Abstract
:
"Girls are made of sugar and spice and everything nice; boys are
made of snips and snails and puppy dog tails". This Nursery Rhyme
euphemistically implies that the stuff of which little girls and
boys are made determine specific gender-based character traits. As
Child and Youth Care Workers grow professionally and expand their
scope of care to working with families, some thought must be given
to the stuff we’re made of, to the characteristics that will guide
us to new levels of professionalism. In Meaning Making and
Intervention in Child and Youth Care Practice, Thom Garfat (2003)
outlines twelve characteristics of Child and Youth Care Workers who
are able to use daily life events effectively. This article examines
three of these.
any
of my Child and Youth Care Worker
experiences have preceded my theoretical knowledge. This has often led
to reflective "Oh, I sees" and even more "Oh, nos". Still, at the core
of my calling, I’ve been aware that in order to be effective as a Child
and Youth Care Worker,
there had to be more than a passion for helping, more than a patient
temperament, more than developmental theories. While Child and Youth
Care Workers frequently use daily life events in working with individual
children or groups of children, our scope of intervention and treatment
has slowly expanded to encompass work with families. It is in this
transition to a systemic focus that Garfat’s (2003) characteristics are
most poignant. For me, they’re the stuff of which a Child and Youth Care
Worker is made and
articulate the Worker's cross- reference between Theory and
people-centered Practice. Three of these characteristics are
particularly germane at this point in my career. They surface as I
reflect on my past experiences, my present circumstance and the person
I’ve become, as well as their relevance to me as a life-long learner. Of
course, my understanding of these characteristics is limited by current
awareness, making everything ‘learning in progress’, a concept not new
to our profession. As we define how we work with families all of the
characteristics invite a fresh, new look. Professional and personal
reflection for me were stirred by:
Have a way of Understanding how change occurs
Some years ago, the school district in which I worked distributed copies
of Who Moved My Cheese (Johnson, 1998) as a way of introducing us
to planned organizational change. In spite of the institutionalized
attempt at preparation, change was still painful, and collectively
resisted. While the book offered directives for the process, few of us
related the plight of mice to our work and personal lives. My life
experiences tell me that change is less of a sudden occurrence and more
of process. It follows that "change occurs slowly and in many ways that
are not simple and linear.. (Phelan, 2003, p.69). Understanding how
change occurs in a family is rooted in understanding the family as a
system, their rules, roles, patterns, rhythms, and specifically how that
system maintains its integrity (Phelan, 2003, p.70; Garfat, 2003, p.10).
When the Child and Youth Care Worker understands these values, they put "…relationship in the
forefront, and make it the scaffold for all interventions.. (Leaf, 1995,
p.112). Thus, an understanding of the system and a relationship with the
family becomes a way to leverage the system and create system-supportive
interventions to destructive patterns. The framework for understanding
the process of change includes the "processes of Noticing, Reflection,
Preparation and Intervention (Garfat, 2003, p.24)". Garfat (2003) points
out that the content of interventions is often determined by the Child
and Youth Care Worker
(p.24).
Are Actively self-aware
Active
self-awareness suggests constant scrutiny of both our conscious and
available self, and the less accessible "sub-conscious" self. This
process requires deep introspection. But what does this have to do with
working with families? If we consider ourselves "products" of our
families, Fewster’s (1990) words have relevance: "When we look to our
values and beliefs and the assumptions which underlay them, we are
exploring the territory of self and self in relationship (Garfat, 2003,
p.12)". Active self-awareness then, sets the stage for understanding the
origins of our own beliefs and values. Ricks (1989) claims that this
historical and contextual self-awareness in turn influences our actions
within the client family. (Garfat, 2003, p.12). Active self-awareness
allows us to understand our relevance to and impact within the family
system (p.12). Garfat (2003) explains this clearly: "….family is, more
than anything, a feeling, an experience, an experience of self in a
particular context. As we explore this territory, as we place ourselves
in the position of being with the young person and family, we open the
opportunity to know a little more of their experiential world. (p.3)". I
find this ethnographic approach to working with families fascinating
because I know that as Child and Youth Care Workers we cannot ourselves
remain unchanged by our work within families. Active self awareness
facilitates change.
Are able to connect the immediate with the overall
The Child and Youth Care Worker approach to working with families might well present families
with opportunity for change that is within reach. Having experienced the
stress of an office based systemic approach that left the family feeling
cornered and overwhelmed by quickly forgotten homework assignments, I
have found much freshness and relevance in this approach. Intervention —
one of the steps in the process of change — allows the worker the
facility of immediacy, so that behaviours and emotions are still crisp,
and observations are direct, and palpable. The Child and Youth Care
Worker may use any number
of "tools" to intervene in the behaviour as a precursor to change. When
we intervene, we draw parallels between the immediate and the overall.
"Interventions that are effective are related first to the immediate
action and connected to the overall goals, not about previous events (Grafat,
1998, p.16)." Connecting the immediate to the overall demands that the
Child and Youth Care Worker be actively self aware, and have a good sense of each family, their
system and their patterns of interaction (p.17). Intervention that
effectively connects the immediate to the overall requires the Child and
Youth Care Worker to
have high levels of both cognitive and emotional skills since there is
little time for "mulling" over behaviours and cross checking theories
(p.18). It is my impression that immediacy might serve as both a
hindrance and a catalyst for change, and it is the skilled Child and
Youth Care Worker who is
able to make solid connections to the overall so as to stimulate change.
Conclusion
There’s no doubt, that given different opportunities and
experiences, the priorities in these characteristics might change. The
characteristics are however a great point of reflection and an outline
for assessing personal and professional growth as we work with families.
Reference:
Garfat, T. (Ed.) (2003). A Child and Youth Care Approach to Working with
Families.
Child & Youth Services. Volume 25, Numbers 1 / 2. N.Y. Haworth
Press.
Garfat, T. (2003) Meaning Making and Intervention in
Child and Youth Care Practice.
Paper based on workshop presentation made at the SIRCC Conference,
June 2003
Garfat, T. (Ed.) (2004). Intensive In-Home Family
Support. Toronto. Canadian Scholars’
Press
Johnson, S. (1998) Who Moved My Cheese. New
York. G. P. Putman’s Sons
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