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.
There is again concern on social media that child and youth care workers are leaving the profession. This time, having studied social work whilst employed, or are currently doing so, or are moving to education, or are simply leaving. Reduced numbers can't be filled with the through flow of graduates or child and youth care workers with a Diplomas.This leaves vacant posts, or else, a compulsion for child and youth care workers at the auxiliary level to perform some of the more advanced tasks in the scopes of practice.
There was a book shown on Facebook last week called Social Work The Rise and Fall of a Profession. It's context is the UK, but I thought the title captured something of the trends in the child and youth care profession in South Africa. The cover of the book shows a roller coaster ...the upward hikes and the scary drops. In previous blogs, this analogy proved useful....the rises and the falls for us as child and youth care workers in South Africa has spanned decades.
The first Professional Board for Child and Youth Care was inaugurated in 1998 after years of being statutorily in the Council for Social Service Professions Act. The first five years were spent drafting regulations for the registration of child and youth care workers at the Auxiliary and the Professional levels. The scopes of practice became a hurdle. The question was always, how does child and youth care practice differ from other helping professions and does it have enough original content to make it a separate profession? Was child and youth care yet a profession or an emerging profession, or an occupation that needed to first be an extension of the arm of other "established" social service professions. It was an ongoing debate.
Academics saw child and youth care as belonging in their various academic departments....Social Work, Psychology, Mental Health Care. All this resulted in there being no elected Professional Board for Child and Youth Care for a full 5 year term. No warm bodies.....No Board. The Department of Social Development came to the rescue and funded an "Interim Committee/Board" which functioned to continue the work in the interregnum.
The 18th draft of the proposed regulations was signed into law in October 2013.
( See: Lodge. B. 2015 Relational Child and Youth Care Practice, Professionalisation of Child and Youth Care Work in South Africa Vol 28, No4, p5.)
It was in that period that Social Work was declared a scarce skill (and a critical skill). Like the UK, it was experiencing a "down". Poor salaries resulted in numbers of social workers drifting away....leaving the profession for industry or the UK. Study bursaries were made available to offset the dwindling numbers. It worked. Some say that it worked too well as there was a time when we had unemployed auxiliary and graduate Social Workers. I am saying this because bursaries for university study were not available for child and youth care workers at that time and the University of South Africa shut down it's child and youth care degree.
A very successful model for community-based care called Isibindi was designed and rolled out nationally by the National Association of Child Care Workers ( NACCW). This provided employment of large numbers of child and youth care workers and learners at the auxiliary level. In 2013, the then Minister of Social Development undertook to adopt Isibindi as a national model. The Department financed the training of 10,000 child and youth care learners.The learners were paid a stipend and required to register with the South African Council for Social Service Professionals.The agreement was that for 5 years the NACCW would be the training service provider and employ the mentors to ensure the continuity and standards of the model. . In the five year period social media hosted expressions of disappointment by child and youth care workers in comments that they struggled to find appointments into the more senior posts.
The contract ended in March of 2018.
Social media exploded. Some Provincial Departments announced a "dry season"....no funds...no pay. Delayed payments of stipends, suspended training. Some projects closed. Qualified child and youth care workers at the auxiliary level were still paid learner stipends. Monies in the community based projects bore no comparison with child and youth care workers in residential facilities.
Here began the drift, reminiscent of the social work crisis of 2012/2013.
In 2017, National strike action was taken. It lasted 6 weeks The trade union had a 13 point list of demands. They included better and equal salaries for all social service practitioners, the removal of the ceiling placed on the salaries of child and youth care workers at levels 4,5 and 6 on the Occupation Specific Dispensation (OSD). It was agreed that these demands would be met on the 31st October 2017. The date came and went and were not implemented. Apparently changes to the OSD have to be made at a very high level in the National structure and can or do take a very long time to fix.
This week on social media, it seems that child and youth care workers may be running out of patience. It was said ...they can't wait.
This brings us to this week's social media posts.
