Happy 2013 Year of the Child and Youth care Worker !!!

This is  self proclaimed ............. 2013.. The Year of the Child and Youth Care worker. In South Africa in particular we need to strategise a year that highlights the professionality of the Child and Youth Care Worker. The idea is that we... the people on the ground, the stake-holders par excellence, the people who really count, or should be counted, will use the avenues that are available to us to proclaim and make  known our importance in the development of the Nation and the lives of children. I have a hope that what we may be able to do this year will find the support of the international Child and Youth Care community .. world wide or that what we WILL and CAN do to promote the profession in South Africa will serve as an inspiration to other countries where there is a struggle for recognition,, In South Africa we say "VIVA" (long Live) Child and Youth Care "Pambhile" ... ( upward!!).

We have had movements in this country before and those movements lead us into a democracy. Now we will have a 2013 Movement to lead child and youth care into a recognized and respected profession and.... a force to be reckoned with .
Happy 2013. child and youth care workers. ... OUR YEAR... now is the time GRAB IT>!!!

3 comments .. thoughts for talk 14

1.  There was research several years back that came to the conclusion that "institutional" care of children had a maximum benefit period of two years. After that it said, the benefit experienced a "drop off" effect and there was a slow down in development against chronological age.
There seem to be a trend to sentence young people to very long terms of residential programmes of diversion  within  the institutional setting of, say,a Youth Centre.
Is it possible that the diversion programme itself will have a developmental growth effect that will overcome the apparent negative effect of long term "institutionalisation".


2. Bowlby's research showed that there were long term detremental effects of maternal deprivation A child had need of a an attachment figure to allow for good enough long- term affectional bonding. Rutter later re-assessed Bowlby's findings and concluded that children can develop good enough affectional bonding behaviours even if they had multiple care givers. 5 - or even up to 11 !!!

Really??   Because this give support to the use of staff rotations and shift systems. What do we know about this in Africa?


3. In Anna Freud et al  book "Beyond the Best Interests of the Child" the idea is put forward that we have to think ethically when the decision is made to separate child from parent and use a residential setting for care. The criteria for making this judgement is said to be the concept of  " irrevocable harm " . Using this criteria for placement outside of the parent means that it has to be established if the child were to stay in the care of the parent and in the conditions attached to the parental situation, the child would suffer harm that was irrecoverable.  It seems that it would need the application of, and  a high regard for professional opinion.and professional judgement before making a placement decision..
Are we making ethical decisions around the placement of children in South Africa and in Africa?

running to, from and about...3 incidents, briefly told

 RUNNING TO...

He was 17 1/2 and had completed the struggle he had with his sexual identity. He knew he was gay. Over time he built around himself a string support system in the centre of the city to which he went over weekends on whatever other pretense he put out officially to the Homes authorities.

One weekend, on his way out, he said, "Goodbye Mr Lodge".

He never returned. Phoned after a while to say that he was safe and well looked after in the city . He was never searched for.  The Department just legally released him from the Act.


 RUNNING FROM....

It was one of those"informant" incidents. Bongani had marijuana in his bedroom cupboard.

Every incoming young person signed a contract with the Home. In this contract, one of the understandings in this contract was permission for random searches. On the Homes side it was contracted to give help and support to any young person who used drugs. And this included Marijuana which is illegal in South Africa. The conditions for search were that the young person must be present.... no "secret" searches"

The male child care worker undertook a random search of the full house in order not to "pick out" an individual. When it came to Bongani he quickly grabbed the packet of marijuana from his cupboard and also a fairly log knife. He then told the child care worker to stand back, stabbed at his stomach but the knife entered the child care workers hand just below the thumb.

I was called to find Bongani threatening both the male and the female workers who wanted to block the door and keep him in the bedroom until I came. I told them to back right off and leave him be.

He ran out of the room. out of the house and into the streets of the city centre .

Too scared to come back he had lived off his wits in the centre of Johannesburg for two weeks before we found hi.


RUNNING ABOUT....

These two boys made a habit of running about. They always did it together. A bigger boy who was always regarded as the "influence" on the smaller one. But this may not have been completely true.

Sometimes they set themselves a target.... a destination and ran with the destination in mind "let's got to ....."

Another run about plan was to set themselves a place where the would see for how long they could survive without getting caught. They would often first, either agree on a suburb, or first find themselves a place to sleep, like a vacant house, a building site, large cement pipes, the caves in the koppies (rocky hills).

The third adventure and perhaps by far the most exciting was to run about in the vicinity of the Home itself and live off the Home by breaking in at night to steal and/or to get accomplices to feed them and support their survival.

On one of these escapades they tried to get to an eastern town about 30 kilometers away. They jumped a train but got caught and thrown off. There they were in farmland, so they decided to hide and sleep in the middle of a field of dried mielies (corn),  ready for the farmer to 'plough back,. To keep warm they made a fire. he whole field caught fire with them in the middle of it. Fire authorities were called rescued them, and they were brought back

Anyone for a run about... ?????

Running to..... three conversations

SIPHO

You have a warm bed here, TV and you are at a good school. You get meals every day and you go to Karate lessons.
Yes

Sipho was a bright little 9 year old

Things to you look settled with your Mom right now. She has work again and lives in a one bedroom place. here is a bed for you to sleep.
Yes
It hasn't always been like that.
No.
You want to go live with your mom now.
Yes.
Let's play "what if?" What if it all goes wrong again and Mom lives under a bridge again under cardboard under a bridge?
I'll chose to be with my Mom.
What if a social worker says you should come back to this Home?
I'll choose to live with my Mom.
What if it's bread and jam and tea day after day?
My Mom.
So you know what you lose if you go now. And you know that there's a chance that it can all go wrong again. You know it can be really vary hard?
Yes. I want to be with my Mom.
And what if the Department says "No"?
I'll run away to my Mom.

MPHO

The social worker tells of the conversation.

Mpho is 16 and a big boy not doing all that well at school and nearing the end of  compulsory schooling. He did not return to the Home after the mid-year holiday break. After three days of absence and now officially an absconder .. otherwise AWOL and a "no return " at school, she visits the parental house.

I'm not coming back!

She sets out the implications and consequences.

I'm not coming back. I'm going to stay here with my Dad.
Mpho. You didn't come back because you have been lying here on your bed on your stomach for three days. Just look at your back. Your Dad beat you with a 'shambok'. ( a South African whip traditionally made from rhino hide but now mass produced in rubber. A shambok is particularly damaging).
You have at least 11 whip marks on your back. We or you should lay charges of assault against your Dad. And we can look after you if you come back
.
I'm not coming back I want to stay with my Dad. Please don't lay charges. I want to stay here..You don't understand ma'm. My Dad shamboked me because I did something wrong. It's the best thing that has ever happened to me. It's the first time ever that he has shown any interest in me, or what I do. It's the first time he has cared enough to punish me.  I believe he loves me now. Since he shamboked me . it's been different. I want to stay with my Dad. I'm not going back
.
I you force me to go back - I'll run to my house again.
I don't care.
I want to be with my Dad.


DENNIS

I just want to be with my mother.
Dennis you have run to her 52 times in six weeks. That's sometimes more than once a day.  .. and she brings you back every time..... what does that say to you? What does that tell you?

I don't care. I just want to be with her.

Running from..will professional child and youth care prevent it?

It's the very stuff of urban legend.

Certainly the very stuff of legends in the organisation. And yet there seems to be good reason to believe it.  The incident was told to me by my predecessor and he is a reliable story teller.

It goes like this.

There was gang warfare in Hillbrow, an infamous mid-city section of Johannesburg. One of the gangs was made up of young people and youth of Lebanese origin .. known simply as the Lebanese, or if you like, the "Lebanese Gang".The rivals had a name, but it was not mentioned in the telling of this story.

 Somehow some of the young persons in the Home, known only to the staff as "the boys" would go into Hillbrow especially over weekend nights as "back-up" for the rival gang. Their story was that the didn't actually fight but stood behind the rival street gang to swell the numbers, increase the threat and fight only when it really became necessary. "The Lebanese knew the "Home boys" at very least, by sight. Gang members on both sides would recognise each other anywhere.

There was a soccer match a the Home. The "Home boys" were playing against some or other side when it was noticed that the Lebanese Gang had jumped the fence and were collecting somewhat out of sight on a lower bank of the field in large numbers and armed.

The story goes that on staff instruction the match was stopped. The entire Home, players and spectators were ordered to get into their houses and lock themselves in. The police were called who then dispersed the attackers with the help of dogs.

Legendary stuff !!

There was a sequel in my time.

