Residential care in Australia, Part I: Service trends, the young people in care, and needs-based responses

This is the first of a two-part discussion of the place of residential care services in Australia, which highlights the issues that are likely to influence the development of these services into the future. This paper explores service trends over the past few decades, the current place and focus of residential care services, the nature of the young people being placed into such services, and the imperative for developing a more needs-based approach to service delivery. It concludes with a review of recent calls for the development of therapeutic or treatment-orientated models and the initial steps in this direction that have been taken around the country.