum of community based formal and informal helping resources". The meeting was characterised by exchange of information and evidence, and by preparing an international research agenda. In addition, the outlines of a consensus statement on TRC were discussed. This...

Transforming Residential Interventions, 2020

Residential Treatment for Children & Youth, Dec 31, 2018

Being invited to write this commentary is a career high. To prepare, I took an old and tattered a... more Being invited to write this commentary is a career high. To prepare, I took an old and tattered autographed copy of The Other 23 Hours down from my bookshelf. It had been many years since I had read this book. When I first read it, I was a young clinician at a residential center. Thinking back on my 'beginnings' I recalled how this book had changed my perspective of my job. My 'aha' moment was that I was not a therapist hired to work individually with emotional troubled children but, instead, I was part of a team. I could play a valuable role in helping staff understand children's behaviors. I could design activities and responses to help children learn new adaptive behaviors! At that time and in that moment, The Other 23 Hours changed my ideas about how residential care could impact children's lives. After reflecting on my first reading, I opened the book and, much to my surprise, this reading became an even more personal journey through my career. Beginning with the first chapter written by Dr Trieschman, my thoughts flashed back to 1981 when I had the honor of meeting Al Trieschman. In celebration of its 20th anniversary, the residential treatment center where I was working invited Dr Trieschman to spend three days in consultation, basically 'living with us' and sharing his observations and recommendations. In 1981, the Walker School was also 20 years old and both agencies cared for about 50 boys. That is where the similarities ended. The Walker School had Al Trieschman as a director and was a reference point for a book that clearly outlined how to maximize the 'transformative power of the therapeutic milieu in the lives of troubled children', essentially to make good use of the Other 23 Hours (Trieschman et al., 1969). This chapter reminded me of how Al helped us see the power of daily interactions and the milieu as a teaching tool-the core of helping children change, grow and develop. Those three days were pivotal for us as an organization. They were also pivotal for me personally when Al described me as 'the heart' of the agency. Al has passed but his words still reverberate with those who work with children. Chapter 2, written by Dr Larry Brendtro brought back a memory in the late 1980's when our residential center invited him to present at a symposium. We sat transfixed as we listened to Dr Brendtro speaking about

Children and Youth Services Review, Apr 1, 2003

Oxford University Press eBooks, Dec 13, 2022

International journal of child, youth and family studies, Apr 8, 2019

Children and young people in residential care have often lived lives saturated with loss, neglect... more Children and young people in residential care have often lived lives saturated with loss, neglect, rejection, and traumatic experiences. Children express the pain of trauma in various ways, namely pain-based behaviors manifesting in ways that often leave their care givers confused, frustrated, frightened, angry or exhausted. For residential caregivers to respond to children and young people in a consistent and therapeutic manner, residential environments must provide an ethos of respect, caring, and trust, creating a safe place for children and staff to live and learn together. This paper describes the Children and Residential Experiences (CARE) model, its implementation, and evidence for its effectiveness. CARE is a trauma-informed, principle-based, multi-component program designed to enhance the social dynamics in group care settings and help agencies create a living environment that provides developmentally enriching experiences for children in their care. By incorporating the CARE principles throughout all levels of the organization and into daily practice, the CARE program model has been shown to improve the capacity of staff to establish positive developmental relationships with the children in their care, offer developmentally enriching experiences and a "sense of normality", and create cohesion and congruence throughout the organization. Through consistent and predictable compassionate and responsive interactions with adults, as well as opportunities to overcome challenges and to experience successful learning opportunities, children can grow, develop and thrive.

Children and Youth Services Review, 2022

Prevention Science, May 3, 2016

The current study examined the impact of a settinglevel intervention on the prevention of aggress... more The current study examined the impact of a settinglevel intervention on the prevention of aggressive or dangerous behavioral incidents involving youth living in group care environments. Eleven group care agencies implemented Children and Residential Experiences (CARE), a principlebased program that helps agencies use a set of evidenceinformed principles to guide programming and enrich the relational dynamics throughout the agency. All agencies served mostly youth referred from child welfare. The 3-year implementation of CARE involved intensive agency-wide training and on-site consultation to agency leaders and managers around supporting and facilitating day-today application of the principles in both childcare and staff management arenas. Agencies provided data over 48 months on the monthly frequency of behavioral incidents most related to program objectives. Using multiple baseline interrupted time series analysis to assess program effects, we tested whether trends during the program implementation period declined significantly compared to the 12 months before implementation. Results showed significant program effects on incidents involving youth aggression toward adult staff, property destruction, and running away. Effects on aggression toward peers and self-harm were also found but were less consistent. Staff ratings of positive organizational social context (OSC) predicted fewer incidents, but there was no clear relationship between OSC and observed program effects. Findings support the potential efficacy of the CARE model and illustrate that intervening "upstream" at the setting level may help to prevent coercive caregiving patterns and increase opportunities for healthy social interactions.

