The head buzzes with incidents involving animals in the care facility.
There were rabbits, chickens, geese, and bantams. Hens... free range and a dog. I had my own cocker- spaniel.
Sometimes, the children and young person's rage, anger, and revenge behaviours were posted to the wrong address. Misdirected hostility. The animals bore the brunt of these occasional outbursts.
At my first appointment....here are some examples.
My cat was pelted with stones to chase it away. - it would have stalked and killed the fowls. We interrupted a very young girl drowning hens in the toilet one by one. Same girl would lure the rabbits to the rabbit-run fence with a carrot, then, through the wires, kick them. Unliked, unwanted food from the table was secretly dropped for my dog. Spaniels being the dustbins they are, gained excessive weight. The young people had clean plates. If you couldn't kick me, you could kick my dog. She had a thickening growth on one side.
For some reason, the 8 geese didn't like me or my own two children. We were attacked as we walked through the grounds to the main building. One night they got mysteriously locked in the hall. Next morning it was, what I called a skating rink of slippery, shiny, slimy goose poop. The children had to clean it out.
Then came my first and most disconcerting incident. Bestiality with the facility's dog ...girl and dog!!. In residential facilities, I only ever experienced this twice....second time boy and dog. On both occasions it was trigger for me but put into perspective by the psychiatrist whose first question was "How is the animal's behaviour since this happened?"
ASIDE, ...The two incidents in 15 years of practice in residential work was preparation for the more frequent incidents when working in rural community- based settings. The need for the medical model, psychiatric/psychological intervention fell away. It there became another developmental child and youth care learning intervention in alternative more appropriate behaviours.
Then a resident staff member wrung the necks of all the bantams. They kept him awake, he said. The children and young people were outraged......and rightly so. They demanded that he be fired - which eventually did happen.
Animal adventures. It all sounds quite negative. It's really not at all that negative. These occasional incidents over years have been condensed into four paragraphs.
Now for the positives. Despite these memories ..I can list a litany of positives.
When the animals were in any way victimised by whoever, there was a peer reaction which was used to positive effect. When the whole house tells you in no uncertain terms, as a young person, and in a language that you can understand, that THIS IS NOT OK, ....this is positive peer pressure. Most effective.
The animals were, essentially, can I say.....loved. ( and that includes my dog). The care of them was the children's responsibility. The animals had an overall positive therapeutic effect. Especially in my next appointment where there were stables and horses. For some reason I cannot explain, horses, horse care, and horse riding have a remarkable therapeutic effect.
The question then is.....what makes for good policy and practice in a residential facility around animals and especially pets in care?
By pets is meant, personal pets belonging to the children and young people themselves.
The idea of transitional objects...(.something(s) to which the child or young person has attachment brought into the new environment when otherwise separated) It can be soft toy, blanket, item of clothing, pics, posters, ....sometimes just a well loved cap. Question then is, what about a pet, and animal??
On one hand a pet is an ideal transitional object. On the other hand, Imagine, 12 children, 12 dogs 3 cats, and a rabbit!.....Can't cope!! I'm a child and youth care worker, not an animal carer.! The comes all those otherwise unbudgeted items....feeding, vet's fees, and so on and so on. Really, reality must prevail.
I think there is a positive middle path. It worked for me.
First the dog story. A facility house pet dog worked well. Like horses, there is convincing evidence of the therapeutic contribution a dog can make in the life of a child. Chores around the house pet were allocated...and worked. Frequently, though one or two children just voluntarily took over the task of dog care from the others as they had developed an attachment. THEN, occasionally, a small manageable animal seemed useful if it came with the young person. In the silk worm season there was considerable interest in having a shoebox full., an occasional white mouse ( or two), hamsters,canary, and we did have a rabbit. This was not only manageable but served useful child and youth care purpose.
How? In child and youth care work we use the transfer of learning as a tool. Pet love and attachment has parallels. "What exactly do you do to attach and relate to an animal,...Can you build on what you know about yourself in animal care and use it to help build and maintain other relationships... let's try. We build on strengths.
