Since it's founding in 1997, the CYC-Net discussion group has been asked thousands of questions. These questions often generate many replies from people in all spheres of the Child and Youth Care profession and contain personal experiences, viewpoints, as well as recommended resources.
Below are some of the threads of discussions on varying Child and Youth Care related topics.
Questions and Responses have been reproduced verbatim.
Listen to thisA few weeks back someone asked about working
with youth in care who attended raves, and the discussion ended
unsatisfactorily for me without much being said the risks raised by the
questioner. But just how common is it that drug-taking is a problem that
runs alongside whatever other issues we are working on with youth? In our
program I think we are ambivalent about this – sometimes it is a big deal,
other times we are almost in denial or feel helpless about it. Some
colleagues dismiss concerns about raves, but others find it hard to be
"cool" when kids are going through very serious other issues. Just how
widespread, how serious is drug-taking. How do others see it and manage it?
Margaret Davie
...
Margie
I live in Toronto Ontario, Canada. I am a Child and Youth worker in training
and also a youth myself. I attended raves for 2 and a half years, so I can
give some 'inside' information. The best thing, first off, that I would
strongly recommend is that you educate yourself as much as you can on the
topic if you happen to be, or think that you will be dealing with youth who
are involved with 'raving'. Do not just educate yourself from the point of
view of so-called 'professionals' because we all know (and I mean no
disrespect whatsoever) that a lot of things are said out of misconception,
ignorance, and plain fear of what isn't known.
With that said ... Thousands of youth attend raves every weekend in Toronto,
with a population of approximately 3-5 million (I believe). This does not
mean that all of these party-goers engage in drug-use. Many try it, and
never do it again. Many do these drugs in moderation (once in a while), and
many, unfortunately, become addicted and it affects their health and well
being. When a youth starts going to raves, if they have been plagued with
low-self esteem or personal issues, will find raves the next best thing to
sliced bread, and will say they will rave for the rest of their life.
Believe me, these feelings can arise with or without the drugs. What I am
trying to say, is if you know of a youth that is attending these parties,
please don't assume that they are doing the drugs, it'll either make them
want to go more, or actually do the drugs they are being accused of
ingesting. If you want to educate your youth about raves, whether they go or
not, there is an organization within Toronto called TRIP, and they provide
safety info to the whole rave community on sex and drugs from MDMA, Meth,
Ketamine etc... I believe that the best approach is education. Making youth
scared of taking these drugs often pushes them to try it even more, so they
can prove that it won't kill them.
Good Luck.
Charlene
...
Let's see. I will talk to my students frankly about the dangers of drug use
and how non-use is way safer than any kind of use. For those kids who are
using and seem impervious to my suggesting that use is not a good idea for
them (especially because many of them are on heavy medications prescribed by
doctors for ADD, etc) because they are more susceptible to negative health
effects, I ask what tactics they are using to be safe. Do they use condoms
and other kinds of birth control when they are using when they have sex? Do
they mix? How does it make them feel during and after? What are the
long-term and short-term consequences of use? I believe that open and real
conversations about use is important. Our youth today are fed drugs of all
kinds that mess with their bodies, prescribed by doctors and sanctioned by
schools parents, counselors and the media. Some of these drugs make kids
feel weird and out of control and not happy. They know how their body feels,
we do not. How can we tell a kid to take this little pill everyday at this
certain time but don't smoke weed or take that little pill? How is that
logical? It's not and so we need to converse and talk about it openly. Just
saying no doesn't work anymore.
I wish that I could tell kids that doing drugs is unhealthy, but what if I
use drugs recreationally? What if I go home on Friday night and go drink a
couple pitchers with my pals? Or smoke cigarettes on my lunch break? Our
kids are smart, they know that we use, and they also know that we are
potential hypocrites when we say that this drug will help you and that drug
will hurt you when we take neither. How many practitioners and doctors eat
the drugs on a regular basis that they prescribe to kids? I understand that
some of our students have chemical imbalances and some drugs will "help"
them learn to control their behavior. So will eating fruit and drinking
water. But I know at least in my country that school lunches are horridly
unhealthy, full of processed sugars and carbs.
We have to look at how we are role-models for leading healthy lives.
Whole-body learning lessons. Kids in my school complain about the bad
lunches and lack of working water fountains or bad tasting water. But we
line them up to get their Zoloft and Ritalin. Some of my students tell me
that they work better, get more work done and are less reactive when they
are high. They have tested this in school. But I must have them arrested if
they come to school with marijuana. What are we telling our kids? Is it a
clear message/ It doesn't seem so to me ...
Peter DeLong
...
Thanks to Charlene and Peter for replying. I understand your general views
about drugs in our world. But my question was rather more specific in the
sense of drug taking as a complication when we are dealing with a particular
client. We are often working with really difficult to manage youths, making
what we think are careful and sensible Child and Youth Care decisions day to
day ... and alongside this process we also know that he or she is using. The
using adds to risky and destructive behavior on the one hand, and offers the
youth an alternative to having to work at what we are trying on the other
hand. It doesn't seem enough to say "Oh well, kids do that" when the stakes
are so high and we are meant to be helping with serious problems. Also we
can't lock the boy up in a room to prevent him using – we try to keep them
going to school, participating, etc. I think this is the conflict I am
needing help with. I really would like to hear how others manage with this.
Margaret Davie
...
Replying to Margaret on the drug issue ...
Margie, just remember that no matter what 'we know is best' for young
people, this ultimately is not our decision nor our right to influence,
instead we must accept what they choose. The role we play is to best inform
the client of the choices available to choose from. A worker will soon
become disheartened and tired, if disappointed at the clients 'wrong'
decision. It may be wrong and unwise to us but we disempower the client if
we do not accept and then support their choices – look more at your role as
providing safe environments, education, positive role modeling etc, rather
than trying to 'save' these kids – they will only resent you for this.
Michelle Ann Mayes
