Mary Beth Rauktis, Research Assistant Professor, spent a semester in Portugal pursuing child welfare research at the University of Porto. Rauktis studied restriction of living environment as part of a team tasked with assessing the needs of children and youth and the quality of care provided in residential institutions. Portugal was conducting a nationwide evaluation of its residential child welfare care system, and the information collected using the restrictiveness of living environment measure or REM-Y can be used to help inform policies and practices which support developmentally appropriate out-of-home care for children/youth in the country.
Her work- “Measuring the restrictiveness of Portuguese residential care for children and youth” has just been published in the International Journal of Social Welfare.
Rauktis also writes about her travel experiences and her research on her blog.