It must now be obvious that animals, pets when in care with children and young people have practical ups and downs. In applying the child and youth care principle of "normality", it somehow does not seem normal to separate children from animal connections when in care. There is considerable room for talk....even debate on matters of policy. Children and animals when in care. Experience says, despite any downsides, children and animals somehow belong together, that there are immediate and life-long learning positives.
All beings have to learn to live in global harmony.
Think globally. Act locally.
IMAGINE
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There is always something to talk about in child and youth care. This week something in last weeks blog sparked another Brian Gannon flash back. The memory was of him telling me, " I can tell a good child and youth care worker from the way they say "Hi" to a young person....within 5 minutes I've learnt a lot more."
Got me thinking.
I used to say that within 10 minutes I could tell the quality of verbal interaction. I was only an initial impression needing to be substantiated. But first impressions go a long way. Children and young people have, seemingly, an unerring intuition on whether a person is, or can be trusted within those early verbal signals. It can colour relationship building, preparedness to connect and respond positively.
Three was an interesting confirmation of the effect of words theory a research report on what was called speech signalling. (2017 Torres Green, Monica. Ladders.com)
A few quotes say it all:
"You can can be judged rapidly, frequently and accurately based on your words alone creating barriers for relationship foundation.........the first 7 words you say".
It is obvious to child and youth care workers that ours is, in its biggest part, a talking developmental therapy. Little surprise that in some countries, what we do is called "Applied Psychology".
Yes we need to model,we design therapeutic environments, provide good holistic developmental experiences. WE harness bits of the other therapies, Art, Music, especially Play, Sport, Relaxation, story telling. But in the everyday events and life-space, we largely, TALK. WE largely, talk.... with individual children and young people, or with groups.
Can't help wondering what Brian Gannon heard in the first words and first five minutes which then gave him such a powerful impression.
There are 4 classic personal personal characteristics of the therapeutic personality: BEING warm, empathetic, genuine (congruent) , and non-judgemental. I add another three.......BEING self aware, a good listener and goal orientated.
It's all of these, PLUS, I think, children and young people intuitively assess when we talk, our tone, body language, culture and our ability to read feelings.
The good news is that all these important child and youth care qualities can be learnt. It all has to do with practice, skill, knowledge and BEING. That's the HOW of what we say.
The when of what we say we say has to do do with timing. Is this a good and the best moment?
We as child and youth care workers have our own unique.....what must I say?......STYLE ?....A particular way. We have a communication style different from a psychologist, social worker, teacher, child minder, parent, pastor, manager. That's one reason I think, Brian Gannon was cued ( and me for that matter) to tell a good child and youth are worker from any other. There are any number of examples. Think about the way a doctor talks to a patient. Compare that to the way a nurse talks to the patient. Think about the way a teacher talks to a pupil. Compare that to the way we as child an youth care workers talk to children and young people. It has in a large part to do with our different training and education. A doctor has a bed-side manner. We have a developmental relationship based manner.
A caution. We must be wary of getting our roles mixed up. In our style of talk, suspicion appears to be raised when child and youth care workers use the reasoning that they must be "friends"with the children and young persons, or popular, or liked, even loved. I've seen instances when relationship confusion tempts child and youth care workers to use teen slang, township talk, the language of the streets. We may think that it builds connections but my experience has been that it may often come across as not genuine ( congruent) by young people. It's not our professional style.
We may have touched on something of the HOW of our talk . Now the WHAT?
In our education and training we are usually given some very useful formulas/models as to what to say when. Models of what to say and what not to say in certain circumstances. These i found to be helpful. Typically in problem solving,life-space counselling , the escalation of behavior from calm to crisis both with individuals and with groups. There are many other such useful models.
Somehow they help us to find hooks on which to hang our talk as professionals in the more unpredictable, spontaneous moments of life-space work.
Reflection and proper supervision is essential and really very helpful in being able to talk developmentally and helpfully in practice. We have to ask ourselves "What happened? What did I say? What. The "What did I say? How did I say it? reflection", sharpens our talk as child and youth care professionals.
Lastly, reflectively, when we speak our response - LISTEN TO OURSELVES WITH THE EARS, HEART AND EYES OF THE OTHER.
what did I do?
The question was "Whats your definition of a better child and youth care field for everyone who works in it?"