There is a procedure by which a boy could be admitted for 48 hours as an emergency Place of Safety. The police or a social worker had the legal power to sign the form and deliver the boy to the Home as a Place of Safety awaiting a magistrate to decide on a future placement or to make the Place of Safety placement permanent. These boys just arrive, sometimes if you are lucky on the strength of a telephone call only... no preparation of the others in the house..just arrive,form in hand in a police van or a social workers car.

It was evening when this Lebanese youth was delivered and admitted. I was told that he had said at the time, " I can't stay here". I think that the background possibilities were not known by the person who did the admittance. He was accompanied to the dininghall for the centralised evening meal, reluctant and scared, but he didn't have an option. His anxiety was interpreted as normal considering he had been picked up in some kind of emergency and very quickly delivered into a strange place with 103 other boys already well integrated into the system.

 In the dininghall "the boys" immediately recognised him as a member of the "Lebanese Gang". He knew "the boys" as the supporters of the rival gang.

Now, the dininghall situation was closely controlled. It was monitored by staff,  table orderlies, and a little body of boys known as "prefects". Even so.animosity and rivalry could not be contained  About five of "the boys" stood up so that they would be seen by the Lebanese youth and gang  member.

Almost in unison, they gave him "the sign".

The thumb is placed behind the front teeth and pulled forward sharply to make a clocking sound. Then the forefinger of the same hand is stretched asif pointing and drawn slowly across the neck asif slitting the throat.

The message was clear.

The Lebanese boy got up, ran out of the dininghall, ran out of the Home and the property, not to be seen again.

He escaped.

It was fear.

He" ran from.......  "

 We all talk of pro-active, preventative, professional child and youth care.

Could this have been prevented?

 What do you think?

Running around, adventure and risk - a child and youth care problem

There's a tendency for a girl who wants to abscond to try and take a few others with her. Two is better than one when you "hit the road". Three is not a crowd. Whatever her reasons to run might be, she will often try to influence others into believing they have the same reasons too. Some refuse. ... and they are the ones who tell  what the plan was if they are properly approached later. But then there are those who choose to run too.

"Running" behaviour seems to be categorised into four. "Running to", "running from" and "running around" and "walk abouts".

This was an instance of "running around" - adventure and excitement - pure and simple - having to live by your wits in the streets, with all the risks it entails.

If you are adolescent and intelligent but don't experience your intellectual capacity being challenged though some positive activity . If your life becomes dull, no adventure, no risks , no sense of facing some kind of danger .... then being "on the road" provides just the right formula for those adolescent needs to be met. There you are in control, you make your own decisions, you use your street wisdom, you face risk and you stretch that hibernating IQ.

Three girls ran.

The idea was to get from Johannesburg to Durban and the sea where one had an aunt but didn't know where she lived... perhaps they could find her in the telephone directory once that got there.

But first they needed some money.

About two blocks away from the group home was a place the girls knew through schoolgirl chatter. It was known as the "model House" Here if you posed for pictures you would be paid R300 (ZAR) each. That would give them a "start", a "boost".

That night, they danced. Photos were taken and they each got the promised R300.. Next morning, A Saturday, they "hit the road", hitching on the National Road to Durban.

 The lift was in South African language, known as a "bakkie", and open van. There were three nice guys in the van who told the girls not to worry,"don't panic". The had booked an hotel room right on the beachfront . The girls can just stay there too, and the guys will help with food and drink.

Once in the room three nice guys changed. They locked the door and showed them the gun. The first instruction under threat was to lift their blouses.Gun, food, drink and duress. The scene changed.

Exactly how it happened I don't know but one got out and went to the beachfront where there was a beach patrol officer and she told her story. She was taken to a Place of Safety whilst the hotel room story was sorted out.

It took three weeks or longer before all three were back in Johannesburg and the legal procedures completed for them to be returned into the group home.

This was an adventure - wits and wisdom lost to the barrel of a gun... but an adventure all the same.told often over a school lunch to groups of eagerly listening black stockinged admirers vicariously living the adrenalin and the drama ... It  may have gone sour, but maybe this was what they were looking for somehow.

One of the three ran fairly frequently even after that and was returned with stories on each occasion that were not much different.

For some young people "hitting the road" seems to satisfy needs that are not being met in the program. Its a great lure if the program can't match their need to exercise and experience adventure and risk taking, to think in the moment and on their feet. Adventure and risk taking is and adolescent need - a characteristic of the developmental period - a challenge to professional child and youth care workers and their programmes.

The hidden life of children and youth in group care

A respected colleague told me this

A donor gifted the boys home with new mattresses. One for every boys' bed.

The mattresses were delivered one morning when the boys were at school. The staff secretly then, fitted each bed with a brand new mattress, stored the old ones and awaited the reactions of the boys when they returned after school. Everyone expected  the boys would be thrilled and pleased.

They weren't.

Instead they came as an angry delegation to demand their old mattresses back.

The argument was that they had "earned" the better mattresses as they had progressed through the pecking order of the home..... "senior" boys claiming the right to the better beds, dormitory positions and mattresses. "juniors" get the worse ones  Now the new mattresses had evened out the signs and advantage of the pecking order. .... it wasn't fair !!

I was told that the mattresses were swapped back and the new donated ones put into the store to be used as and when.

Such is the power of the "pecking order" in "institutional residential life... and in this incident was respected by the child and youth care workers and the Director. But at first, the strong reaction to the levelling of the order through mattresses was not foreseen .......it means that there were powerful social operations going on in the program that the child and youth care workers didn't quite grasp.

It is that "hidden" sometimes secret social system that operates in many a group residential program.

One of these is "initiation"  Rites of entry and of passage through the social order.

A new staff member walked, purely by chance, into a dormitory to see boys in various stages of undress diving for cover . But he had seen enough to know that he had walked in on what he interpreted as some form of abuse of the young 14 year olds... all four of them new boys entering on transfer from a home attached to a convent in the city.

He exploded, and was told to "cool it" by the senior boys...This was just an initiation rite.. they said... all the boys have had to go through this or more .. these boys just had to show their manhood, ... that's all....                                             it was nothing. Also they said, it was a tradition in the home. A secret thing it has been going on for years... they had all been through this and if he tells..... "We will have you out of this place .. and quick, So if you want your job.... you keep quiet."

He told.

Within four days, He left.

It was years of secrecy broken. He had revealed a social practice that had been hidden and kept secret for years.  I can't help wondering how many staff members over the years knew and kept quiet to hold onto their popularity and so their jobs... but the boys made it unbearable for him.... and he left.

A complex web of social orders, a network of social systems can and may well operate in hidden, if not secret systems in group residential facilities These can be below the surface of what child and youth care workers are allowed to see directly... intentionally obscured but impacting on the daily life of the program.

Is there another world ?

Next time...... skivvying,  protection systems, alliances, "lapskulls", gangs  and rats.

Spies for favours...in child-- and youth care practice

Towards understanding something of the behaviour of young people living in group residential care, a model of a three tier chess game developed in me. I believe that there may be such a game.

 The image is of three chess boards stacked on top of one another and the game is played on all three levels simultaneously. A move at one level determines a move at the other levels.  Behaviour at the bottom, the deepest level, determines behaviour at the next and then at the surface level.

Child and youth  care workers watch the game... its called " observation". What happens at the top level is clearly observable. The worker sees every move of every piece. ... and logs that daily. It is what the child care worker is permitted to see. ... what I call "surface" behaviour. It is the " he did this, I did that behaviour of the life-space, the moment, the day to day events ... as the literature says.

But then we are trained to ask the question " What is REALLY" going on here? or what is this child getting out of this behavior?"

There is a second board game going on underneath this....another level of dynamic of which the child and youth care worker may just be permitted to catch a mental glimpse. It is the in between game, the dynamics that children and youth may use to provide hints, just enough to let the child and youth care worker know that there is more going on than simply reaches the eye.

 The worker finds herself saying something like " Rachel is doing this or that, saying this or that (direct observation ) but I think what may really be happening is ....... .... " (the partially obscured dynamics). An astute child and youth care worker can get some kind of intuitive sense of what that just may be. ... not an instinct... an intuition. A kind of intelligent guess, based on knowledge and skill. It is behaviour that is designed to let you know that there are things going on, but they can't be told.

At the third.... the deepest level of the behaviour game in institutional group living dynamics is what I call the "secret" level.

It is forbidden for any member of the group to reveal this state of group play. If they do they will get severely punished by the group. If they do "squeal" . I f the tell what is really going on to a staff member or to management, the life will be made unbearable for them You just don,t "rat" on the secret institutional life game.The child and youth care worker is not supposed to know anything of this.

