Editor’s Note

Welcome to the 2020 volume of Residential Treatment for Children & Youth! The journal seeks to provide 20/20 vision on the field of therapeutic residential care with every issue, by presenting rigorous and relevant research that informs practice as well as practice innovations that can inspire research. The importance of global voices in this conversation cannot be overstated. To that end, the International Work group on Therapeutic Residential Care (TRC) convened a meeting in late 2019 in beautiful Oviedo, Spain. Over 30 researchers, practice leaders, and family advocates assembled from 14 countries to share their work and build a collective understanding of the needs, challenges, and opportunities of the field. Since its inception, this group has developed a consensus statement (2016; available via open access within this journal) on TRC now translated in Dutch, Spanish, Hebrew, Italian and Japanese and available in regional professional literatures. It was preceded by an edited review volume, Therapeutic Residential Care for Children and Youth: Developing Evidence Based Practice (2015). Stay tuned for more contributions from this group as well as the development of a web presence for therapeutic residential care research activities which will be hosted on the website for the Association for Children’s Residential Centers. The above participants from the TRC Working Group also served as presenters in a major all-Spain working conference convened by Professor Jorge Fernandez del Valle, Professor of Psychosocial Intervention at the University of Oviedo: The Future of Residential Care in Child Protection: Addressing Therapeutic Needs – Addressing Quality and Best Practices in International Perspective. Presentations from the conference can be found at: www.grupogifi.com. Over 250 delegates from practice, administration and policy participated in the conference.* In this issue, several topics of central importance to therapeutic residential care are studied. First, Dr. Schnur and colleagues present results from a survey to members of the Association of Children’s Residential Centers (ACRC) on the prevalence of youth in residential programs who have experienced sexual exploitation as well as the specialized interventions and treatment considerations being implemented. This is an area of growing concern and where research and practice must collaborate to yield effective treatments for young people. Following on the idea of a research-to-practice gap, Dr. Raymond, an Australian psychologist and researcher, proposes a model for closing this gap for trauma-informed practice. Although trauma awareness has increased in the field, more work is still needed to implement trauma-responsive care in every facet of residential programming. Considering that youth most commonly return to their family following residential treatment, family perspectives are always important for enhancing residential programs. Dr. Sunseri’s study assesses the relationship between family functioning and youth treatment outcomes. His results suggest that investing efforts in improving family functioning for a youth in care can increase the likelihood of a youth’s successful discharge from residential treatment. Finally, Dr. Preyde and her colleagues present findings about post-discharge functioning of youth one year after leaving a Canadian residential program. Their paper considers the voices not just of the youth but also their RESIDENTIAL TREATMENT FOR CHILDREN & YOUTH 2020, VOL. 37, NO. 1, 1–2 https://doi.org/10.1080/0886571X.2020.1691370