The move of child and youth care workers out of the profession is a matter of concern. In one province it was said ... Yesterday only 38 child and youth care workers were transferred to Social work.
More are doing social work studies at the auxiliary level.
" Our profession is dying a slow and painful death". Social media comment speaks of confused and mixed emotions. Even now, one child and youth care workers in one of the provinces said that in their project they had not been paid since October of last year. (Sometimes this can be a problem within the holding agency)
There is evidence of a lift. Training and compulsory training is emerging. An Isibindi styled model is underway. There is talk of more universities interested in offering a professional degree in child and youth care work. Some provinces, it was said, will or have made increases in salaries ( if little)
AND the resilience and loyalty of child and youth care workers to serve the best interests of the nation's children persists as a beacon of inspirational light. Child and youth care workers are encouraging each other not to become despondent, but to hang in. Feels as if they are anticipating another haul upward on the roller coaster.
This week the blog is (somewhat) longer than usual.
Social media post: "I burnt out - only now referred to a psychologist" The organisation blamed for the lack of support and caring, delaying intervention until it was too late and an implied apparent unenthusiastic referral to external professional support. The post raised comment. "Does the organisation pay for your medical aid?" "Were you given proper supervision? " There was perhaps a masked hint that the workplace could be "toxic" ( another word being bandied about on social media now).
All relevant. All important.
What then, is burnout? .....Burnout in the helping professions has also been called Compassion Fatigue. With constant stress you have a feeling of helplessness and are completely exhausted. Problems seem insurmountable. Detachment threatens your job and your relationships. It is a state of physical and emotional exhaustion. (adapted from www.helpguide.com).
Some serious questions surface. Who cares for the caregiver? Who cares for the carer of the caregivers?
I know burnout......been there twice. Each was a different experience.
The first time I had no idea that I was burnt out. At 5.00 one morning I got out of bed to go wake the boys. But I sank to my knees next to the bed. There came from within me.....from the very pit of my stomach a loud wail, a scream. I didn't initiate it. I had no control of it. It just welled up frightening me. I called it a "primal scream". Crying all the way up to the boys dorm. I experienced an increase in my heart rate. I felt trapped - no escape.
Looking back, the actual workplace situation was something I should never have allowed for myself. No breaks, no leave, no weekend off early 'til late. Neglect of family, relationships, doing two jobs at once, on constant call and every day a new huge child related human drama to be faced. Some would say it's the calling. I now call my burnout my foolish self uncaring.
It's the old story. On the aeroplane you are told......fix your own oxygen mask before helping others.
I referred myself to a doctor. I think that he experienced physical state. My psychological state was a mystery to him. He didn't recognise compassion fatigue. only anxiety. So, he prescribed Ativan. Ativan is used for anxiety and some neurological brain irregularities. I was not anxious I was physically and emotionally worn out, now with nothing more left to give. The Ativan got flushed down the toilet. It has a reputation of becoming addictive.
I insisted on three days leave in in my caravan in the Hogsback mountains with my family
It was as I had thought. Came back to chaos. The children had pulled every wire in the building to set off the fire alarm. It was to create an emergency dramatic enough to get me back. There was a fear that I would never return. Something very wrong. Organisationally, children can't be that dependent on one person. For some child and youth care workers it may feel good to be so needed, but its part of the toxic workplace.
There was a psychologist, the only psychologist in the city at that time. He sat on the management board. He was the one to see the signs ( after the event). He volunteered his time then to give me 6 months weekly, what he called, supervision. It was really psycho therapy. A life saver, a job saver. The problem was I had allowed myself to get sucked into a toxic workplace of my own making.
There was a child and youth care worker heading toward burnout. She recognised the symptoms,. Shut herself in her room one day. We asked why did you not pick up the phone we have a policy to organise a retreat, support and relief. She said, "This is a place of caring. Why should I have to tell you I need care? You should have noticed". I'll never forget that. She was right, but only partly right...The oxygen mask story again. It really should not be like this, but if you need care you sometimes have to take the first step
This makes it important to recognise the signs of burnout.
