THE IMPLEMENTATION OF INTERAGENCY PROGRAMS FOR COURT-REFERRED ADOLESCENTS: A COMPARATIVE CASE STUDY

Five interagency programs have been developed in New York City for the general purpose of rehabilitating young people between the ages of 12 - 17, whom the courts have declared should not live at home and/or attend regular schools until they receive help with problems which have caused them to engage repeatedly in unlawful and/or socially unacceptable behavior. These five programs fill the gap that had previously existed between a confined setting away from the community of parental residence and a return to the community without any services.;The purpose of this study was to determine, for each of the five programs, the relationship between the organizational structures and processes utilized and their relative success in integrating the resources and efforts of their interdisciplinary staffs. The methodology employed was exploratory comparative case studies, utilizing descriptive field study approaches including participation observation, questionnaires, interviews, frequency studies and sociograms. A descriptive case study was generated for each of the five programs. The data gathering methodology and the variables explored were the same for each program and comparisons are made across the sites.;The study was restricted to an investigation of the relative success of the five programs in achieving conditions which are commonly assumed to be associated with a successful interagency approach to providing services. The specific conditions commonly assumed to be associated with a successful interagency approach are the structure and process variables listed: (1) Consistency of program treatment; (2) Physical layout; (3) Organizational memory; (4) Staff turnover; (5) Participation in decision making; (6) Time spent on planning before clients; (7) Time spent in interdisciplinary meetings; (8) Time spent in informal interaction. The service delivery variables are as follows: (1) Interagency teamwork; (2) Organizational goal agreement; (3) Client goal agreement; (4) Adaptability; (5) Flexibility; (6) Intergroup interaction.;The study found that organizational memory, planning before clients (which is largely negative) and informal interaction with other professional groups strongly affect the integrated service delivery approach. The variable having the least effect on the interagency delivery of service is the decision making variable.;Each of the five programs created to serve this population has a staff which represents the same or very similar agencies but the site and strategies for achieving the general purpose vary from program to program. This means that each program has been developed and operates with different organizational structures and processes in order to implement their strategy for delivering services.;Generally, the findings show that: (1) The structure and process variables affect service delivery in varying degrees. (2) Basicially, the more standardized the structure and process, the more consistent and integrated the service delivery. (3) The more opportunities afforded to diminish past experiences of staff and work towards developing common mores, the more integrated the staff will be. (4) These common mores will not develop without planned intervention. This intervention can be as simple as developing the organizational memory. (5) Planning time before clients should be limited unless simulations are built in to compensate for the lack of clients. (6) Participation in decision making has the least effect on integration but does affect the ways in which staff internalizes the goals of the project.