You will hear child and youth care workers say" There,s something going on here, but I just can't put my finger on it .. I just cant make it out at all." and sometimes, if a child and youth care worker stumbles into it .. and sees this secret game being acted out.... they too will have an unbearable time..Management must never know.

This behaviour game is going on all the time. What you see, what you may be allowed to catch by implication and innuendo, and what you are not supposed to know. Three levels, three chess boards, three games, each interconnected.

Typical examples of this may be the sexual behaviours in the group. Who is "servicing" who, and what abuses are happening.

Satanism.

Sets of examples come from the "systems" that exist in the institution that are kept by the longer stayin residents and passed on form one "generation to the next as it were. initiation rites and rituals, the rites and rituals that come out of the "pecking order" protection payment systems, informal gangs, formal gangs, alliances for protection, kangaroo courts, and the power that personal secrets have with the fear of exposure.

Young people may say " You don't know how things work around here - you have no idea". (Second level).
d that there is this third and secret

You are being told that there is another deeper level of play going on.......and that it has a controlling effect on behaviour.

 And that is why some child care workers and managers will persuade some young people to be spies in return for favours.

Child and youth care ...words we use..thoughts for talk 13

It seems worth thinking about how the words we use define us and the work we do.The words obviously vary from one progam to another making the perspectives that are held by management of the programs different. There must be words that are used in your program that say something to you about YOU and the way YOUR WORK is perceived, or the way children are perceived . Let's try a few as thoughts for talk.

Children live in "units"
Child care workers do a "patrol"... especially at night, Then it's a "night patrol"
Families have a "treatment plan"
Children are cared for in different "systems"
We have a "roll-call"
We go "on duty" or we do "ground duty" or "kitchen duty"
A child care worker can be called a "house-mother", a "care worker" or an "uncle"
A child may find itself in a "forum" , a "disciplinary enquiry" a  "peer court" in "in detention" or in a "parade"
The big "system" could be called "Social Development", "Social Welfare " or just "Welfare"
Child and youth care work is "Applied Developmental Psychology"
We are not sure if we are "workers" or "practitioners"

You can add to this list.

BUT.... WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Injury of child and youth care workers by children 3

Some incidents...... briefly told:

1. He had gone through the ranks at the Child and Youth Care facility.

 When he was to retire from the facility, he gave my one piece of advice.... it was the only advice I got from him.... ever.

"If you are on swimming pool duty, never get into the pool with the boys. As an assistant , I did.

 "Come on , Sir," they said.

 " Once I was in, they pushed me under the water and stood on me. I nearly drowned."

 I WONDER WHY?

2. Playing soccer in the tennis court was always fun....... I joined in. Then the boys suggested that we play "touch rugby" instead of soccer... in the tennis court. It sounded like fun to me.

The rules were discussed..... a goal would be scored if the ball was pushed against the wire fence on the opposing end of the tennis court.

I was soon thrown the ball.

 Strange that I had such an easy run through to the fence..... no-one touched me. THEN, as I pushed the ball against the wire 5 boys pushed me hard on my shoulders against the wire fence and dragged me to the left, then to the right. There was a single strand of barbed wire woven into the fence at just  head level so my forehead was opened up and the blood came down into my eyes in a sheet..... I had been assaulted.

Girls screamed at the site of the blood. They ran to call my wife.

The boys backed off.

I WONDER WHY THEY DID THAT ??

3. A male child and youth care worker in the senior boys house went missing for four days. The boys covered up for their missing care worker, so management wouldn't know. But then there was a realisation that something was wrong, so management broke into his locked flatlet.  ... AND THERE HE WAS.

 The boys had shaved his head in what was called a " hot-cross bun"..... a bald stripe down the centre and another across the top from left to right.

The "hot-cross bun" was an act (derived from the military) of extreme humiliation and degradation inflicted on peers by the boys in secret kangaroo court procedures of their own.

 He was too embarrassed to come out of his room.

I WONDER WHY THEY DID THIS?


 Thought for talk in child and youth care work







  

Injured by children and youth in child care work 2

Iris had all the potential to be a really good child and youth care worker - young (25 something) - lively  empathetic, likable, quick to learn and very, very keen.

 She arrived ironically, just as the in-house staff training was a PART Course.: Professional Assault Response Training. The thinking was that we work with the risk of having to deal with assaultive behaviour . Many of the parents, children and young people are assaultive. They will adopt assault as a way of dealing with the issues that they face with other people..... and a properly educated trained response at best can de-escalate assaultive behaviour and restore equilibrium. At least - a crisis assaultive moment be reached it can reduce or eliminate hurt and injury. PART sets out to do this.

 Iris had long hair. Black and worn loose to her shoulders _ just a little natural free curl in it. So she was asked in the Training programme to allow the trainer to use her as the "victim" in demonstrating how an assaultive person may put their hand or hands and fingers into a persons hair, thentwist it around thw hand and so drag the professsional by the hair. There is no escape. The best you can do is to place your hands on top of the attackers and press down to reduce the hurt and the power of the attackers pull and drag. Iris was the perfect example of the risk attached to a hairpulling assault. She handled it perfectly

The phone call came three days after the course.

" I'm leavign. I'm packed. I'm waiting for a taxi to take me to the airport. I'm going and I'm never coming back' I wanted to do this job. I'll never try to do this work ever again."

 She was sobbing as she spoke. No amount of talking persuaded her to allow a face to face explanation of what happened, but she was persuaded to tell her story on the phone.

An 18 year old girl in the house and not a school like the others, on psychiatric medication and alone in the house attacked her in the kitchen. The girl did exactly as the trainer had demonstrated - grabbed and twisted Iris' hair, pulled her to kitchen drawer, got hold of a kitchen knife .

Iris used the technique she had been taught. She pressed down ontop of the girls hands to reduce pain and power and managed to get under the kitchen table for protection and to escape the knife.

The girl let go and ran into the street.

 Iris did not say what the build up of the trigger to this incident was.

No amount of counselling, persuasion or consoling persuaded her to stay and by 3.00 that afternoon she was on an aeroplane from Johannesburg to Durban - 600kilometers away.

As it turned out, three weeks later, Iris did go back into the work of child and youth care in a facility in Durban

 But the questions remain.

Questions for talk.

Is staff training adequate to equip child and youth care workers to observe, respond and de-escalate assaultive behaviour before it reaches crisis point.?

Do we have policies and procedures in place to maintain appropriate levels of supervision of children and young people when the risk of assaultive behaviors exist?

Do we have proper procedures for the management, control and use of anything that could be used as a weapon... the kitchen seems like a place of focus for this.

 Can staff be required to wear hair clothing and accessories in styles that  may reduce the level of risk in assaultive incidents?

How quickly  and effectively can we reach a child and youth care worker for trauma counselling and de-briefing as part of staff support.?Can staff lay charges against a child or a young person in their professional care?

Is assault by a client an internal/agency matter or can we act as private citizens even within the context of our professional capacity?

 What do you think?

 Thoughts for talk.

Getting injured by children and youth in child care work

This is the first in a series of thoughts around child and youth care workers getting physically injured by children and youth in  various settings.

On one hand the question will always be asked as to why we CHOSE to work with assaultive people when we knew what the risks were from the very beginning. Someone is bound to say " If you can't stand the heat, then why are you in the kitchen?"

On the other hand, there is always the comment that management is far more interested in the rights of the children and youth than it is about the rights of child and youth care workers.... the issue of being assaulted by the "client" is  loaded with questions for the professional and for management.

They stood in groups in the grounds of the Youth Centre. Large and small uniformed male child and youth care workers. They were known as "care officers there.No females on the staff!

They talked together in their huddles whilst the boys - all young people in trouble with the law, (then called - juvenile offenders) lolled around in the open grassed square..... doing nothing.... just lolling.

" So why don't you interact with them?" we asked. "Why don't you talk with them - Build or use your relationship with them?" we asked.

 "WE wont" they said. " and we wont until our demands are met. They are dangerous. .... they can injure us."

'We' were a team from the Cabinet Enquiry in to Places of Safety and Place of Detention for Youth Awaiting Trial. (as they were then called.) as instructed by the then President Mr Nelson Mandela.

"They" , it turns out were traumatised and scared by an incident involving a colleague four days earlier.

 The story was that that night the night shift heard a loud furore in one of the barred, locked boys' dorms. Each dorm slept six boys. The care officer 'on patrol' for that 'section' opened the barres security door of the dorm and walked in to investigate the problem.