My second burnout was somewhat different. I found myself focusing on small things. To protect myself from feeling overwhelmed and not coping. I focused on the easy to handle and deliberately avoided the major pressing issues. Any form of confrontation for example. A brooding, looming disaster. Like, I'm a very tolerant person but the toilet roll must not be in its holder the wrong way round. A child smoking becomes an issue when he is facing a major relationship breakdown not addressed. Responsibility was reversed. "I am to blame" The children's behaviour became my fault, my inadequacy. In a toxic workplace that is an organisational norm and heavily underscores faulty child and youth care thinking, especially by management.
There were emotional symptoms. I lived close to tears all the time Without actually crying tears. The inside of me was crying. Not a primal scream this time, a primal weeping. Physically the experience of fatigue was overwhelming. It was a huge effort to go to work, to respond to call - outs, to focus.
Then came the heartbeat thing. This time coupled with nausea. The doctor ruled out a heart attack. Prescribed a tonic.
Again, a Psychologist board member came to the rescue. Six months weekly therapy.There is a lesson here. It's not shameful to be in therapy if you are in the helping professions.
What then is the treatment.?
The most obvious answer to this is that prevention is better than cure. It really is the facility, organisation or programme's responsibility to provide policy, procedures, services which prevent burnout. Also to provide immediate intervention if it should occur.
There some unnegotiables. the organisational imperatives for the avoidance of staff burnout.
Regular supervision.....and by this I don't mean hierarchical "snoopervision". I mean personal "inter-vision" "I did this. "I felt this". I'm feeling".........proper supportive workplace supervision with a child and youth care worker. Not with someone from another profession, and not the manager. Not with someone who will say, pull yourself together. Go get vitamin B12 or a tonic.
Then comes case-load. When I had my first burnout I had a full junior and senior dormitory of boys in my direct care. and then the young people who had been placed in boarding schools but were attached to the facility. 8 - 12 is recommended with support.
Long working hours. This idea of 24/7 is obsolete and illegal. The practice of long shifts even if kept within the weekly limits of working hours as set out in the Conditions of Service Act. The 12 hour shift has risk of negative effects on staff performance on that day, and so burnout risks.
The boss. Has to be alert and caring as well as really understanding of the work of child and youth care. Studies, serious research frequently quoted also in the social media has shown that a poor boss can make employees sick. Most employees leave, not because of the work but because of the boss. The boss doesn't have to be a single person. Quite often the boss is an external system.
A team approach. Child and youth care workers can't do this on their own. It's a team thing. A child and youth care worker can and should have focus children or a focus group. What we call the primary worker, but there has to be a team. A team of like minds, real support, caring and skills at different levels. Left to be responsible and accountable on your own contributes to burnout.
Self care is essential in the prevention of burnout....Remember the oxygen mask story. The seven R approach is useful:
RECOGNISE the warning signs
REVERSE THE DAMAGE by seeking support
RESILIENCE take care of your physical and emotional health
RECREATE have other interests and use time to REFLECT, RECOVER and RELAX.
This implies regular leave. It must be allowed and taken No such thing as "pay out in lieu" or a few days here and there.
Burnout should not be allowed to happen. The question of treatment of it, is a difficult one. It HAS to be HOLISTIC. No single pill. No three days off story.Treatment has to address the physical, social, family, emotional, cognitive (an individual staff development plan), spiritual and life-stage task domains. It does mean that you may have to get help from a psychologist, compulsory leave which should be sick, or special leave, a plan for personal development, the 7 R's , and an overhaul of the organisation's practices. A support group is essential. Be prepared to have your friends support. But also, child and youth care workers need to gather supportively around a colleague in the recovery period. Social contact is essential to the recovery of burnout.
Management must be be particularly caring and supportive of the needs of child and youth care workers and to provide organisational safegaurds against compassion fatigue occurring or re- occurring.
How wonderful it would be if questions about burnout and its treatment did not have to be asked.
