Developing and Implementing a Case Management Model for Young People With Complex Needs: A Toolkit for Community Workers, Educators and Justice Officers

The purpose of this toolkit is to share some of the experiences and learning that Mission Australia has gained from developing and implementing a case management model to support and empower young people with complex needs. This toolkit contains information and tools to support the development and implementation of case management models, and direct service delivery. The case management model and the tools in this kit were originally designed for young people engaged in or seen to be at risk of ongoing involvement in antisocial, risk-taking and offending behaviour. The toolkit is based on Mission Australia's practice wisdom and primary research conducted in 2007-08 with young people who were participating in Mission Australia's Youth Offender Support Programs (YOSP), and one of these programs in particular: Pasifika Support Services (PSS). PSS is an initiative of the NSW Premier's Office, developed and implemented by Mission Australia in partnership with the NSW Police Force. It is a holistic program which aims to meet the needs of Pacific young people. It arose in recognition of the overrepresentation of this cohort in the youth justice system in NSW and the need to better understand the issues experienced by young Pacific people in order to develop culturally appropriate responses. Many of the tools were originally designed with this group in mind and it is the case management model that was developed and adapted for PSS that is the centrepiece of this toolkit.