Addressing the needs crossover youth: What key professionals are saying

Crossover youth have complex needs and can create difficulty for service providers who have to both provide effective services to the youth but also work with and navigate a system outside of their own. Professionals from the child welfare system and the juvenile justice system have recognized the need to work together to help crossover youth. A successful collaboration can be extremely beneficial to all those involved but certain barriers must be overcome. This study uses secondary qualitative analysis to examine the opinions of key professionals in both systems as they came together to create action plans to address issues facing crossover youth in their individual counties. Researchers identify common themes and discuss the importance of collaboration among systems and recognizing individual county's stages of change.