 The boys were waiting for him. The noise was a decoy. It was a trap. Once just inside, they attacked him with ametal bar. His skull was indented by the force of the blow and at the time of our arrival he was still in a coma. The thinking was that he would have permanent brain damage.

 "We wont interact with these boys" they said "We demand danger money and we want to be issued with and trained to use "donkey tails" ..... A type of baton carried by security gaurds.

On the surface of it and under the circumstances it sounded sort of immediately understandable at least.... the fear and the reality of the work having the risk of serious personal injury.

But the issue in the team centred around relationships. " Relationship" as the "donkey tail' of child and youth care work. And training to be able to deal with escalating behaviours. And procedures to build safety and protection into situations where personal risk was possible.

Money was to be spent rather on that. We could not recommend that child and youth care workers carry weapons or get danger money.

The Cabinet allocated four and a half million South African Rand (ZAR) to training in all these Centres. It was called 'Operation Up-grade.'

Yet  issues remain.

What do you think?

Danger money? Donkey tails? Restraint techniques? Insurance?

and.... can you as a professional .... should you as professionals ... lay charges of assault against children and youth in care ???

Is the child "in our midst" or "at the centre" ?

The child shall enjoy special protection, and shall be given opportunities and facilities by law and by other means to enable him to develop physically, morally, spiritually and socially in a healthy and normal manner and in conditions of freedom and dignity. In the enactment of laws for this purpose the best interest of the child will be the paramount consideration.  UN 1959 Declaration of the Rights of the Child, Principle 2.

In a 'Kindersentrum' (a Children's Centre) in Cologne Germany, on a stair landing there were two murals. Both were done as a project by the 'drop in' children On the one side of the entrance the mural depicted 'The Adult-centred City'.  On the other, 'The Child-centred City'. The differences were extreme.

The 'Adult-centred City' was clearly a place where money ruled city design. Crammed, grey, dull,  filled with places of industry and commerce, boxy looking living spaces, streets filled with cars, buses, taxis and trains. And people, people, people - packed and in a hurry.

The 'Child-centred City' was spread widely. Lots of open spaces right in the city centre Trees, grass flowers, amusements parks and colourful places to be. Expansive schools. Walkways . A city clear of major traffic. Friendly small industries on the outer boundaries.

It was fun, It was a statement, through the eyes of the children of adults blindness to the children's world, their needs and lives, right in the heart of laws, by-laws and local management, traffic control, provision. It was a practical example of the U.N Rights of Children in operation.

The South African Constitution has a principle also called 'in the best interests of the child'. Simple, when making law.... any law... when drawing up budgets of provision, when planning city, town or village,when considering anything to do with the lives of people.. the best interests of the child have to be paramount.

Did I say "simple"?

It took a service delivery protest that turned violent, to get speed-humps put on a road through Orange Farm recently this past week. It took a toddler to get killed on that road for the residents to say "We are glad for the speed-humps. It's a pity that we had to fight for them"

 Speed-humps are but a start. It's the mindset that has to change for out cities, by-laws, laws and spending to be child-centred.... of paramount consideration.

If the statement made by the kids that lived in the streets of Cologne are guidelines for us in our villages and townships, then they wanted trees to climb and give shade, child -centred recreation spaces and facilities, cycle and pedestrian paths, road crossing pedestrian bridges, evening and night-time facilities for adolescents and the young, proper sporting facilities ..... even refuse removal, running water and lighting in the streets is a child-centred need. Organised activities, child protection, circles of care and access to computers. ( in a digital age,.... no access to computers!).Children's Centres and Isibindi Safeparks.

The Children's Centre in Cologne asked the children and the children spoke... in murals, they spoke... I wonder who listened..

 In South Africa the children must speak too. and we must listen.

Let not the child in our midst be a little person lost amidst a forest of adult motives and a forest of adult agendas laws and money. The child in our midst must be the child at the centre of our thinking and our listening ... of paramount consideration

Please.  

Child and Youth Care in South Africa: 5 questions .. thoughts for talk 12

1. In interviews with candidates for staffing, I always ask these two questions....What was the unhappiest moment in your life?
ANSWER: almost always the same....  the death of _(a relative)_______ ( almost always through AIDS related diseases)
What was your happiest moment in your life?
ANSWER: almost always the same.... when I gave birth to my first born._____( almost always a teenage/schoolgirl pregnancy)
WHY?

2.  I was elected onto the South African Professional Board for Child and Youth Care Work in February 2012. I was notifies as such in April 2012. The Board has not yet met.. end of August 2012
WHY?

3.  I have never yet spoken to a young person in trouble with the law and awaiting trial who has said "I did it" . They always say..... "But I didn't do it !!"
WHY?

4.  Young persons and children living in the streets always say it is preferable to being at home.
WHY?

5. Many child and youth care workers in this country are being called by a job title that is different from the name given to the profession.
WHY?


              

Children and Youth in care did this....thoughts for talk 11

1. A youth stole a detonator from the school Cadet Corp armory. At about 10.0pm one night he let it off on the soccer field. The blast was massive. All the windows in the buildings way above the epi-centre of the blast shook.
 A young priest in training (ordinand) in full cassock ran down to the field to find out what it was all about, whilst the rest of the community stood outside the buildings . He discovered a boy in a tree but the blast had knocked him backwards. So he was all but hanging upside down in the tree among the branches.
"What was that ?!  What are you doing?"
" Having a smoke sir," he said.

2. A group of children from another children's Home facility were travelling through Johannesburg to reach the Kruger National Park during a school holiday. So they were invited to overnight in a house in the Johannesburg Home.
In the early evening of their arrival I walked over to find out if everything was alright to find all the children and young people outside in huddles and the child care worker looking rather frantic.
" Whats-up?"
" The pocket money for the entire trip is missing.... one of the children must have stolen it. We have locked up everything searched each child, letting them out one by one.Now we are searching the house" she said.
"Hmm my training of the workers in that facility is paying off" I thought.
Whilst we are all now waiting outside along comes a giant of a youth from the Johannesburg facility.What was called a "senior boy".  He did not have any other holiday arrangements so he was in the Home for the vacation.
"Whats going on?" he asks.
I told him.
" No problem" he says Sir, just leave it to me, " I'll sort it out. Just tell these kids to stand in a circle. I'll stand in the circle and start it. I'll slap the face of the kid next to me.HARD... like this!"
He swung his hand in a great full open blow .... it would have knocked me over !!
" Then he slaps the face of the kid next to him.... We go round like that until someone owns up. It works every time.. We do it like that here.. Its called a slapping circle."

3. Taking the usual stroll around... the daily routine inspection .. mainly the idea was to check the building and grounds for any possible hazards " The safety check" it was called. I came across a spread of some little pink pills in the garden .My first concern was "pinks"... the common name for Welcenol .. a rather popular drug at the time. But they were contraceptive pills. So looking up I could identify the window from which these were being thrown. It was the window next to the bed of a 17 year old girl .. on the "pill" as she was sexually active and had a regular boyfriend.
The procedure with the pill was that some were allowed to administer it to themselves. Others had to be given the pill daily by a child care worker who watched the pill being taken. This young woman was putting it under her tongue, then spitting it out of the window.
When confronted she said that she wanted to fall pregnant with her current boyfriend. He would then be forced to marry her Then she would be released out of the Home... it was a good way to get out of the "system"

Children select the child care workers anyway ??

With a focus  in child and youth care on the principle of "participation", the question had to be asked. Should children participate in the selection of the child and youth care staff who will be their professional worker on a day to day basis? After all, there's some client choice in the way other professionals are chosen for professional intervention.

It was considered brave at the time. By some it was considered foolish. But the decision was to put some participation of children into the staff selection process. When staff selection interviews were arranged, two members of the Children's Forum, ( which we called 'Bridge') were selected by the Forum to be part of this.

The procedure was that candidates had to spend a day in the house before interview anyway. This gave the candidate insight into the clients, the routine , something of the interaction and at the same time a chance for the children to suss out something of the incoming staff as a person.

 The two selected by Bridge collected the impressions of the children in that house to bring to the discussion.

 They were allowed a short period in the interview, usually right at the start when the two could ask a few questions of the candidate. Then they reclused themselves for the rest to be invited back for the first part of the discussion afterwards.

They were not present for the presentation of the Psychologist's report,nor for the more intense questioning done by the adults on the panel. The final decision was that of the adults who took the children's input into consideration in the making of a final decision and called the children in to tell them of the result.

That was the FORMAL selection process.

But the real question is whether  INFORMALLY , in the lifespace, the children make the final selection anyway.

