Child Protection Services and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in Trøndelag

​This report presents the results of a user study of 10 families from Nord- and Sør-Trøndelag, with young people between the ages of 15-19 that have received help from both child protection services (CPS) and child and adolescent psychiatry (CAP) within the past three years. The study focuses on the experiences of the young people and their parents or guardians with help they have received, their degree of satisfaction with this help, and their opinions about interaction and cooperation between these two agencies. Data was collected through in-depth qualitative interviews. The study shows that the families received a wide-range of services from both agencies including various preventive, supportive and outpatient services as well as placement in foster care, residential institutions and inpatient psychiatric facilities. Families had mixed experiences with help received, but some young people reported closer contact and greater satisfaction with CAP while the opposite was true for some parents and guardians who were most satisfied with help from CPS. Many informants, both young people and adults, talked about the importance of good relationships with individual helpers. Informants largely perceived CPS and CAP as two separate agencies with little or no interaction and cooperation. All the young people had experienced problems at school and some had not completed mandatory schooling.