Date

7-21-2026

Department

School of Behavioral Sciences

Degree

Doctor of Education in Community Care and Counseling (EdD)

Chair

Stephen Ford

Keywords

social workers, trauma, residential treatment, person-centered, reform, crisis

Disciplines

Counseling | Social Work

Abstract

This phenomenological study examines the experiences and challenges faced by social workers in child placement for adolescents aged 12-18 within North Carolina’s child welfare system, an issue that warrants immediate attention. Hardworking and determined social workers are on the ground fighting in an already overtaxed system that is resulting in options that are frighteningly few for the care our youth so desperately need. Many of the most vulnerable children in the welfare system are being placed in other states for residential treatment. This is not only traumatic but also robs youth of everything they are familiar with at such a critical age and time in their life. Systems of support should be enhanced in this crucial stage in life. The upheaval this inflicts on youth causes even more trauma, disrupts any notion of effective treatment, and belies their inability to access the effective, specialized care right here in North Carolina, where it should be. In North Carolina, children are being ripped from their homes and their community and taken to other states to get the treatment they deserve when they should be able to receive it in the state they live in. This is unsustainable, and the child’s team must improve. Social workers are working towards this goal. They need a child welfare system that can care for our youth in ways that allow them to heal and thrive right here in North Carolina.

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