There is always a process of relationship building that takes place between the children and their new childcare worker...... At first there appears to be a " goodie two-shoes" phase. Everyone trying to please the other. Then follows a testing phase. This is the hard part.....  "boundary bonking".!!

The children and young people will test the limits . What is acceptable and what not by this new child care worker.

Really hard stuff this.

Limit testing is the hardest period of the child care workers introduction into a new set of relationships. It is summed up in the words of a very bright 8 year old girl  " If you cant control me, you can't care for me !!"... Thing is that it feels good to feel "contained", to be allowed to be out of control is very frightening. Terrible things can happen in this testing period and new staff should be orientated to expect it, as well as supported through it. Their buttons will be pushed, and believe it, the children know just where to put their fingers. They know where to find the adults' vulnerability, even if the adult doesn't.

It is in this phase that the informal selection by the children is likely to be happening.

Depending on whether the new member handles this, the phase passes and relationships can settle. Then the real work can begin, because therapeutic work, care and development  relies on relationship and the containment and management of behaviour... like the 8 year old said.." if you cant contain me you cant care for me"

So it's like this.... It seems that informally the children make the final staff selection anyway.

 What do you think?

Child and Youth Care Workers said this......thoughts for talk 10

1.  Two boys bleeding at the mouth........ " I wanted to hit their shoulders to beat the demons from them, but they dodged and I hit their faces.... I didn't mean to hit their faces "

2.  Staff Meeting - to discuss the introduction of breakfast as a meal prepared, mainly by the boys and in the kitchens attached to each house, as against a meal in the centralised dininghall.
ME:  " The  boys must be given a choice of two cereals, hot and cold"
CCW " Sir, you don't bring up children like that..... you don't give a choice - they have what you give them"

3.  CCW  " If you don't give this boy a merit blazer for his contribution in the Home - I'll resign"
     ME:  But a merit blazer is for performing at Provincial level and he isn't provincial standard"
    CCW  " I resign"

4  ME  " We have to use fresh milk for the boys, we can no longer use powdered milk mix"
    KITCHEN SUPERVISOR " Sir, If i'm over budget, you will be to blame"

5. CCW to the boys in his House...... " OK guys this is the deal.... You come to Homework (prep) in the afternoons so that when Mr Lodge does his rounds and checks up, you are all present. Then, I'll close my eyes if you don't get back to the house at the cut off time (curfew) on a Saturday night......... just don't get caught.... that's all  !!"
  

names and naming in Africa... a child care issue

A speaker recently introduced his offspring to his audience. For each he explained the meaning of the name and the context in which it was given. What he did not tell the Christian gathering was that the family may have also been involved in some traditional African rite to insure the approval of the children's names by the wider ancestral family. These thing are often not spoken of openly. Family rites in the cultural tradition are often kept within the family...." not for everyone"... "it belongs to us". It seems that among Christian peoples especially, there is a fear that the church or people in the church will be critical or even condemn involvement in traditional practices. So, people tend to become secretive.

Among younger people there could be a tendency to hide or mask involvement in traditional practices .. like naming rites, on the grounds of being 'modern'. " traditional practices are for the 'old people'..........it's what the 'old people do or did" so younger people may try to hide their involvement or perhaps even ignore traditional practices because the don't want to be regarded critically in contemporary 'universal' culture as 'superstitious'.

 But somehow, in the end, the importance of traditional practices cannot be ignored... and here the focus is on "naming ".In Africa names have meaning. Names have power. names it is  understood can shape children's lives.

 A young woman with the Setswana name meaning 'tears' constantly relates the stream of difficulties in her life to the meaning of her name. "My name is 'tears' .... I have a life of tears" she will say.

A the wider family of a pregnant sixteen year old gathered themselves with their ancestors to discuss the schoolgirls situation and that of her soon to be born baby. The decision was that she should not give the child to a family member but suckle and raise it herself. There was a condition attached to this. The child must be called 'It is agreed'.. In this the little girl child grew up with the comfort of knowing she was wanted, settled and approved of by the whole wider family and her ancestors.

Names are sometimes given in addition to the given name in order to satisfy the spiritual dimension of the child's life. ... and this is not only to be found in black African communities.

In South Africa we have a Tamil speaking Hindu community. Nine days after birth the priest is visited to give the naming requirements for the child. Usually the first letter or first letters of the name that will provide the child with its spiritually approved identity.  Parents will take this name as the child's name. If they have given the child a name of their own choice then the 'religious name' will be an additional perhaps second name for the child.and used as the child's religious or spiritual identity. A Tamilian mother of two said " I suppose I didn't want to use the 'religious ' names for the children as their given names because at the time I wanted to be seen as a modern woman"

But what if , in Africa this is ignored .

 Often the  indications that naming rites, and naming approvals have not been satisfactorily done is manifested in ongoing misfortune or constant sickness  and even in misbehaviour...often bring distress to the parents and family.Getting the right name, then becomes important in shifting the pattern of the child's life. Names approved in the spiritual dimension have  powerful effect on the well being of the child and the family.

This was so for Simon, son of Jonas. ..... son of the fluttering dove. .. The Simon , disciple of Jesus who was impulsive, outspoken often inappropriately, unsettled, denied even knowing him.........  " You will be called 'Peter'.... the 'rock'..... and we experience a new character:  foundational, reliable and upholding of patience and tolerance.

 So the idea is not new, nor confined to black Africa. But it is very much an African thing..... Names,  naming and naming rites..cannot be ignored.

 The question is simple as always.

What significance do names. naming and naming rites have for us in our everyday practice as child and youth care workers in the African context.?

In therapeutic work in Africa, we may have to think this through very carefully..../ and will we have to change anything in our procedures and practice to be fully African in Africa???

What comes first....child care or procedure?

Tobile is 10 years old. She lives in an inner-city informal settlement (squatter camp) in a slum area of  Johannesburg. There are three hundred people living in 70 shacks on  an urban site that was once a house and a garden. The house is still there . It houses 5 families and is the access point serving the whole settlement for water and a toilet. So small is the site that the shacks, really no more than single rooms, are built one up against the other. To move between them means walking single file and sometimes sideways on. It's easy to get lost in there if you don't know your way about

Tobile often comes to the motor-gate of my house. "Mr Ba !...........Mr Ba......!"  she calls most frequently to ask for food. Sometimes just to say hello.

This time the call was more urgent.." MR BA !.....MR BA !....."

This time it was not a simple request for food.

'Mr Ba...... Mr Ba.......tell a social worker to come and TAKE ME NOW!!"

She wanted to talk and she was crying. " I have nowhere to stay. The man I was staying with has gone to Soweto with that other girl"

Her mother frequently leaves Tobile in the settlement with anyone who will take her when she is herself incapacitated by alcohol, has a boyfriend moved in, or is looking for work. The man she was talking about was a man in his 70's and there was a clear picture of Tobile at risk , if not being sexually abused.

So that is what I did. I called the Provincial Offices and told Tobile's story. " It's a city problem" they said.

I called the City Offices.

Weeks past.

One night a fire broke out in the settlement. The risk of fire there was huge and happened at least twice a year, but this time it was worse than usual The whole settlement went up in flames.Three people died. They just could not get out of the shacks or escape the maze between them. White/grey ash was everywhere, in mounds and thinly spread by the wind, everywhere.

When I got there , three better dressed women were standing looking into the smouldering site. Shack dwellers hung around in groups in the street.

" I ned a Social Worker" I said.

" We are social workers" said the oldest......." She is a student social worker " pointing to the youngest who looked grey like the ash.

" These people need Blankets and food" I said. We need City Emergency Services. Tents, .. .

" You have to ask the nearest fire station . They are the contact persons for City Emergency Services. We have brought mealie meal and beans."

 I pulled Tobile from a group in the street.

"Please",   I said, " talk to this little girl. She will tell you. She needs a Place of Safety. She needs protection, now. Please speak to her. I have never had a child ask to be removed ever before. Please, hear her story."

" Where's the mother?" said the oldest.

 I brought forward the mother. She had another small child on her hip and breast fed while she faced the worker. "I cant do anything " she said unless I have an ID Book or some form of identity.

" Where is the child's ID? " she said to Ma-Tobile.

The young student worker hung back and touched Tobile on her shoulder.

The mother in silence lifted her arm, spread her fingers, then very slowly swept her outstretched hand in an arc from left to right toward the piles of smouldering timber and twisted galvanized iron sheets. Then she walked back to the group in the street.

Tobile followed.

