WHO KNOWS? THE GROUND SHIFTS...CHILD AND YOUTH CARE IN SOUTH AFRICA

This was to  have been a stinging blog on the lack of knowing by decision makers in the social services about the serious  situation of child and youth care workers in South Africa and so the serious situation of Child Care. I had two questions. Who knows our plight? The other, who knows what child and youth care IS, what we DO and the importance of our profession. 

But there is good news...and hope. The ground has recently shifted. 

In the first meeting of a delegation of the South African Council for Social Service Professions (SACSSP) to the Parliamentary Portfolio committee for the Social Services, I was led to understand that the committee asked "What is this? We know of Social Work , but Child and Youth Care...Whats that? 

This has changed. A meeting directly with the Director General and then with the Minister addressed exactly that. Not only who and what we as child and youth care workers are, but also the seriousness of the situation we are experiencing. 

So it was that at the second meeting with the Portfolio Committee of Parliament attended by the Minister, a full presentation on what is Child and Youth Care, the need to recognise the profession and its plight was given by the National Association of Child Care Workers (NACCW) The SACSSP also made a presentation. Major high level decision makers said.. "A most interesting two days".

Again recently, the National Department of Social Development held talks to develop a National Human Resources Sector Plan. Expressed there was the need to renegotiate the Occupation Specific Dispensation (OSD) and Conditions of Service.

The Registrar of the SACSSP attended a meeting of MINMEC Which is the Minister together with her relevant  Members of the Executive Councils of the Provinces. ..a door opens to an ideal platform for information sharing on the social service professions.

Again recently the Registrar with a team from the registration Department of the SACSSP met with Social Service professionals in the Western Cape. The meeting, I was was very well attended vibrant,and concerns were discussed.

The answer to my first question is that the ground has shifted and will continue to do so.

Now for the second . Who knows what child and youth care workers DO?  What is the national value of the field its professional practice, its knowledge, skills, use of self and its literature. Not in the form of heavy coursework, but in broad strokes with enough to allow a grasp of the professional field. Some of this has been presented in the foundational ground shift but I think we have work to do on a wider scale now.

Let's stay with the high level decision makers for a while. The what do we actually DO and the success of what we do in the reclaiming of young lives would be useful to be heard in forums such as the Provincial Departmental Heads, Heads of Programmes, and Child and Youth Care Facilities. Better perhaps to say Employers, Managers and some Supervisors. All to frequently we see in the advertisements for Child and Youth Care posts, a misunderstanding if what it is we do. Here we cannot rule out the Non-government Organisations. When job descriptions trivialise our practice, the salaries are equally triviaised. I can go so far as to say that I have seen some advertisements for posts where there no clue as to what the child and youth care really is.  

It would be hoped that an awareness campaign would cast its net wide enough to encompass the other social service professions also. And I'm talking about a need to know among all the helping professions Including Education , Justice, Mental Health, Health, Correctional Services and Psychiatric Services.
 I sat next to a stranger in the airport recently. He asked me what I do. He said he had never heard of that. Social workers.. yes, but child and youth care workers..No. A whole spectrum of people with a need to know opened up for me. The public, the parents and even the young people we serve as well.

What I think we have not done well is to publicise ourselves as a profession through the media . We seem to get little coverage in newspapers, on the radio and TV. social media. We have not really made use of  every available resource and every available opportunity to build awareness about what we REALLY DO. 

We obviously need a strategic plan. An awareness campaign
The big question is who will do this. One simple on the ground response is that we must all be involved in some way. It will take a planning and leading and it can and should no longer wait. large scaly awareness about the field and what we Do needs to happen.

The ground has shifted. This is an ideal moment for us to make our work as professional known

Let us grasp the moment.


    

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
.
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". 









    



  

BEDWETTING...CHILD AND YOUTH CARE IN SOUTH AFRICA

Three bedwetting memorable moments...which surely, only a child and youth care worker will have !  