The responses showed common threads. More knowledge, to be known for the professionals we are, status, recognition, to practice our profession without instruction from other professionals. Then came the frequently expressed call for equal salaries with other social service professionals, a safe work place, improved working conditions, to work with non-judgemental colleagues.
These "definitions" are perfectly valid, practical and should be noticed by policy and decision makers.
There are other concerns, gaps, developmental areas needed in South Africa to better the child and youth care field.
These are some thoughts for talk.
RESEARCH. The need for research in South African child and youth care is loaded with complications which are inter-related and which glare out at us. Right now, I know of only three doctorates in child and youth care work being undertaken, one masters, and some mini-dissertations at the Honours level. It means that we have a paucity of published South African research and this is painful. I remember Canadian Prof Jim Anglin tell me that he ensured a publisher before he did the research for his second doctorate. ( Anglin. James P. 2002).
It is all coupled with two other concerns that must be addressed in the child and youth care field here......The availability, or perhaps I should say, non-availability of universities with child and youth care departments or divisions right now offering senior degrees.. Few. Durban University of Technology, Monash SA, possibly Stellenbosch. A chapter on some aspect of child and youth care in a senior degree in Social Work, Theology or Education really doesn't count as child and youth care research.
It all means that lecturing staff are difficult to find. and universities are compelled to use staff with other qualifications.
INDIGENOUS PRACTICE: Then we need research which can better our indigenous practice. The predominantly euro-centric knowledge base of our education and training has determined that our approach and practice is essentially euro-centric.
EASIER ACCESS TO UNIVERSITIES: What is being said here is that in South Africa we need more accessible universities offering strictly child and youth care degrees at the first degree level and then people who can supervise senior degrees in child and youth care work.
If we can get this right,....and smartly, a number of other betterment requirements could be get sorted.
What would make the child and youth care field better for everyone?
INTEGRATED CASE MANAGEMENT. Some child and youth care workers responded to the question by saying they were not contributing into the compilation of Individual Development Plans (IDP) Family Development Plans (FDP), let alone working practically as part of a multi-disciplinary team (MDT) or being part of Developmental Assessment (DA), or Risk Assessment Analyses. Maybe this partly or wholly explains the absence of IDP, FDP, DAs and Risk Analyses in many of the facilities I have visited.
A MORE CLINICAL APPROACH: The late Brian Gannon, our South African pioneer, knowing my involvement, once asked me, "When you visit these places, what talk do you hear between child and youth care workers and children?" I had to be honest. I experienced most life-space interaction and communication between child and youth care workers and young people to be what Brian Gannon then called "Routine, domestic and logistical."
"Where are your sneakers?" "Did you collect your laundry?" "Have you done your homework?" "It's time for you to go shower." All of this was interpreted as caring. But we are in a developmental profession. Life-space situations provide us with the moments we have to move away from superficiality into something more problem solving, developmental, clinical, learning rich, self-determination styles of communication and practice. I have often wondered if this comes about as a result of a gap between theory and practice in our education and training or maybe a misunderstanding of our professional modus operandi by management.
MORE CHILD AND YOUTH CARE WORKERS IN SENIOR POSITIONS: Everything so far said about "better for the field of child and youth care" hinges on more child and youth care workers in senior positions, senior degrees and research based practice.
DIGITAL RECORD KEEPING: We are well into the 4th Industrial Revolution. It's time that our record keeping , young people's and children's files, be digitalised. Manual record keeping (don't we all know it?) is time consuming, record retrieval, storage, and transfer certainly more effective and efficient. I know of only one organisation which has completely digitalised file content..... maybe there are more???? In our State president's State of the Nation Address (SONA), he said that every child will be given a tablet to access information. It should, then not be a big intellectual jump to realise that child and youth care workers should be issued with laptop computers and facilities fitted with central computer systems as standard equipment.
We have really come a very long way in the child and youth care field in South Africa since we became a truly democratic country in 1994 and the transformation of the child and youth care system which followed. It is good however that we have not become complacent and back slapping. Of course we can be better and will. We have a drive in our search for excellence here. We have the potential to continue to point direction to countries beyond our borders.
Alute continuo.......
