Collaboration of Youth Social Work Professionals with Volunteers, Parents and Other Professionals

Abstract

There is an increasing attention for youth social work professionals to collaborate with volunteers, parents, and other professionals. Collaboration can contribute to positive outcomes for youth. The present study contributes to understanding differences in the extent to which youth social work professionals collaborate with volunteers, parents, and other professionals. The survey was conducted with Dutch professionals working in youth care (n = 112), education (n = 67), and youth work (n = 89). Index for Interdisciplinary Collaboration was used to assess interdependence in and reflection on the collaboration process. Significant differences were found in the extent to which professionals working in different fields experience interdependence and reflection on the collaboration process with different partners. Future researchers should be aware that the degree to which professionals collaborate with others might depend on the context, work field, and the collaboration partner. Youth social work professionals and local governments can use this study to identify strong and weak collaborative partnerships in order to better organize collaboration between different partners with the final aim of improving support of young people.

Improving Clinician Communication through Action Research

“…The researchers coded their observations based on the four categories of the Index of Interdisciplinary Collaboration and found a positive impact on interdisciplinary collaboration despite hospice team clinicians perceiving less as shown by their responses on the modified Index of Interdisciplinary Collaboration (Wittenberg-Lyles et al, 2010). In contrast, Rumping et al (2021) explored social workers interdisciplinary collaboration with other professionals in three different settings of youth work, youth care, and education at one timepoint without an intervention. They found no significant difference in perceived collaboration between social workers and other professionals in each of the settings.…”