A visit to a dormitory facility for about 50 girls in a township setting in the Eastern Province. It was early days for me in child and youth care work.  Against the perimeter walls were lined up about 15 mattresses drying in the sun from bedwetting the night before. The Director said that the bedwetters were mainly 15 to 16 year old. The number overwhelmed me.

My very first exploratory visit - the "do I want to work here?" visit. Sitting in the foyer I heard the whack whack whack of a cane and a girl crying out in pain. The child and youth care worker came down the stairs kweperlat  (quince stick) in hand.
Me "Why did you beat her?"
She "She wet her bed last night and didn't take her sheets, rinse them, didn't make her bed and it's 3.o clock in the afternoon already". 

Boy's dormitory. Child and youth care worker frog-marched a 12 year old to the toilet, pushed his head into the bowl. "Sies man, You pissed your bed last night. This is where you piss. See! ..not in your bed" Then she flushed the toilet on his head.

All three incidents raise questions about bedwetting and child and youth care work

The first, I guess is frequency by age. Accepted statistics appear to more or less agree: up to 3 years 4 months - 1 in every 2 children wet the bed (50%). At 5 years 1 in every 5 children  At 8 years 1 in every 20 children. At 15 years 1 in every 50 young people.

The girls in that dormitory facility were way above the normal pattern  A social worker in a dicussion on bedwetting. its prevention and reduction said, "Unless you can deal with and reduce the young person 's anxiety, you wont prevent bedwetting".  She got me going.!  Was there something in the girl's  facility's approach or tone which hightened anxiety?  Was there a style of interaction going on that increased anxiety rather than help young people to self-regulation.. a pervasive culture of adversary, perhaps? As a visitor I was not allowed to see, but I do know that in some programmes, child and youth care workers used to walk around with rulers in their hands, as then did teachers.

Apart from stress, anxiety, night fears and the like, there are other possibilities or reasons given to explain bedwetting. Obviously the possibility of a physical condition. It's always useful to first check out the possibility of an underlying physical cause. Listed is: diabetes, urinary tract infection, urinary tract stones, anatomical abnormalities and sleep apnea.   

The sleep apnea story is interesting. Had one 10 year old with disrupted sleep. Apnea woke her up then she would wake up others She was put onto a medication which literally knocked her out at night. She then, what is called "flooded". Not just a patch on the mattress...sheets, duvet, pillow, the works.

Then comes the usual list of prevention methods. Nothing liquid for an hour before bed-time. Reduce the coffee intake    (coffee is said to be a diuretic and increases urination), To be woken up at night ans accompanied to the toilet, pills which are anti-diuretics, the bedwetting alarm...a cover on the mattress which sounds at the first drops and star charts. A 'social reward' system was said to be effective. It meant "go without wetting for say 3 consecutive nights and you are given an age appropriate  'social reward' Its not a physical reward...not sweets nor money, but a an appropriate activity usually with others that fits the social developmental stage of the bedwetter. Child and young people are quite good at suggesting what it might be.

Child and youth care workers say that this is all very useful but offers no guarantee of working. They are right. I rather like the 'social reward 'idea coupled with some of the others

Then we tackle the "What do we do when in the morning or in the night bedwetters wake up and we find a wet bed?" Certainly not the head in toilet routine nor the quince stick. Most thinking is that the child or young person should take some responsibility for wet bedding. Which reminds me, It caused a problem when I insisted on a plastic sheet across the usual bedwet area of the mattress.  They would take it off saying that they were being singled out to be babies  I then only used fully plastic covered mattresses throughout as standard equipment.... no discrimination and no singling out.
Taking responsibility varied from rinsing out sheets themselves in the bath to simply stripping them off and putting them into a laundry container...the least fuss the better. Mattresses do have to be aired if they are not plastic covered but the child and youth care workers made this as discrete an exercise as the possibly could. Making any kind of fuss, clearly doesn't work.

