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 thisQuery 1
Hi there,
My name is Monique,
and I am at a University in my second year studying youth and family. I
am new to the degree, but not new to children and youth.
I am
enjoying my practicum placement, and I am working with special needs
children.
The place that I am at, practices full restraint of
their children and youth. I don't have any experience in this area, nor
am I trained in it. I have heard mixed opinions about it depending on
the environment that you practice it in.
Last year in my first
and second semester, I had an instructor say to me that she does not
believe in full restraint, and she also said that she believes there are
other ways. I have also spoken to people at my placement, who have been
attacked and lunged at, and very much believe in restraining.
My
question is, to anyone and everyone, what are the other options to full
restraint, and do you think that it makes a difference in the
environment that you are in?
Thank you,
Monique
...
Query 2
My name is Brett Bairstow. I am currently in my 2nd
year at Mount Royal university majoring in Child and Youth Counselling.
I have begun my practicum this year, and so far I am loving it.
I gain a lot of hands on experience, as well as learn a lot about Child
and Youth Care practice. If a situation arises at my practicum placement
where a child is causing physical harm to themselves, other children, or
the teachers, restraints may happen. It is in no way encouraged, in fact
the teachers I talk to dislike restraining the youth, but it’s more of a
last resort type option. These restraints happen when nothing else can
be done. All the teachers have been trained in restraints, so they are
using the correct procedures. Seeing a restraint happen the first time
was hard to watch, but after talking to the teachers I realize why youth
care workers feel restraints are sometimes necessary. After the
restraint takes place the teachers talk with the children about the
situation, what happened, why they had to restrain them, and how to
avoid it. If the child is okay with it sometimes the teachers will
snuggle with, hug or rub their back in efforts to re-create the
relationship with the child.
Seeing as how restraint can be a
controversial subject, I wanted to know what other’s opinions on
restraints are? And also how others rebuild the relationship with the
individual after the restraint has happened?
Brett
...
Hey, my name is Sean and I been working for the school board for
over four years. I have watched and been involved with lots of
restraints. I have worked in a section 23 classroom where every day you
are in a restraint. It all depends on the environment and the child you
are working with. Some kids I have been able to calm down without the
need of restraint and others I have found if you do not do a full
restraint someone is going to get injured and that includes the child.
It’s only done in a situation where the child or someone else is at
risk. Some schools have a special room where you can place the child to
calm. I find that works too – it all depends.
...
Hi Monique,
I am not all that familiar with the differences between “full
restraint” and other types of restraint, I am sure there are others with
far more expertise than me. But let me offer the following in an attempt
to answer your question.
I have worked in a residential care
centre that care for 120 children for 13 years, and in that time I have
had to physically hold children to prevent injury about 10 times. There
were very few other times beside those 10 times that anyone needed to
use restraint.
Of the 10 times or so I can remember, I can
honestly say that only about 2 or 3 of them were justified. Only 2 or 3
times was physical holding really needed and could not have been
prevented. The other 7 times it could have been prevented if the staff
were properly trained in de-escalation. Most of the times that I had to
hold a child who were unable to contain themselves physically, upon
evaluation after the event we found that the situation was escalated by
staff who did not respond appropriately. So in 13 years I think 3
instances of restraint were really justified.
I don’t think it
is as important that staff are trained in restraint as it is that they
are trained in preventing restraint.
In the instances where I had
to hold (restrain) a child, most of those did not contribute positively
towards the relationship and was damaging. Only the 3 that were really
justified did not result in damage to our relationship, because in those
instances the children truly appreciated the fact that I was prepared to
hold them when they could not “hold” themselves.
These were
expensive lessons for me to learn. It came at expense to me as well as
to the children involved. Holding a child who has lost control
physically and mentally is traumatic to both, and it has to be done
properly and only when really, really needed.
An interesting
observation I make – although I have no way of substantiating this – is
that restraint seems to be used more often in settings where other forms
of touch between staff and children are not allowed, e.g. a pat on the
shoulder, a hug, etc.
If staff are really well trained and work
together as a team, restraint will very rarely be needed. If staff
accept restraint as an “option”, I think it is more likely that they
will find reasons to use it. If you “believe in” restraint, I have to
wonder exactly what you believe about restraint – and I think this is
where you might want to start. Because I also believe in restraint, but
I believe it is almost never needed. That means that it is never in my
day-to-day “toolkit” for use with children. I don’t consider it, which
means I keep looking for other ways to resolve things. If it is
something you keep in your toolkit as an option, I would imagine you
might use it sooner rather than later. This is the danger as I see it.
So perhaps one way of measuring would be to ask “what is the
effect of restraint on the child being restrained?”. How do they feel
about things afterwards? Do they experience it as a useful, necessary
intervention that helped them in some way?
I think the best
training in restraint is the training that teaches you how to do
everything else really well.
Hope this helps,
Werner van
der Westhuizen
South Africa
...
I always find getting out
of the way and organizing your environment that puts you at the least
amount of risk possible a suitable option opposed to restraint.
I
recognize though that might not be possible in certain settings and if
it’s to help maintain the SAFETY of the individual and those around them
then restraint may be necessary.
A young person that I worked
with had school personnel fully restrain him after he started having a
meltdown, and was on the second story of the school next to the railing
(which overviews the lobby downstairs), he kept going over to the
railing and 'draping' his body on it. School staff feared he would
(either on purpose or accidentally) flip over the railing to the bottom.
Lisa
...
Thank you Lisa, Werner and Sean in response to my
restraining question. Your responses were enlightening and informative.
This conversation has definitely provoked me to further research.
I have come to know about the book, Gentle Touching, and I think I
will try to find a copy. Lisa, I agree, restraining can be used if the
child/youth wants to harm themselves or someone else. Werner, I
appreciate your honesty about how traumatic restraining can be,
especially when some caregivers do not want to talk about these things.
It has been beneficial for short term use, but I question its
use long term. From the information that I can read and obtain,
restraining has some devastating effects on everyone. To all of you,
your thoughts and comments have reduced my fear of this subject, and for
that I am grateful.
Thank you,
Monique
