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 thisHi,
I heard someone say recently that it takes at least five years of full
time work and thinking before a person really comes to think
systemically. What do other people think? How will I know when I am
finally ’thinking systemically’?
Joanna Campbell
...
Hi Joanna.
Thinking systemically is a mindset and skill
that certainly grows over time. Part of what makes this such a challenge
in Child and Youth Care is that there are so many related components and
different systems we find ourselves in. For example family systems, peer
systems, school systems, welfare systems, social systems, legal systems,
political systems and more.
One key factor in knowing that we have started thinking systemically is
that we find ourselves reacting less to challenges as they occur and
begin asking the question: How does this moment (e.g. this decision,
action, movement) relate to and impact others? Perhaps the most
important aspect about systems thinking is the idea that nothing (e.g.
people, decisions, actions) exists in isolation.
So, five years sounds great – but it is more likely a journey that
starts on day one and continues until we are done.
James Freeman
Southern California, USA
…
I think that you will know by the types of questions you are asking
about the clients that you are working with. Those questions would have
to do with looking beyond what is presented to you on a day to day
basis. They might be ones that have you look at the ecological aspects
of the strengths and issues presented. It might have to do with using
different frameworks such as trauma-informed perspective. Or it may be
questions that look at systemic issues and the formation of social
identity. Those are some indicators that come to mind for me.
Rick Kelly
...
Dear Joanna,
The English psychotherapist, David Smail, who died earlier this year wrote “Few honest and courageous people who have achieved anything of real value in life do not feel a fraud much of the time."
I agree with one strand of this thought which might be voiced as, " if we are not systematically trained to do our job, Child and Youth Care – and the inference here is to be able to think and work systematically – we will in some way be frauds”. I am absolutely sure sincere Child and Youth Care workers are honest and courageous people though I am equally certain their modesty seldom allows them to admit it. I also feel that healthy development for a Child and Youth Care worker consists of a good training which exposes her to a wide and deep knowledge of other people’s learning in our field, together with the insights she gains through time from her personal and working experiences. My view is that a worker digests all these and converts them into a way of thinking and working which is unique and natural for her and she will exercise it genuinely given that respected and knowledgeable colleagues are there to reassure her that her way is humane and kind.
Now, about the use of the word ’systematic" in all this. I think systemic theory as well systematic procedures are valuable as – among other things – theoretical and organisational containers. Reflecting on my own experience I would say that I was not systematic in my thinking and working in the sense of being trained to think and to be organised and systematic in any conventional way. Paradoxically, I am almost sure that in my own way I was systematic. My store of personal resources were – because of the nature of the work and my way of working – piled up higgledy piggledy all around my mind's internal office but mostly I knew where they were and could find them in a conscious or unconscious way when I felt they were needed.
Yet all the time, along with the children and colleagues I was living and working with, I seemed always to be discovering new things. Ain’t that something ?
Best wishes,
Charles Sharpe
...
I agree with James that thinking systemically starts one day and keeps
going until ….. You know you are thinking systemically when you think
about context and connection between individual and the whole e.g.
individuals in the context of their family, in the context of
neighbourhood / community etc. When you can see the forest as well as
the trees.
Johnnie (in Ireland)