Child and youth care burnout should never happen
Perhaps more accurately, child and youth care burnout should never be allowed to happen.
There appears to be a gap in our child and youth care Codes of Conduct, Code of Ethics, Guide for the policies of the course of Ethical Conduct for Social Service Professions. None of these refer to social media ethics specifically. There is obviously a flow over from what is contained in the Regulations attached to the South African Council for Social Services Act . It's just that it would be appropriate in this digital age for social media to get specific mention. All the regulations on ethical conduct for Social Service Professionals regulate the Acts or Omissions Deemed to be Unprofessional or Improper include a section which has to do with behaviour which, with due regard to the prestige, status and dignity of the profession, is detrimental to his/her position as a social service professional. This then applies to child and youth care workers.
It is unethical for us to publicly criticise other Social Service Professions or professionals. Yet social media appears to be regarded as immune. It's used in the bigger context as freedom of speech.
I remember being given an example of unethical speech freedom. Apart from hate speech. In a crowded cinema it is illegal to yell "Fire!, Fire!" when there is no fire. Unnecessary panic and anxiety and fear is aroused. A mass exodus through narrow exits put people of risk of harm. So it is in our profession. Yet, so often we see the cry of "Fire" when there is a smouldering in a corner of the profession which can be contained. The risk.... a mass exodus. There is clearly a difference between advocating for the profession as a whole on social media and using it to drag contextually specific issues into the digital arena.
We all actually know, what we say and do and how we are perceived in the wider community has ethical implications for our profession. Once a professional, always a professional. In social media this appears to be frequently disregarded. What if our clients, children and young people search our time-line on facebook. And it IS done! I'm told that employers check out time lines as background checking of the references of work applicants. If they do it, then our young people in care can do just that....and will. What will they find there?
If some of the posts I sometimes read and see is any measure, - then whoooo!
I am NOT GENERALISING. In some posts only. Private life is exposed. Stuff we would never share with our clients. Sexual behaviours, relationships, allegations, family issues Much of what, as professionals we keep to ourselves and to our close friends perhaps our family. But, there it is, for all to see and read. Believe me, I'm not writing this as a prude, but as a professional. At a personal level there is much which is beautiful, witty, insightful, but my concern is how will our posts be interpreted by the children and young people in our care if it appears on our timeline? Provocative poses, Explicit wording, expansive cleavage, bulging crotches.???
There is another social media trend. It's the open often vilifying criticism of the workplace. In terms of our ethical behaviour toward the employer, there is reference to our not criticising the workplace in the public media....interpreted as newspapers and TV. Social Service Professional ethics as well as workplace codes of conduct simply disallow this. There was a post which said there is a workplace manager who made it policy that if he/she makes a friend request on Face Book, staff members are requires to accept. Not at all sure of the ethics of such a policy !!!! It does though, speak volumes of employer anxiety that internal workplace or personal criticism will be exposed on social media. Social media seems to be interpreted as "Chatting to friends", which it may be. But social media can be a public medium depending on how it is used or managed. So, some texts are a diatribe of organisational criticism. I was once told that anything in the digital arena is in the public domain It can be used. It can go viral'. It can be a yell of "Fire! Fire" in the crowded cinema. There ARE other forums, other platforms, for this.
The use of a question on social media allure other professionals to come out and uncover within organisation/facility criticisms. The questioner is protected, when others, I think, in good faith, may put themselves at risk.
None of this means that we, as child and youth care workers are closed off, that our freedom of speech is stifled, The use of administrated groups, closed groups, and privacy settings can allow us protection as professionals. I was given lots of advice when I went onto use social media. Much of which I have ignored, I'm afraid to say. Like, use LINKIN for professional contact. Have a family group for family matters. But I like facebook. It is interactional, stimulating, and is a platform for us to keep informed, to debate and to make plans. JUST..ethically,.... be guarded. Be safeguarded. It's the public nature of social media that place us at most risk of possible professional ethical complaint.