 (This is the real story behind an article written I wrote,  previously published in the NACCW journal:  Child and Youth Care Volume 20 No4 April 2002. Some material was taken from it. )

It's child and youth care ..good people get hurt

You must be crazy. Don't do it. You are going to to get very hurt. It is the most painful job in the world. Just think very carefully. You are going to get hurt. Are you sure that you can deal with it?

Written without exclamation marks.... it was the reaction of a colleague at the University when he learnt that I was to leave to go into child and youth care.... and he knew more from first hand experience than I did at that moment.

"I want to tell you " he said.

He and his wife had 4 or maybe 5 children of their own, a large house with a swimming pool. They had developed a relationship with three children who they were hosting some weekends from a local 'Children's Home"  The hosting was not easy, the three displayed some difficult to manage behaviour but the had attached enough to seriously consider fostering them. He and his wife had attended hosting and then foster-care training.The had attached to the children and wanted to give them something of the  family experience and chances their own children enjoyed.

They were very good people and loving.

Thing is,.. if you are going to be with children with troubles, then you have to expect troubled behaviour. But this couple could not be and were not prepared for what happened.

One weekend it was the children's biological fathers turn to have the children for the weekend.

.....and the phone-call came. The father had shot all three children one after the other and turned the gun on himself. If he couldn't have the children then no-one would.

"They were my children" said my colleague. " My wife and I we lost three children".

"You are crazy.....my advice to you is don't do it. Don't go into child and youth care. Are you sure that you are going to cope?"

Recently, that comment returned in another incident." "They were my children. I want to die."

A local safe house experienced the tragic death by fire of three brothers. They were sleeping in a wooden outbuilding which caught fire one evening and trapped, the three were burnt to death... no experience in looking after children can equal this. Good people with god hearts, losing children to death, ... and getting very hurt.

Rumours around the fire abound - so nothing can be said until proper investigation reports are published. But there is one fact for sure, and this was reported in the local press. The three were to have spent their last night in that wooden outbuilding before they were to have gone to another facility the next day.

There was an incident in the facility I last directed. On the night before two boys were to have be moved to a group home, they spread their feces on the walls of their room and used it also to make comments and write slogans for the next two boys who would occupy it. The two boys made it clear. If they couldn't be in that room, then no-one else would .

The  destruction of a living or recreation space to be vacated by the children we care for is not uncommon. The thing is again... if you are to be with children who have troubles, then you have to expect troubled behaviour.

.....and its then that good people get hurt.







"

Children who give up hope...HIV/AIDS in Africa

We all know that Africa , South of the Sahara has the largest estimated HIV/Aids population in the world. South Africa has more people living with HIV/Aids that any other country in the world - - and estimated official figure of 5,7 million in 2009.

Almost one in three women aged 25 - 29 and over a quarters of the men aged 30 - 34 are living with HIV/AIDS. (www.avert.org/aidssouthafrica.htm)

"The impact of the AIDS epidemic" says this report, is the devastating effect on children in a number of ways.... The age bracket that AIDS most heavily targets - younger adults - means that it is not uncommon for for one or more parents to die from AIDS (sic) while their offspring are still young. The number of premature deaths due to HIV/AIDS has risen significantly  over the last decade from  39% to 75% in 2010. (www.doh.gov.za/docs/reports-f.html)

But another set of estimates give us a more startling statistic.  When asked to estimate the number of persons, male female and children who are living with the HIV virus or have AIDS, child and youth care workers and home-based care workers in a semi-rural village in the North West Province of South Africa and in a Semi-urban Township in the Gauteng Province put the figure at 50%. About half of the full population Including older people who ,they said, were at risk as they were largely ignorant of the way the virus is transmitted especially when caring for their HIV positive grandchildren.

 Official statistics are put together on the basis of official attendances at clinics and hospitals, but this is "shoe-leather" research (African style) in the town and village and is  sometimes informally more accurate.

The impact of ARVs has to have an effect on the statistics and premature deaths. It also has an effect on the lifespan of children living with the virus. They're living longer......so we are finding young people in the high Schools with the virus and taking ARVs

I was told, on the same day,in the semi-rural village, of two girls in this age group - both 16 who have been affected in all the ways mentioned so far. Both 16, both orphaned, both living with the virus, both on ARVs

...and both given up hope.


Lets take Lebogang

She has two children aged 3years and 18months..... and remember... she is 16. She is living with HIV/AIDS She lives alone with the children in an RDP house (Reconstruction and Development Project) This at age 16 makes her the head and responsible for a child headed household. She lives in abject poverty . She does have the professional (daily) support of a child and youth care worker from the Isibindi Project in the village.... a project for the professional care of orphans, child-headed households and vulnerable children as a result of HIV/AIDS.

Lebogang has given up hope.

 These are here arguments:
                                        Whats the point
                                         I'm going to die anyway
                                         Who cares?
                                         Why should I care?
                                          I have nothing to live for actually
                                          I am going to get sick and die ... just like my mother did.

These are exactly the same words that I heard from a youth of about the same age who was in deep trouble with the law. He had lot both parents at the same time.

and these are the words of Refilwe the other girl in the same village and in a granny headed household. She has dropped out of school. living in depression and doing nothing. Especially she is refusing her ARVs. These children have given up hope..... not just a passing moment. They really don't see any point to it any more.

It is a very dangerous place to be.

Lets take Lebogang:

She has amazing strengths. She is clever. She has an ability to read complex situations in the moment and to take advantage of them.. for her own benefit. She can plan and execute in a flash. Sh knows how to use her qualities, strengths and assets to get where she wants to be.

But she has lost hope.

For Lebogang there IS NO FUTURE. only the present and in the present she has to make the best of what she has. So,she has sex with older men(30 something). She knows how to play the  "5 Cs game" ... Cash, Cellphone, Clothing.... (not yet the Car and Condo... but she might yet get there ! ) and the "F Game", Food, Furniture , Finance. She also steals clothing and money when the opportunity arises.She doesn't take her ARVs... she sees no point.She dropped out of school three months ago. She has no reason to get up in the morning, so if it were not for the child and youth  care worker, they would not get their ARVs, get breakfast or get to the creche.

BUT from a child and youth care perspective there is hope for Lebogang. She has all the strengths and capacity to make good.She can have hope.

Lebogang excels at netball. It is easy to see how all the strengths that she has can be used in a game like this. She really is good. As a child she comes to the local village "Safe Park" and there in the afternoons she demonstrates her play-making ability by helping the other girls.... she steals their clothing!... but she can and does coach... she can even coach the coach.

Because she has dropped out of school, she isn't  playing for a team.... but she could. Rhe nearest town isnt that fara aay and with a little help she could be introduced into a club, a team and play tournament netball. She would be on her way to local, regional and provincial and representation.

 There can be hope

And then if she has something to live for. some purpose in her life. She might take the ARVs. ... because if she can live for another 7 to 9 years there will be a cure.

 In the meantime we have Lebogang and many others like her who have given up hope.

 This is the work of the child and youth care worker in Africa and in South Africa.

 We can turn these young lives around


              
                                   
 

Using the police professionally .....when and how?

The third thought for talk on the involvement of the police and the criminal justice system in professional child and youth care work.

It seems a great pity  in South Africa that the specialised police units were disbanded . Units like the Child Protection Unit , The satanism Unit, The Domestic Violence Unit were disbanded decades ago. - was there a Missing Persons Unit? These units were really helpful. They had been trained or developed knowledge and skills that could be trusted in their responses to child centred issues. To work with specialised police people was a constructive exercise in the best interests of the child.

Now we deal with the general force and experience has taught us that we can't always rely on a child centred approach to the young persons we care for. At least recently the shackling of young people has been disallowed... but I'm not always sure that this can be trusted in every instance.

The experience is, in the main (but not always), a tendency by general police officers toward the use of scare and power tactics to scare them into " They won't do that again!"  The idea seems to be frequently that harsh treatment will frighten the children and young people from repeating behaviour. Its a tactic that we know just doesn't work.

That's one of our concerns as professionals in some instances when police get involved....we just cant predict, or manage how individual police persons will react with our clients.

"I caught him" He said. "It's my business to deal with this."

 He was a young constable. It was unlikely that he had children of his own, at a guess. He had caught the boy stealing clothing.

The constable opened his jacket to keep his service revolver visible and in full view throughout his harangue. He paced up and down with the boy sitting . The police officer was short and he needed to tower over the boy.
He shouted into his face for about 20 minutes. ... derogatory comments and names for boys who stole stuff. There was a series of threats. " If EVER you do this again - I will personally........"