Anglin. James P. 2002 Pain, Normality and the Struggle for Congruence. The Hayworth Press.
Every Christmas the entry doors to the lounge were locked. No matter what time was waking up time......and Christmas was predictably an early morning. No access to the presents under the tree. Entry was denied until gran (Gogo) and grandpa (Pa) arrived. The lounge door opening was a ceremony of great show. We entered in order. Children first, then parents, then grandparents. The Christmas tree lights blinked away. For all the pent-up excitement, the garden bound wait, it was a life-time memory maker. Unforgotten.
One year, the National Association of Child and Youth Care workers (NACCW) dedicated a full year to the theme "making memories" in its Journal The Child and Youth Care Worker. Such is the importance of making meaningful moments in the practice of child and youth care.
I'm not sure if the Christmas locked door ceremony was a ritual which became a rite, or just an event. It was certainly more than just an activity. I believe it became a ritual.
We do, however distinguish among these in our child and youth care programmes. We plan. We design each.
If it was a mandatory ceremony marking a passage from one life status to another, it would have been a rite. I remember well the various rites of passage we designed and instituted as a facility and as child and youth care workers.
Life passage moments deserve a rite. It is a memory making moment. It connects us to our culture and to one another. For us, as adults: baptism, becoming of age, marriage, graduation, various inaugurations, ordination and death. With the children and young people in care: admission (welcoming engagement), birthdays, entering manhood or womanhood , return from leave of absence or absconding, death of a child in care, passing matric, moving from one unit to another, leaving the programme. Rites are not to be confused with organisational procedures such orientation, or education on rights.
We have to design rites.
I have a leaning toward the use of candles ( perhaps because of my involvement in the church) and towards designing rites in which young people and children sit in a circle. A centrally placed set of symbolic objects speak of the occasion. Most frequently we used candles and chocolates in a bowl . The outer circle of young people were given candles, cards, or a small nicely bound journal type booklet in which to write messages and to give as a memory box keepsake. (the child's memory box is designed as a place to collect and retain keepsakes of memorable moments) and a final gift.
So, for example, if a child was leaving the programme or facility, (disengagement). A bowl of sweets and a lit candle in the centre of the circle of seated young people. An especially decorated chair for the leaving youngster who sits with a lit candle at the feet and his/her memory box on the lap. One after the other each young person lit their candle from the the leaver's candle. When doing this, they told the leaver what good they had learnt from having known and spent time with that young person.....how that young person's presence enriched their life. They took a sweet from the central bowl and told the leaver their wish for his/her future. The lit candle is a symbol of the good I received. The sweet a symbol of the good I leave you with. Cards or the journal booklet or anything else as the young people have thought of was put in the memory box. The leaver then went round the circle and did the same. Then the leaving gift was presented. The group now place their lit candles behind their backs and the child and youth care worker explained that although they will no longer see the leaver, his/her memory light would still shine for each of us. They eat the sweets to take the memories inside of themselves. They go for a candlelight meal together. After which the candles were extinguished.
The candle ritual became a rite of passage, somewhat euro centric.....but a rite. It fitted the children and young people in the facility at that time.
To design, create, rites of passage in South Africa, the Africaness of who we are has to be ritualised.
To start thinking traditionally, I got advice from the mother of a traditional healer and a university lecturer in community social work well versed in traditional rites. Here are some of the suggestions and some of the must does. The dress codes of African people involved in rites must be adhered to. Traditional dress is strongly recommended. Some of the more relevant indigenous objects used ceremonially are: pots, mahewu (traditional drink), snuff, mphephu (an African styled incense), Although the use of candles was regarded as OK. Gifting was important. ..a blanket, a stick, beadwork. Then the meal. It has to be a traditional meal and according to tribal custom. There is however some tribal commonality in meal, ritual and rite. I think that the young people themselves will be helpful when creating them.
Somehow, it seems, rites of passage in child and youth care practice are good experiences for young people in care programmes. They appear to be useful developmentally. The evidence in practice is that young people gain an experience of being recognised, valued, connected, unforgotten, held in esteem. Rites stroke the young person's self value.They create good life-time memories.
They make meaningful moments.
