The complete set of 198 Hints are available in paperback from the CYC-Net Press store.
Listen
I remember an exercise from early days of training. A scenario would be set rather like this: In your living unit’s "common room" a child is climbing up a ladder left by two workmen who have gone off to tea; two youth are fighting loudly over an expensive library book; another is sitting on the floor against the wall, crying. The exercise: What would you, as the Child and Youth Care worker, do first?
Students would debate the issue, including questions about things which are important as against things that are urgent .. but the answer was always: "It depends". And it is true, throughout the day care workers are constantly making judgement calls ... based on what they know about the kids, on what they observe, on what is safe and what is fair – and on what the treatment team is aiming for.
In our practice today we prioritise between kids and between situations. Having a sense of which events are critical and which are less so, helps us decide where to put our energies and time. In the scenario above, for example, we may know that the kid up the ladder is perfectly competent and safe up there; we may also be aware of the youngster on the floor who is crying and that she needs a little space right now – and that we were planning in any event to go along and sit with her in a minute or two. When we choose to rescue the library book, an impartial observer may think that we are being unduly concerned for agency property at the expense of two far more important issues ... but we know.
But we are also expected to prioritise within particular children. That is, when we engage them, knowing what are the important issues for them and which are less important. These decisions are often more difficult – and harder to defend to our colleagues, supervisors and superiors. Like, for example, whether it is more important for us to spend some time on an issue or that the child is on time for school; whether the child needs some urgent time with her mother right now or it is more important that her bed is made. Or, more tricky, whether we should be supportive of a kid right now (when we are working at making him more self-sufficient) or whether we should discipline a kid over some rule infraction (when we are working with her at a sensitive stage of an altogether more critical story ...
Of course it is always preferable for decisions like this to be taken in consultation with our team or supervisor, but circumstances may be such that these people will not be accessible or get together again for a couple of days. Then it’s our call. The more accurate our observations, the fuller our knowledge, the better our relationship with the child and the family and the deeper our learning, the more reliable will be the priority we choose.
