Roles in Cross-Disciplinary Case Management
There is a growing concern in the society today regarding the number of young people in the juvenile system. Different stakeholders from the parents, school, juvenile courts, and service have a difficult task in stopping young people from ending up in the juvenile system as well as incorporating them once they come out of such a system (Garfinkel, 2010). Different stakeholders have special roles to play in identifying treatment and behavioral needs of juvenile offenders before creating any cross-disciplinary approaches to solve the above problem. Parents play a major role in the treatment and behavioral needs of juvenile offenders. To begin with, the parents have a role in disciplining their children. This is done by monitoring their behavior within the society (Garfinkel, 2010). Parents need to communicate better with the young people. This will help to improve the interaction between the parent and child. Parents can also act as mentors to teenagers by providing a good picture to juvenile offenders. As a result, children grow up following up their parent’s deeds. Also, parents should also communicate with other stakeholders in the society. The role of raising individuals in the society has not been restricted to one member of the society. For instance, if a youth is arrested, the police can promote parents’ involvement by calling the parent to let them know where the youth is and provide them with the opportunity to be present during the questioning of the juvenile. Similarly, the juvenile court needs to guide parents through the court process to know what to expect at each stage (Garfinkel, 2010). In this case, the parent can opt for an outside settlement where the child provides certain services to the community provided the parent is there to enforce the court’s decision.
Schools have a major role too in treatment and behavioral needs for juvenile offenders. The school is supposed to positively shape behaviors of young people in society by promoting awareness of living a life within the confines of the law and preventing them from engaging in violence and drug abuse (Linden et al., 2010). Teachers have the role to care for the students’ social and academic growth for a successful development. This helps the teens to be committed to the education system and thus reduce chances of becoming delinquents in society. School-based cases can be referred to the juvenile courts of youth where certain cases can be decided. The school can also work with the parents in creating cross-disciplinary approaches to carry out functional behavioral assessment and behavior intervention plans (Garfinkel, 2010). This will help reduce the criminalization with charges in court for the juvenile through positive behavioral intervention and support plans. Correspondingly, service providers can help provide a considerable range of psychological services and practical support in school-based program for treatment of the juvenile cases.
Juvenile courts help in the treatment of juvenile offenders. The role of the court is to identify and intervene cases with positive outcomes. The juvenile court ensures juvenile services are delivered in the least restrictive manner. Such services are child-centered, and the families participate fully in the recovery of their children (Linden et al., 2010). The juvenile courts can better communication with parents and schools by providing training for schools and parents on how they can identify negative societal factors that could easily take children to court. The training helps promote greater involvement of parents and service providers on how to handle and interact with the families of youths with behavioral disorders (Garfinkel, 2010). This can also be done by integrating parent’s advocates into the juvenile justice system. The schools and juvenile courts can come up with a school-based approach to deal with the cases that occur in institutions rather than charging the youth in juvenile courts (Linden et al., 2010). The system would be friendly and involve all stakeholders from the parents to the community at large. This will greatly address the risk and protective factors of criminal justice of juveniles by dealing with the behavioral disorders at a very early stage.
The service provider’s role is to provide different forms of services to help the juvenile youths with the behavioral disorders. The health providers can provide therapeutic services in the school and community initiated the program (Garfinkel, 2010). The juvenile court can work with the service providers to educate and train parents on how to deal with the youths suffering from different disorders. Similarly, the services providers can coordinate federal crime prevention programs with the help of the juvenile courts to prevent and intervene in specific youth problems (Connor, 2012). These programs can be school based. The service providers will have addressed the risk of juvenile cases by dealing with it from a medical manner and also have the psychological effect on the youths with better programs after being well informed (Linden et al., 2010). This cross-disciplinary approach will be very effective since it is very friendly and youth centered.
. Effective approaches, strategies are required in dealing with problems facing the juvenile system. Delinquency prevention at an early stage through mentoring and conflict resolution by parents and schools reduces the number of juvenile offenders and integrates some of them back in the society. Juvenile courts and service providers can also work hand in hand to come up with federal actions such as providing mentoring opportunities for youth and activities that encourage positive youth development. This multifaceted approach will benefit all individual members of the society.
References
Connor, D. F. (2012). Aggression and antisocial behavior in children and adolescents: Research and treatment. Guilford Press.
Garfinkel, L. (2010). Improving family involvement for juvenile offenders with emotional/behavioral disorders and related disabilities. Behavioral Disorders, 52-60.
Linden, P., Cohen, S., Cohen, R., Bader, A., & Magnani, M. (2010). ‘Developing Accountability in the Lives of Youth: Defining the Operational Features of Juvenile Treatment Courts. Special Issue on Juvenile Drug Courts, 7, 125.