As he left he said to me, " He won't do that again in a hurry ! "

The boy intensified the very issue we were working at... the police officers reaction set us right back to the beginning again.

THERE IS AN UPSIDE

In some situations the police have to be involved, as in the case of missing children, absconders as missing children, drug detection.....there are many such instances

An 18 year old severely disturbed girl ran wildly into the road. she dashed into the traffic waving her arms, then dashed back onto the sidewalk. She had just attacked a child care worker by grabbing and twisting her fingers into the workers long hair and twisting it to secure a hold.... dragged the worker to the kitchen table and grabbed a kitchen knife. The care worker had manage to free herself and climb under the table for self protection. The the girl dashed into the street totally without control and into the traffic... total chaos... and risk.

The police were called and were excellent. They held her, they contained her sensitively and talked her down   Once in the van, where she was safe, the contacted me.

"where do you want us to take her?" they asked. They knew that she couldn't be managed in an 'open facility'  A 'Place of Safety' was the only option at the time. They didn't want her as they had had her in safety before, and we were looking after her awaiting a vacancy at a psychiatric facility. The police knew that despite opposition they could use their authority to have her placed in safety. It was all very kindly and efficiently done.

In the rural and semi-rural villages and in partnership with community- based child and youth care workers, the experience of the professional seems to be a lot more positive and often really good. The police know the village and the villagers and the villagers know the police. Often they will be called to help with family disputes involving the children and the child care worker can manage much of the dynamics in the discussions.

Grannies will take a young person to a police officer to get the sense of discipline that comes from an otherwise absent male figure .

There is a warmer,community connection and the police are represented at child and youth care awareness campaigns, meetings and functions.

Bu the question for child care talk is still this...... in professional child and youth care, when and how do we deliberately professionally plan to involve the police and the criminal justice system in the best interests of the child?

We'll pay damages... just drop charges !!

This is the second in a series of thoughts for talk on the issue of using the police in professional child and youth care.

Part of the issue around the involvement of the police and the criminal justice system in some agencies appears to centre on the publicity that could arise if the press pick up and publicise an incident or a court case. The problem is that we work with young people where the probability of incidents that bring them into conflict with the law is frequently high. Boards of management and  also middle management of agencies often want to protect the name of the agency from connections with acts of law violation by the  children and young people in its care. It doesn't reflect well on the agency. Headlines in newspapers, and in the  'six o'clock news' are visualised.

In these agencies it becomes then 'policy' to avoid police involvement and the criminal justice system and the Director has to do what can be done to maintain the policy.

In these instances, The middle Management team then works to build up working relationships with public prosecutors and with editors of newspapers.... which is a good idea, but possibly for the wrong reasons. Maintaining a policy of "image" more than ensuring the best interests of the child and young person and the concept of restorative justice.

The local corner cafe called 'Sam's place' was owned by a man everyone called.... guess what? .... Sam .

A small and not that heavily guarded window was on the quieter side of the corner shop on the roadside leading down to the residential facility for boys. The boys formed a fair proportion of Sam's trade.

The little fellow was chosen because he was just that.... little. and being small, could be assisted through the stockroom window.The bigger one planned the break-in for the early hours of the morning. It was easy to break the glass and prize off the guard to let the little fellow through. The idea was, once in the stockroom he would pass bottles of fizzy drinks through the window to the big guy outside.

Getting in proved as easily as they had thought, but there was a surprise that they hadn't foreseen. The floor level of the stockroom was considerably lower than street level. Once in, the little fellow couldn't get out. !!

Once in, he was trapped....and panic set in.

What they did discover was that the storeroom was used to store paraffin as well as other stock. So they worked out a clever plan for the little fellow's escape.He would pour paraffin around the entire stockroom doorframe and set it alight with the matches he used to see his way round in the dark. Then he could push the door open and escape through the shop's front door by opening it from the inside. He followed 'big guys, instructions communicated through the window.

Flames and smoke, smoke and flames and more black paraffin smoke filled the stockroom. Now there was a real emergency.  Real life threatening danger.

The police just happened to be on patrol in a van, saw the bigger boy and the window . They got the story very quickly, called Sam, who lived above the shop . Sam opened the shop and the storeroom and saved the little fellow.

 The charge was breaking and entry with the intent of theft and malicious damage to property. The thinking was that the boys had something against Sam as a person

"We'll pay for the damages - just get Sam to drop the charges. Get decent quotes and we'll pay, but get him to drop the charges." ..... which for the sake of his business interests in the boys as his clients, Sam did fairly easily.

The motives behind both decisions had little to do with the two boys concerned One was to keep the incident  quiet for the sake of the Agencies reputation, The other to keep good relations with a customer base. but as it turned out , acted in the best interests of the little fellow especially. It gave us another chance with him. .. The bigger guy was transferred to a facility that had tighter security because of his influence over younger ones. But, given time over again, even that top management decision should have been reviewed.

But the principle needs to be discussed   "Pay the damages, drop the charges......What do you think?

"We don't call the police here!"...right or wrong?

"Why did you call the police?"

"It was an insurance case. I had to report it ".

The youth pushed his chest against my shoulder, now clenching his fists and stiffening against my body. The group around him drew closer and I saw a boy pushing him against me from behind.

"Why did you call the police?" The words came out between his teeth.


"I told you. It was an insurance case... anyway what did you expect? What did you think would happen?
For pity sake,... man,.. you set fire to the Home's mini-bus."


"WE DON'T DO IT  THAT WAY HERE !!", he said.


He was clearly very afraid.


It all started after this young person , then nearly 18years of age and another of the same age, discovered how to make an explosive bomb. The exact formula and method I never found out, but it used chlorine, which they stole from the swimming pool stockroom and petrol which they syphoned from the facilities mini-bus.


They had done it once before. They climbed into the garage through a space above the door and below the roof of the garage to syphon petrol out of the back of the mini-bus. One stupidly lit a match to help the other and the back of the bus exploded into flames. They panicked,escaped the way they came in, the bus still alight, and ran to their child care worker for help.


The damage was extensive, bur the boys who were learning motor vehicle panel beating and spray painting said that they could repair it. I knew it was an job for professionals and that the only way for me to go was to make a report to the police, get a case number and use it for insurance purposes.


The police decided to investigate a case of arson and to find the culprits. They came to my office to get more information on the suspects.


 Why the local station sent two young inexperienced constables into the lions den i have never been able to work out, Maybe they thought that this was going to be easy.


 The boys spotted the police van in the grounds and saw the young police woman and a young constable in my office. Unseen by us, the boys rallied the whole Home.Every boy child and young person , 103 of them, formed up, lining themselves on either side of a pathway between my office and the garage.


 When the two police officers asked to see the mini-bus and the damage, we stepped out into a pathway of jeering, fist waiving shouting and derision. The police walked the gauntlet pretending it wasn't there.


The boys hated the police with a passion....  hate names... spat out with derision and venom.

By the time we came out they were dispersed.


It was lunchtime when the group came to confront me at my house.


" Why did you call the police?" Now threatening me directly.


" WE DON'T DO IT LIKE THAT HERE!!!"


" Ok, you guys,where the hell do you think you live then? ALICE IN WONDERLAND? - Come on ...this is the real world here guys..... not some fairy land of your own. - get real. Wake up! What do you expect? 
Do you think your mini-bus gets burnt out and NOTHING WILL HAPPEN? The bus has to be sorted. You have to be sorted.  - GET REAL "


One boy said to the others, "Ok guys, forget it, lets go" .... the all went back to whatever.


But the big questions, the distrust and hatred  of the police, the idea that "here" things get sorted without the criminal justice system getting involved. ......... all these issues remained on my doorstep. the issues were raised and have never really gone away.


In this instance, the public prosecutor DID allow that we handle the incident internally. And I believe that the disciplinary committee ( later known as the Consultative Committee ) did a better restorative job than the court which would have sent the two boys to "Reformatory" or "Juvenile Jail" as it then was known. 


These questions for "talk'   still need to be explored further:


When do we use the police and/or the youth justice system in professional childs and youth care work?


When do we, ethically, use our rights as private citizens when our rights are violated to go through police  procedures notwithstanding our connection to our agencies?


When do other children and young people, or parents use the criminal and justice system with our concent or over our heads of our professional judgement and our restorative proceedings. 


 Using a series of narrative styled incidents, "Barrie talks child and youth care" will explore these talk issues with you.   

the need to know........diet and behaviour

Way back then... Masud Hoghughi Whilst in South Africa suddenly in mid-presentation, stopped and for no apparent, logical reason, turned to our leadership and said," You must please teach child and youth care workers about diet..... You have to know about diet to be a child and youth care worker."

