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.
Thursday 27 September 2012
Thursday 20 September 2012
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.
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.
Monday 17 September 2012
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.
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.
Thursday 13 September 2012
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?
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?
Friday 7 September 2012
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
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
Tuesday 4 September 2012
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.
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.
Saturday 1 September 2012
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 ???
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 ???
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