RUNNING DESPITE FENCES...CHILD AND YOUTH CARE IN SOUTH AFRICA

It is said that we are wired to flight or fight. 

There are any number of running stories. It's difficult to choose among illustrative examples.

The Board of Management expressed surprise, when, at my very first meeting, I reported the 'absconders register'. It's a requirement, but  they had never previously heard it reported. The biggest surprise for me and for them, was a young person who ran away 52 times in a 30 day month". Always to his mother who brought him back.  I said to mom "Keep him, he's a very unhappy chappy" She said she wouldn't. 

 The lone runner: This is Petrus. First indication of a stressful incident or a stressful incident and ...djip! He was gone...just as he was. No planning, no packing. Just gone !! Usually in three days he would walk back in.

Generally, 'runners'  don't like running alone.' They tell others "I'm planning to run - come with me. It will be an adventure.. Clothes are packed and the time of making the run carefully planned. 

Three girls did this. We found out later.They first ran to a house in the neighbourhood which advertised itself as paying girls as 'models'.  It meant stripping naked for photographs. They then hitched to Durban. When it got really very hectic, one gave herself up to the police and they were placed in a 'Place of Safety'. A carefully planned adventure turned sour and dangerous.

 This planned runaway pattern was mainly used among the girls. Incidents happened every now and again. Problem is, running can be something like measles - it's catchy. It's also an offence to harbour a run-away.

A non- governmental organisation ( NGO ) had a programme to support parents in the event of a so called  "missing child". It was good. Photographs were taken of each child. Personal descriptions were recorded. If a child went missing you notified the organisation which put out alerts with the information they now had on record. It started a procedure with us that we took pics of each child and young person as they entered the programme.

Apart from the fight or flight neuronal syndrome, there is another theory.  This one -  bio-chemical . It is said that when children or young people are reared and live in situations characterised  by constant drama and hightened negative excitement, the body produces adrenaline. I've heard of the 'adrenaline rush', but the theory is that the body retains an unusually high adrenaline level. When life changes and the constant excitement is removed, the body needs to raise its adrenaline.to its accustomed level. To 'top up' as it were. The young person craves excitement and creates situations of hightened drama to obtain it. I called it "Making a movie". This could explain quite a lot of the behaviours we experience in our programmes and might well explain some incidents of 'running'. I used to call the 'running ' excitement "walking on the balls of your feet" , having to survive in situations of risk raises the body to the required levels of adrenaline. Thinking... Structured adventured activities may help. 

"Running always brings to mind Alan Paton's book  Diepkloof - Reflections on Diepkloof  Reformatory. originally published in 1996 , an edition by Clyde Broster. Put simply, Alan Paton became the Administrator of the high fenced barbed wire Reformatory for sentenced young people in trouble with the law. He reached a point in his experience and in his  programme and in the midst of considerable opposition, he said "Fences do not hold young people, the programme does" He removed the fences.  If I remember, he had one runaway who returned.  The book is very descriptive of the relational practice of the programme, the levels of responsibility given to the young people and the activities which held them. The need and the desire to run was contained by the effectiveness of the programme and relationship.

"Fences don't hold children, the progranne does". 

Issues of care arise when having to deal with running.  As the Alan Paton story clearly showed, there are issues that can arise from the programme and relational practice that need to be integrated.

On return the young person may well need de-briefing, talk about the programme itself and whether it met the needs of the young person or not. Was the young person running from the programme? 

The experience of being 'in the streets' or 'taken in' with all the risks has to be considered in case there are other measures that have to be take medically or legally.

 The re-introduction of the runner into the group.  Runners, I found were often were often given hero status - all work for the child and youth care worker.

 One problem I encountered was when we admitted a habitual runner. On at least one occasion, I was rectant to do y, but had to say that care in the programme can't be provided if the young person was never there. Bottom line, Young people must want to be in the programm
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I agree with Alan Paton.It would be great if we had the courage  to remove the fences but I yet agree with his dictum " Fences do not hold children. The programme does".