The fourth and final article by Jack Phelan in a series which attempts to present an articulate description of the process of doing Child and Youth Care Work. 

here are many skilled practitioners in Child and Youth Care work, typically people with at least three years of experience, who continually try to improve through reading, dialoguing with other mature practitioners and supervisors, and self-reflection. I will describe the work done at this level as the articulation of our professional practice.

The picture of what we do at this level is quite surprising. There is no need for team discussions about how to punish youth or complaints about resistance and a family's lack of motivation.

Teams of new workers (one year’s experience) discuss youths’ behavior and how to control it, teams of professionally emerging workers (two to three years’ experience) discuss techniques and strategies to motivate individuals and the group, teams of skilled practitioners discuss what they are doing and how to modify this to get better results.

For skilled practitioners the issue of personal safety is an ongoing discussion; physical safety is rarely an issue, but emotional and spiritual safety, the awareness of the dual influencing that goes on as you participate together in the life space with other people, is a constant area for reflection.

Responding to traumatic experiences and connecting with people in risky life states is a powerful and difficult process if you are developing safe and empathic connections with them. Being able to understand someone else’s logic and legitimate (for them) choices which haven’t helped, requires the worker to have a grounded sense of self and personal values which aren’t weakened in the process.

Treatment planning at this level entails creating a roadmap of the journey from being together at the starting/stuck place and moving ahead by pushing through the fear and resistance to change. Decisions and judgments are based on strategies and beliefs that are clearly articulated.

The framework for our work can be described as:

• Relationship building – using structure, limits and predictability to create safety, developing connections through caring, forgiving easily, being curious and interesting.

• Using effective change tools – knowing how to assess need, developmental level, systemic issues, and applying strategies that create hope and competence. Self reflection and boundary awareness in the living together and ethical applications of challenges to change are conscious decisions. Continual reference to the map as the journey unfolds and celebration of effort and accomplishment.

• Closure, Celebration and Transition – the use of your relationship to build hope in new possibilities, the process of leaving and loss creating strength and perspective, giving transitional objects to reinforce hope in growth, and knowing when to declare a final good-bye.

The skilled Child and Youth Care practitioner is doing all of these steps with different people simultaneously, depending on the place they share in the journey. He/she is also on a personal journey that is enriched by the connections. He both supports others and is supported as a member of a team. The complexity of working in the life space creates unlimited areas for expansion of knowledge and skill, so the possibility of professional stagnation is remote.

People who reach this level of sophistication in our profession recognize colleagues intuitively, and they can’t imagine why anyone would want to pursue any other career.