Techniques and procedures aside. Good child and youth care practice in any programme, aims at reducing any psychological stress and anxiety. Reduction of anxiety, confidence building, learning to feel good about themselves, a culture of acceptance and predictability go a long way. I have seen bedwetting considerably reduced through good child and youth care practice      

  

ACTIVITIES AND GROWTH...CHILD AND YOUTH CARE I SOUTH AFRICA

Visits to some facilities found isolated incidents of young people and children hanging around. The problem was the lack of structured activities. In some of those instances, the child and youth care workers seemed also to be hanging around rather like monitors, watching...yes, but engaging and involving young people in activities...NO!

In some of these places there were no school facilities, enclosed high walled enclosures. Routines were the only activities. Problem is that unplanned, frequently... mostly, negative activities occupy boredom and the empty spaces. It's an ideal time for young people to plan vandalism, break-outs, sexual behaviours and planned moments to frustrate the child and youth care worker. Then they watch the reaction  It's grand entertainment. I called it "pulling the puppet strings". It's grand entertainment.

TV and video is often quoted as the solution, but passive time filling is not developmental. then,soccer for the boys, sometimes within the confines of the enclosure is a favourite. 

I saw at times, lack of stimulation with little to no meaningful interaction between child and youth care workers just informal interaction among the young people themselves.

Thing is, developmental activities are essential for developmental goal reaching and an essential part of professional child and youth care practice.

There any number of best practice models which I saw in visits. These programmes have a kind of calendar of activities. There's the annual calendar. For example, celebrating the meaning behind the public holidays like Heritage Day, Youth Day, Human Rights Day the facility or programme's birthday. Each is planned with the young people's participation. Then comes things like farewells, end of term and end of year functions functions.   
These programmes have a monthly activity schedule - individual birthdays , Spring day, weekend programmes outings (if allowed) visits, visitors, social outreach, adventure activities. 

Each young person has an individual daily programme of activities which may include time with the social worker in group or case-work, remedial class, art and craft class. debates...the list is limited by only by the lack of planning and careful thought about the needs and goals of the young people in the programme. .
The lack of developmental activity planning has a negative developmental effect, but then, so does the over scheduling of children and young people. There is a need for balance. I am very aware of programmes that are deliberately planned to be what I called "too tight". The thinking here is, "keep them constantly busy and they don't have time to get into trouble". 

Activities do cost. They cost in time, effort and funds. Often, I found lack of activity blamed on management for these reasons. This is not good enough. In training, in those organisations, I always ask each child and youth care worker what each can do fairly well in their own domestic, personal life. Typical responses are: "I can bake, sing, knit, crochet, fix appliances fix in maintenance, grow vegetables. Again the list is endless. 

So what's the problem? As child and youth care workers we have a range of skills we bring with us as 'self' which can and should be useful n programming activities. 

Many activities, don't have a cost attached...group discussions, debates, and structured skills programmes, It is often forgotten that auxiliary level child and youth care workers are permitted in terms of the regulated scope of practice to provide programme of an "educational nature". The more psycho-social programmes can be undertaken by child and youth care workers at the professional level, Most programmes of a therapeutic nature are provided by a social worker. There are any number of 'off the shelf' programme manuals for life skills, building relationships, building friendships and keeping them and diversion.

Now we have to look at at activity planning itself. Developmental activities are professionally planned to forward the developmental needs, areas and goals of the young people participating in them. The activity is really just the means through which goals are reached  The group involved in the activity is carefully selected as having Individual Development Plan (IDP) goals which can be forwarded through the activity or the group structure. The who and the what and the goals of an activity need, then careful thought. It's not easy. There can be group or individual activities.

Young people hanging around, restless - - "OK, lets go bake some cookies". "lets go play cards"...or whatever.  Unstructured diversion is needed sometimes. But, well scheduled, well planned goal orientated activities are part of what we do as child and youth care workers.

Back to the programmes that don't have schools, skills training workshops Art rooms or anything.It can and must be overcome and compensated for.

There's a saying, "If you don't plan, you plan for failure". Failure in our child and youth care programmes results, over time, in children and young people 'going backwards' degeneration. This, we cannot allow.

