ABSTRACT
Until recently, whenever a child or youth-related family problem became severe and passed the point of what was considered treatable within the community, the young person was removed from his or her home. Depend ing on the social service system in which the family found themselves and, to some degree, the type of problem identified as unacceptable, the child or youth would be sent to a foster home, a group care facility, a residential program, an institution for juvenile corrections, a psychiatric hospital for
children, or some other out-of-home placement. Such a placement may have lasted for a few days or many years.
