Exploration of how youth justice staff perceive the speech-language pathology role and service provision in an Australian youth justice setting

Purpose
The aims of this project were to explore how youth justice staff perceive the speech-language pathology role and provision in an Australian youth justice setting, including the speech-language pathologist’s role in supporting young people to participate in the activities of the youth justice service studied.

Method
A narrative inquiry approach was employed to guide semi-structured interviews with youth justice staff. Perceptions and experiences were analysed via reflexive thematic analysis, with member checking and inter-rater coding utilised for rigour.

Result
Seven semi-structured interviews were conducted. Interviewees worked in either the custodial setting (n = 3) or the community setting (n = 4) for the youth justice service studied, though most had worked in both settings. Six themes and six subthemes were identified from the interview data and related to factors that supported improved participation in the activities of the youth justice service studied. These factors were the speech-language pathology skillset and approach, and that there were systemic barriers within the service. All participants perceived speech-language pathology input as valuable for the young people in the service studied. There was also acknowledgement by the participants of how speech, language, and communication needs of the young people impacted their participation in the activities of the service studied. These findings were despite the perceived need for organisation-wide education on the speech-language pathologist role and offering.

Conclusion
Increased understanding of how youth justice staff perceive the role and benefits of speech-language pathology in supporting young people in contact with the youth justice system will assist with service planning, inform education strategies, and may support policy change.