We recently published a practice guide that provides an overview of clinical supervision for practitioners directly supporting adolescents.

The guide stresses the significance of reflective practice on worker wellbeing and client outcomes, and emphasises the prevalence of workers' exposure to traumatic events and the potential for countertransference of emotions – as well as the documented benefits of identifying issues as they arise. For managers and supervisors, this resource examines supervision in the context of workplace culture, and introduces current methods and trends in suitable clinical support for youth workers.

We have also published two infographics that provide a guide to effective supervision, and outline the role and responsibilities of both the supervisor and worker.

We have published a range of related resources that focus on supervision, including:

• A webinar held on November 26, presented by Kate Alexander, that highlighted the critical importance of supervision in child protection; and
• A series of short articles to stimulate discussion on supervision in work with adolescents, including the function of supervision in services for adolescents, good supervision in services for adolescents, reflective practice, and types of supervision in services for adolescents.

Join the conversation

We invite professionals working with adolescents to contribute to the discussion and to share experiences of supervision – what has worked? What hasn't? How has supervision supported your clients' – or your own – wellbeing?

Please contact us to share what you’ve learnt in the form of a short article, or feel free to post in the comments field at the bottom of this page.

To keep updated as we release the resources in this series, please subscribe to CFCA news.

Further reading

A survival guide for youth workers: professional supervision. This resource includes a youth worker’s story, and a detailed example of a model supervision policy. [http://www.yapa.org.au/youthwork/facts/supervision.pdf]

Supervision Scrapbook. This resource is targeted at youth workers in NZ, however, its content and tools are useful for youth workers and managers elsewhere. The authors invite practitioners to use the guide’s templates, tips and practical exercises to improve their work. 

Further resources are listed at the end of the practice guide.