As professional child and youth care workers we are required to 'think, plan, do' and to take a critical look at ourselves and our organisational programmes.

Think, plan, do. 






                                                                                           

CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT...CHILD AND YOUTH CARE IN SOUTH AFRICA

We all said, it was an historical moment.

A panel of seventeen selected child and youth care workers met at the South African Council for Social Service Professions (SACSSP) for a training workshop. The purpose?...the policy of the assessment of Continuous Professional Development (CPD) points for child and youth are workers n South Africa.

Training started with "Why CPD, anyway?" It was clear that some child and youth care workers would object to the requirement now needed to maintain registration as a professional. Anticipated was a set of objections based on the necessity to pay for additional annual training.

Let's start however with the need for CPD.

We were all 17 of asked "Why are you here?" My response was, "How would it be for you, if you went to a Doctor who had not read a medical journal for the last 5 years? How would our young people think if they were served by so called professionals trained 5 years ago (or more) and not kept up to date, somehow, with more of today's knowledge and skills?" As in medicine, so in Child and Youth Care practice, the field has a rapid ever-changing growth in knowledge, skills, concepts of being and of self. The world itself has not stood still. We can no longer say, "I've been doing this for the last 15 years. I know what is best". 

That is it ! As professionals we have to stay up to date, to expand what we have started to know and to, sometimes, revise it. 

Well, in the year 2020, child and youth care workers in South Africa will have to provide evidence  that they are updated in order to keep alive their registration and so, to keep their jobs. Basically, the need for CPD cannot be disputed in the best interests of the child.

Let's start then from there. These are the requirements as set out in the SACSSP policy for the award of CPD points:

In summary:
1. At professional level you are required to to obtain a minimum of 15 CPD points annually or 30 points over 2 years.
2. At auxiliary level 10 CPD point annually, or 20 over two years
3.At least one activity must address the professional code of conduct and ethics.
4. A maximum of 10 points can be forwarded to the next year for a period of one year.
5. Each CPD activity is approved by the SACSSP against set criteria and awarded on completion of the activity.

Firstly, service providers. The problem is that there is money to be made from the provision of CPD training. Everyone and anyone wants to jump at the opportunity. So service providers and their programmes have to b approved by the SACSSP and measure up to the formula for the number of points that can be awarded.

Then we have to be accountable and accounted for.

The advice is for us, now as child and youth care workers to open a file, collect and file evidence of your CPD attendance at approved CPD training, accredited workshops and approved conferences and seminars.

Points for what you do as CPD as an individual can be gathered in a more complex system of point formula. Collect evidence now of any self directed CPD you have done. 
In brief, this is a list, without detail, of the areas of self directed CPD you can undertake and submit for point consideration. The greater the significance of such, the more the point value. 
Personal wellness, self study, learning programme participation, memberships of professional associations, being an examiner, peer review, paper presentation, authorship of article, book or textbook, formal research, project or policy analysis. 

As this is a new, but nonetheless important move forward in the profession of child and youth care work in South Africa, the Professional Board for Child and Youth Care Work           ( PBCYCW) decided to ease us into the system by allowing that:
service providers who provided training/workshops of a CPD nature in 2019 will, on announcement be permitted to submit those programmes retrospectively for the allocation of points. What you have done, then in those programmes and what you have done as self directed in 2019 can be used for CPD points.

Now back to the cost. It can be controlled. Most organisations undertake an annual performance appraisal and set out a personal development profile for each staff member and ensure that there are CPD styled workshops or courses to meet the need. If these apply and receive accreditation much of the group CPD activity can be gathered in the workplace.

CPD is not punishment. It has been applied in Social Work for a very long time. Now child and youth care workers in South Africa will be on par with all other professions. CPD separates us from occupations such as child minders and nannies. Registration together with CPD put us well and truly into the category of professionals.

It marks a moment in the history of our professionalisation in South Africa
.
Welcome it !!  


