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"Wendy Sims-Schouten demonstrates her scholarship in the field of safeguarding and mental health as well as her ability to draw parallels between contemporary practice in the field of safeguarding and mental health amongst youth and documented material from past records. The illustrative case studies from contemporary interviews with young people as well as from the records of the past are presented within a carefully constructed theoretical framework that challenges the legacy of the deserving/undeserving paradigm. A powerful message comes from the voices of children and young people who have experienced challenging and disturbing events in their lives and who consequently are often diagnosed as having social, emotional and behavioural difficulties.

This book alerts professionals to the critical issues of today placed in their historical context. Methodologically, researchers will find it useful in its presentation of archived data and in the methods of analysis used. Theoretically, the book presents a clear explication of critical realism."

-Helen Cowie, University of Surrey

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