It was really only much later that, for me, the message started to become clear. He was not talking about balanced meals... and yet he was talking about balanced meals. He was talking about the effect of certain foods on children's moods and behaviour.

Even now, although Africa has a great deal to give, this is another aspect of child and youth care where WE can learn from Europe, Asia and the America. It is most likely, I think, that I am writing this for Africa.

Mary Whiting reveals research-based facts about the effect of diets on young children's behaviour (www.teachingexpertise.com      Early Years Update October 2005)

She writes:
                 " It may sound amazing,but studies of children (and of teenagers and prisoners) have repeatedly shown that disruptive and even violent behaviour can be dramatically altered simply by changes to diet."

The blog talk on this site, "unlearning to learn" was inspired by a child care residential group experience relating to food in a somewhat dramatic way. And this may well be an African experience

On first arrival at a residential facility for children and young people, my late wife and I were blown over by the way food was served and eaten. Large amount of brown and white bread were put on the table at every meal. The children grabbed at it and consumed slice after slice before they started the main meal. Sometimes this could be 5 slices, easily The result was that foods were often left uneaten - like, for example certain vegetables.

 This we believed had to be reversed.... and fast !!

So, a rule was created, parental style:. "Eat the meal first. Bread will be provided after the main meal and restricted.to two slices of  brown bread only."

Well,..... the effect of making that change was a child revolt. They came out in force, they marched, they sang, they chanted, they scrawled graffiti on the walls,They acted wildly, seldom settling down, the fought among themselves, they emotionally and verbally attacked staff and each other, and the language was a shock to parental ears. It was a concentration camp.... they are being starved !!!!

Being new, help had to sought and the advise came from the best person I knew in the field in South Africa. (my guru). "You have it all wrong", he said. You are working with deprived children right now and their first priority is to feel full, and to have confidence enough to believe that food will not 'dry up' or be with-held. Let them feel the satisfaction of feeling full .If you don't allow this, at first, and if they fear deprivation is a likely-hood again..... then you must expect acting out. Given time, this will change"

We went back to bread on the table.

We opened what we called a " 24 hour kitchen". On each floor there was a constant supply of simple food-stuff for children who got hungry after school and especially at night.

Hoarding stopped, and the behaviour change across the boards was astounding.

We soon learnt that new-comers into the facility who came especially fro deprived backgrounds would crave that full feeling and would "stuff" as we called it. They took about 3weeks or more  to settle down.

Masud Hoghughi , I think, had something else in mind. And it was really only after years that, for me in Africa, the comment meant providing food to children and young people with the knowledge of the effect of additives, preservatives, colourants,  flavourants (like mono-sodium glutanate MSG).....especially tartrazines (red and yellow - as in some custards), sugar,caffiene, carbohydrates, and the list goes on.........And for some children,especiallly gluten sensitive children, and hyperactives, we had to learn aut the effects of specific foodstuff on their behavior.

Centralised kitchen facilities makes the management of dietary intake for individual children really quite difficult, I think. But the introduction of decentralised kitchens, especially in the  group home system made it all very easily manageable. Still, facilities  , even in Africa cannot afford to ignore the dietary impact of foods on the behaviour of children and young people..... it simply constitutes part of what we call professional care.

MaryWhiting refers to the research work of Dr Ben Feingold in particular, an American research worker and child health specialist, but adds,"Various other researchers have also found that on a sound, additive free diet, aggressive children can become normal and likeable again"

This was borne out by our experience when we started to make careful and professionally motivated decisions and changes to the diets of children and young people in care. The behaviour changes were dramatic, almost immediate and much in their best interests.

Again, I have a sense that I may be talking mainly to Africa, but it seems to me that this is a need to know area of care for us. Especially in Africa.

Unlearning to learn in child and youth care work

Parents ourselves, we come into child and youth care work bringing with us our own parenting beliefs methods, priorities and family values. Most of these we get from our own parent's ......so, we bring with us generations of parenting ideas and ethics.

The surprise is when much of this has to be unlearnt when we face the realities of working with troubled, distressed, hyperactive or deprived children. Sometime in training, but especially in practice, it comes as a shock to learn that much of what we hold to be true, prioritise, know to work or focus upon, simply is not so in our daily child and youth care practice.

An elderly, but athletic and sporting child and youth care worker had a group of troubled older boys in his care. One evening at 'lights out" the boys were "hyped -up", not manageable, when they should have been settling down for the night. His solution was to take them on a run around the soccer field. The idea was that they would get tired. Fatigued they would then just shower, get into bed and sleep like babies - makes sense as a parent - yes.

 The big shock came when they were more hyped- up, more out of control and less manageable than before. There was no fatigue " that was good, shower and to bed " as was parentally expected,. But just the opposite.!!

Perhaps there is research evidence  for this, but the experiential lesson was that in the population of young people that come into care, there are a fair number with difficult to manage behaviours whose behaviour escalates after exertion and activity and this has an infectious effect on the rest of the group. Result......... opposite to what we know.as parents.

One middle teenage boy struggled with stealing behaviour. Whenever he was tense and or stressed, he would steal. So, when he was caught, more especially by the police or confronted, the commonly held tactic by adults was to threaten him with punishment or court action. This would scare him into stopping.... no, no, .... this raised his anxiety levels and he would immediately - but immediately, steal again.

The commonly held parental/world understanding of what works - simply made it worse.

 As parents we hold a lot to be important in the behaviour of our own children. For us, as parents we tend to strongly value "good manners", "not smoking", "being tidy", "personal hygiene", "education".

On coming out of anaesthetic.after life threatening eight hour surgery, at age 12, I asked for a hospital bottle.I wanted to urinate. The sister, struggling and frustrated by the drip in into my arm said sharply,                   "Say PLEASE !" I heard a softer, lighter voice - a nurse behind her say" Sister, he's just a little boy and he has just come out of anaesthetic"
"I don't care," said the sister, "He can say 'please'"

That is us parents.... the please and thankyou of everyday manners, the don't smoke, watch your language is so important to us sometimes that we can miss the more essential priorities of children anaesthetised by hurt removal, loss abuse and discouragement.

These unlearning lessons just never seem to end for us. It doesn't always apply, but frequently professional child and youth care practice all too often takes us into a state of jolted shock when what we know works as parents simply does not work with the children and young people in our care.




              

Do you remember when.......child care stories for talk 9

Every child care worker has stories to tell and there are always lessons to be learnt from them.... here are a few to start us thinking...

1.Whilst on a camp,four senior girls complained to their child care worker that there was blood in their urine. Sure enough the urine of all four had that pinky hue. They were in panic. The childcare worker went into panic and so did I. What infectious outbreak was being started at this camp? Where in the middle of nowhere is the nearest medical facility?
Eventually though it was resolved.

The camp caterers were producing the same array of salads everyday, amongst which was a salad that these four were eating in quantity daily

 ..............Beetroot salad !!!


2. A teen was taken to the casualty section of the local hospital in need of treatment. But a heart attack case was brought in by his friends form the bar where they had been drinking. So the boy was forced to sit and wait. In that time another of our boys was delivered to casualty . He needed stitches in his hand. So they both sat with me , waiting. The heart attack case was revived enough to, on his insistence, be wheeled back into the waiting area . He said goodbye to each of his friends waiting there, and to the two boys from the Home, shaking their hands seriously and saying goodbye. He was wheeled back into the treatment room and died.

When the two boys went into the treatment room the covered corpse was laid out on a stretcher and    pushed to one side.  His one foot was uncovered. and a label had been tied to his big toe with his name and details written on it.

Not one of us could stop those boys morbid, excited curiosity from them giving that foot long and close up attention, remarking on its colour, temperature, and every detail on the label..... forget their injuries.

...... what a story was relayed to the others in the dormitory that night !!!!


3. One night well into the early hours of the morning, two youths tried to syphon petrol from the garaged 14 seater mini bus.  They wanted to make a home-made bomb. Problem was they couldn't see that well, so one lit a match to help the other. When the mini-bus exploded into flames they ran to their child care worker for help..

4.The 'motor-bike' boys brought chocolate Easter eggs for a hot-cross bun and chocolate egg breakfast on  Easter Sunday. It was my third day as a child care worker

At the same time a local retail store delivered box fulls of broken Easter eggs.

Not one of us tried to control the children's chocolate intake as we thought it would offend the 'motorbike boys and girls'

............. and we didn't know!!!

Left over chocolate was made into puddings.... they will never forget. !!!

The sugar hype with lots of really out of control children lasted a week.......or more