Child & Youth Care Forum, 2021

Children and Youth Services Review, 2019

The current study examined the effects of implementing a new program model on the quality of rela... more The current study examined the effects of implementing a new program model on the quality of relationships between direct care providers and residents in group care agencies. Children and Residential Experiences (CARE), an organization-wide program model that involves a range of structural change and staff-development activities, was implemented in 13 group care agencies in one Southeastern state. CARE implementation lasted three years and involved the application of six evidence-informed principles throughout the organization in order to create more therapeutic environments and improve the quality of care for children. We used a stepped-wedge design in which one cohort of agencies began CARE immediately and a second cohort waited 12 months before beginning, allowing them to serve as a comparison group during the waiting period. Children in each agency were surveyed annually about the perceived quality of their relationships with staff using a new instrument developed for this study. Results of a linear mixed model indicated that after accounting for clustering at the agency and cottage levels and controlling for several important covariates, child perceptions of relationship quality increased significantly in the three years after CARE implementation began. The strength of the CARE effect was stronger for residents with several previous placements, but did not differ by age, gender, race, length of stay, DSS referral, or problem behavior. Results provide evidence that supports the effectiveness of CARE as an intervention to help group care agencies improve the quality of children's daily interactions with caregiving staff, a critical aspect of their experience while living in care. The process requires a long-term commitment and an organization-wide focus on serving the best interests of children.

Emerald Group Publishing Limited eBooks, May 17, 2012

ABSTRACT Disruptive and potentially unsafe classroom behaviours such as threatening, bullying, ve... more ABSTRACT Disruptive and potentially unsafe classroom behaviours such as threatening, bullying, verbal and/or physical assaulting present challenges not only for teachers, aides and other students in the classroom, but potentially for all others in the building as well as the families of those students/pupils involved. These behaviours can greatly influence a student's ability to achieve academic success as well as place undue stress and risk on others in the milieu.Discovering the cause for the behaviours and then developing a plan to help these young people succeed emotionally will greatly increase the probability for improved academic achievement. This chapter will examine the core principles of the Therapeutic Crisis Intervention for Schools (TCIS) programme and present a range of evidence-based responses designed to help build upon and further develop staff skills in preventing disruptive behaviours, de-escalating potential disruptive behaviours, and teach students how to develop less disruptive and more appropriate responses to their lack of or inability to self-regulate.This chapter will contend that the foundation for all interventions and responses presupposes an accurate assessment of risk for the youth(s), the adults, and the environment. That any risk assessment must consider the internal (effects of trauma, ability to self-regulate, cultural issues) and external (organizational culture/climate, level of restrictiveness, caring community, quality of instruction) setting conditions for the youth.The TCIS programme is embedded in the five domains for effective crisis management; leadership and building support, social work and clinical services participation (social workers, psychologists, therapists, nurses), building administration and post crisis response, training and competency standards, and data-driven incident monitoring and feedback.

Psicothema, Jul 28, 2017

The Strathprints institutional repository (https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk) is a digital archiv... more The Strathprints institutional repository (https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk) is a digital archive of University of Strathclyde research outputs. It has been developed to disseminate open access research outputs, expose data about those outputs, and enable the management and persistent access to Strathclyde's intellectual output.

Prevention science : the official journal of the Society for Prevention Research, Jul 3, 2016

The current study examined the impact of a setting-level intervention on the prevention of aggres... more The current study examined the impact of a setting-level intervention on the prevention of aggressive or dangerous behavioral incidents involving youth living in group care environments. Eleven group care agencies implemented Children and Residential Experiences (CARE), a principle-based program that helps agencies use a set of evidence-informed principles to guide programming and enrich the relational dynamics throughout the agency. All agencies served mostly youth referred from child welfare. The 3-year implementation of CARE involved intensive agency-wide training and on-site consultation to agency leaders and managers around supporting and facilitating day-to-day application of the principles in both childcare and staff management arenas. Agencies provided data over 48 months on the monthly frequency of behavioral incidents most related to program objectives. Using multiple baseline interrupted time series analysis to assess program effects, we tested whether trends during the p...

Children Australia

We are in agreement with some of the points made in the recent article by Tregeagle, ‘Weighing up... more We are in agreement with some of the points made in the recent article by Tregeagle, ‘Weighing up the evidence and local experience of residential care’ (Children Australia, 42(4), 240–247). For example, there can be no dispute about the high costs of residential placements or that achieving a stable residential environment is very challenging. Table 1 provides a three state cost comparison of residential placements (Ainsworth, 2017).

Residential Treatment for Children & Youth