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Let your task define your spaceI come across a number of residential programs which are so ambiguous about their supposed role with the youth they work with, that they find it hard to commit to any plan of action.
There are those strong on relaxed, domestic-like qualities, the "alternative family" idea where the young people get to feel like home. And those strong on no-nonsense treatment-like qualities, the "hospital ward" model where everyone is clear what we are all working at. Both have their place, but many programs fall somewhere in the middle, and try to be both, or either, or neither.
A medical analogy: If I am wheeled into the ENT surgical ward to have my tonsils removed, I am quite happy to have hospital-like equipment, noises and uniforms around, and I expect a succession of doctors, nurses and other specialists to be moving through my space. If there is none of this, I doubt the seriousness and the competence of the place. Similarly, if I am welcomed into a private home to spend a pleasant evening, and I see people with masks, syringes and bedpans, I would leave, smartly, by the nearest door.
If yours is a long-stay unit with young people who are not critical and who are for the most part "living there", then you have to go the domestic route. You owe it to the kids that they get as much of a "home life" as possible before they move on -- and that we avoid institutional "stigma". (Have you noticed in long-stay programs that when a youth is critical we spend half our energy worrying about the impact of this on the other kids, how to explain the crisis to the school, cancelling leave and rearranging our own timetable and the young person’s appointments -- in fact, doing neither technical nor domestic jobs properly?)
However, if yours is a special unit working with specific methods on serious problems, then go for the treatment and drop the domesticity for the time being. Provided that we offer basic care, respect and support, the important job we have identified is a priority. In much of our serious work (such as addictions, suicidal acts, violent and assaultive behaviour) it is probably necessary that we establish controls, that we observe youngsters to sample certain behaviours, and initiate specific activities and treatment. We don’t want to have to do an egg-dance around domestic etiquette – would you mind very much if we interrupt your television program? – and even (as with me in the ENT ward) privacy may temporarily have to move a few notches down in the comfort hierarchy.
There are no hard-and-fast rules about all this – only that we think about priorities in the kind of environments we must create. Fritz Redl thought that the best model for working with difficult kids was the "camp" model, for only thus, as he put it, can the adults and the youth move with some legitimacy through each others’ space. A nice resolution.
One provides these different environments and programs either in separate agencies, or within different units in the same agency. Being able to commit to defined task and methods like this also helps us move a young person through our service, for it soon becomes self-evident when one or other environment is no longer appropriate. But to equivocate is confusing for both staff and children.
Let your task define your space
