ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book presents a complete youth risk assessment and treatment program based on the 20 plus years of research and collaboration. It describes the evolution of the youth comprehensive risk assessment (YCRA) by first describing its major components and effective interventions, then by describing "putting it all together" into a dynamic, inclusive assessment tool, and finally describing outcome-based evidence of wide-ranging strategies and interventions that provide validation for the YCRA and really work. The book explains the important components that make up the YCRA, including asset building, psychosocial development, family engagement, and behavioral issues. It focuses on the trajectory and maturation of the YCRA approach and introduces other useful clinician and client individualized assessments. The book considers an illustrative example for putting the assessments all together in a valuable way and discusses key trends and results discovered in over 700 cases.