      

LANGUAGE WE USE... CHILD AND YOUTH CARE IN SOUTH AFRICA

This blog is not talking about the language we use when talking to or with young people. It's about the language we use when we we describe behaviour, especially in a written descriptive profile, reports and in discussing young people with other professionals. Yes, there can be  a degree of spill over from our professional descriptive language and what we say to young people. That's exactly why we have to get it right. The risks and implications are well articulated in the article: Brown A.M Appropriate language in Child and Youth Care. CYC-net, Issue 85 February 2006/ Best Practice .

Now to the issue of this talk. The question was whether we, as child and youth care workers, can "rephrase" diagnostic terminology like manic depressive (bi-polar) and ADDH? 'the question  continued. "When taking to young people about themselves can we rephrase or avoid using diagnostic terms?"

I recall an occasion when a child and youth care descriptive profile was sent to a psychiatrist following the arrest of a 16 year old boy for the sexual harassment of three young women in the street of the local town. The child and youth care worker and the multi disciplinary team assembled the descriptive profile as a developmental assessment. He had three days of assessment by psychiatrist(s) in the psychiatric hospital. The report back was "We can add nothing more to the developmental assessment that you have submitted"....no labels (fortunately), just comment on context, some advice on management and a way forward.

It means that when we do profiling (and talking to young people) we can rephrase, avoid labeling, use purely descriptive language and produce a powerful tool, acceptable to and useful for, other professionals in the best developmental interests of the child.

We do this because it is the language of the child and youth care profession. We do this because we know that labels are damaging in the immediate, short and long term.

Until I came into child and youth care, I was suspicious of this thing called 'self fulfilling prophecy'. I soon learnt differently. If we told a young person, "you have a behavioural disorder", then that's what you get. " Sorry, but you know I have a behavioural disorder!"  Same with bi-polar and any other label.  I experienced young people 'living into' the labels.

Then, when labels follow young people into other life-spaces, they are viewed differently. In school, clubs, family and community and even into the adult workplace even when the behaviour of the person no longer reflects the childhood symptoms. I experienced children and young people refused entry into, so called 'normal' schooling simply on the strength of a label. In simple terms, children and young people can be given labels which can be inaccurate or misdiagnosed.
Our descriptive language is a professionally learnt language/communication style/ profiling skill in which we do rephrase and contextualise what we observe. 

To do this, the formula are really quite simple sounding but in practice it is not that easy.

The first is to learn to use description. 

"About every three weeks in a predicable cycle, Luckys facial features appear to change.  His eyes seem to pull back at the sides, giving him a somewhat 'Chinese' appearance. When this happens we experience a change in his behaviour which lasts about three days. His way of speaking and addressing staff takes on a changed tone.he refuses to do chores During one of these periods he stole clothing from the boy's lockers and sold them at the taxi-ranks in town. This is a repetitive occurence during those three day periods"

That could be a descriptive profile in strictly behavioural terms.The Diagnostic label was, Temporal Lobe Epilepsy (TLE)... sorted with simple medication. Explanation to Lucky was not that much different from the descriptive behavioural profile.

We contextualise.

We always describe behaviour within the circumstances in which it happens.In that way we can rephrase. Given the life-space situation, eg school ,family, in these relationships, in that company, when this happens, Lucky...does this or that.

I always said that child and youth care workers in my employ will hate me because, if they say. "He was disruptive", or "rude". or "unmanageable", I would say "Don't tell me that. Tell me what he DID and in what circumstances". 

Lastly, when the final Developmental Assessments are tabled, if diagnostic terminology is used, state clearly, the source from which they came, the name of the professional, and the tests administered, the results and  on what date. There has been a pattern over time of certain diagnoses being somewhat popularised: Tourettes Syndrome, ADDH, Aspergers, behavioural disorder and the like... all held later with some suspicion. Diagnostic fashion seems to  change and diagnostic labels have been refuted and changed.... Caution! In one year, I remember,that the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) itself was called into question. (I haven't seen comment on the latest 5th edition).

