Residential Care for Children and Youth in Italy : An Evolving System

This volume addresses the question of how societies with developed welfare and social service systems are assessing current needs and future directions in their residential child and youth care sectors. In particular, the book shows how residential care has developed in different ways in 16 countries and comes in numerous shapes and sizes. Lack of agreed definitions has made it difficult to gather comparable data, therefore each of the 16 countries selected for inclusion is viewed through a common template including the policy context (historical developments, key trends and policy initiatives), promising programmatic innovations, and information obtained from a matrix developed in an earlier research effort. The present chapter illustrates the Italian situation with respect to the following topics: 1. Policy and legislative context 2. Residential care system a. Programs features b. Residential care personnel c. Caracteristics of children and youth in care d. Strengths and deficits 3. Promising programmatic innovations 4. Key takeaways 5. Matrix compiled in detail