No. 2028
My Confusion, My Reality
Five months in the field of residential Child and Youth Care, I stand in a
maze of confusion. Thrown on the walls of this maze are a variety of images,
pictures of experience, created through my work. Images good and bad.
'"
of a child's rapt attention as he tries to catch a tadpole swimming in a mountain stream.
of a youngster's face, filled with anger and frustration, as he shows you the only three photographs he has to represent the whole history of his life — all three of which his friend has scratched and written, in his own fury, the words "Fred's a mother f..cker".
of kids coming back from school feeling bad having been told that they are the problem, and of the rage that follows, doors kicked in, fists and ugly words thrown, of pot smoked and glue sniffed to ease the pain and the bitterness.
of the burial and prayer for a dead pot plant, and its careful placement in the fishpond so as to form a "coral reef".
Questions
Through these images, the questions are formed:
Is that which is actually happening, what we're really supposed to be doing?
How do you create a therapeutic environment when the springs poke out of the mattresses, the doors are hanging on broken hinges — and the money isn't there to fix either?
How do you attempt a life space interview with one youth when 29 others are milling about, waiting for supper, doing jobs, laundry, showers, etc?
Which is more important to aim towards — containing the youth who needs your one-on-one time now, or running the system as a whole which maintains the other 29 kids?
How do you integrate the stunning theory of this profession with the practical realities, and how can you ever hope to do that, when you know that, on average, a Child and Youth Care worker only lasts for three years in the profession '?
Fishpond
The analogy has come to my mind, this last week, of a fishpond. The kids
that we work with are taken out of their own environments and thrown into
our fishpond which is thought to be better for them. Then, in its own
wisdom, our welfare system throws together in our pond all sorts and
different types of fish/kids.
The "better and safer environment" of the fishpond is not always so.
Each youngster is exposed to the behaviour of others,
which can jeopardise his own coping and development, can heighten his
confusion and wreck his self-esteem. As for the fishpond itself, it has many
cracks, the water may be stale and short of nutrients and oxygen, harmful
fungi might thrive there. All this threatens the lives and health of the
"fish" — as well as those of the gardeners who look after the pond, those
who were trained to care for the "fish" but without enough preparation for
all of the realities of the pond.
A better way?
Does this sound all negative? Many are the nights when I go to bed feeling
aggravated and frustrated with my work. The thought that ricochets around in
my mind is that "there must be a better damn way to do what we are supposed
to be doing."
Some learning
So in the five months spent so far in my maze, with its images, frustrations
and questions, I have come to know some things about Child and Youth Care
work:
that the cornerstone of my work is the relationship I have with the youth in my care;
the need to be professional in my work. yet to keep in touch with the fact that I am human;
my need for on-going training and supervision;
my task is to create more positives for the kids than negatives;
to recognise the kids' vulnerabilities, and thus not to look for pointless conflict;
to use the hard times to learn, and the good times to inspire;
that there is no quick-fix model in this profession;
and that time off is time out to have another life!
I also know that in these five months in residential Child and Youth Care, I have been engaged in a most real perspective of life — and I am wonder-filled by the experience.
MARK GAMBLE
My Confusion, My Reality. In Gannon, B. (ed.), (1999). Readings in
Child and Youth Care for South African Students.
National Association of Child Care Workers in association with Pretext
Publishers, Cape Town, pp. 40-41