Child and youth care workers describe observed behaviour in context. That's what we do and that's what we do best as one of our unique skills. We don't diagnose and we don't label. We write what we see and hear. We say what we see and hear. When we do this, we practice within our unique profession.





      




   

WORKPLACE CHATTER...CHILD AND YOUTH CARE IN SOUTH AFRICA

INDISCREET..."Having or showing too great a readiness to reveal things that should be private or secret".

 Walls have ears

In the end, the indiscreet chatter experience was painful, to say the least. It was a camp. We were each responsible for a group to talk about the night time beach experience of making and lighting candles on the shoreline. I was given a group of adolescent girls. For the life of me, I don't know how I got there. In an idle of guard moment, I asked one of the group, " Why is your brother rubbing his child care worker (Name), up the wrong way?" ( OR WORSE in physical bodily terms). 

Well, as you can imagine, it soon got back to the child and youth care worker and to the whole camp. Breakfast next morning, the child and youth care worker told the whole camp, publicly, that she was instituting disciplinary action against me. Based on loyalty, the camp split. Which meant that the Home split. Those for me said "Fire her !". Those for her said  "Fire him !"   

The charge was "Making personal critical insinuations to the young people about her professional practice and breach of confidentiality.

The child care worker let it run for a few days. Then at camp breakfast, as publicly as before, withdrew the threat of charges. This somehow strengthened loyalty groups, which on return from camp, didn't go away.

For me, this was an important lesson in guarding what I said in the workplace in any situation. In that instance, what I said, was said and I couldn't take it back. It was out there.

 Workplace chatter has serious implications in the... who? says to whom? where? and what?.

Let's talk about the who?

Casual talk with colleagues.

Social media issues advice and then a warning. "Keep workplace talk to work. Those you think of as friends "snitch"and then you can get fired". It would seem that colleagues in the workplace who become "friends"  need to have talk boundaries different from personal friends in the  community. I think that the social media comment has some truth in it. Experience shows that indiscreet, no boundary sharing in the workplace can hold employment risks. The sharing, in the workplace of things like relationships ( in and out of marriage), tavern life, drinking episodes... in workplace chatter , all too intimate and risky. All too often, I heard of staff fall outs and management gets an earful. "Do you know that she........Do you know he........ Oops !    Management stereotyping personal belief systems and prejudices can click in

Telephone talk.

There are among us at work, colleagues, some whose lives are hectic, some chaotic,and some deeply romantic. One of the colleagues I remember fell into the hectic, chaotic category. She found it therapeutic to constantly share all her problems with all her outside friends on the phone.Passing colleagues picked up enough to put things together. Then came malicious, harmful gossip. Personal life was getting in the way of effective practice....There's a workplace chatter lesson to be learnt here. 

The there is village gossip spread into the workplace.

We were interviewing for staff.The policy was that we employ 12 learners on stipend and invite 12 to be volunteers with an understanding  that  they are the first to be employed if there occur any vacancies. I said "Employ !'. Management said "Volunteer !". "Why"? "I have heard that she was seen dancing at a tavern in the village". Out of interview, the applicant said, "I was young, we all did that". 

Management.

Don't be influenced by hearsay and gossip. Staff talk to management can be loose talk. When talk with management becomes a moment of idle chatter, it's often what  management is wanting....the off guard moments. "You know, I heard she was struggling with assessments for the Certificate, so she went to two  learners in another project and offered them R300 ZAR each to to do them for her.
.. and they did. It's  difficult to believe Hey! She seems like such an honest person." Danger !!!. 

Advice to child and youth care workers.

Keep workplace talk to workplace talk. Guard the more personal stuff loose chatter and intimacy. Keep it for others. 

Advice to Management.

Avoid chatter, loose talk and gossip. It's only  when formal complaint is lodged that one can take allegations seriously. Otherwise, investigate the chatter. all for the chatterer to tell the story at an investigative consultative interview with both parties present.

INDISCREET " Having or showing too great a readiness to reveal things that should be private or secret." 
Dr Google.