and reach thousands of daily visitors
6 FEBRUARY 2009
NO 1397
Termination
Because of the complex emotions it elicits, termination typically stimulates renewed behavioural difficulties in young people in placement, even those who have made remarkable progress. Common reactions are: reawakened dependency needs that may be expressed through old forms of acting out (regression) or the development of new adjustment problems (Rose & Fatout, 2003), forms of flight that range from avoidance to running away (I'll leave you first) (Malekoff, 1997); devaluation of the staff and the program (Meeks, 1971) and even self-destructive fantasies and behaviour (Meeks, 1971). Sometimes these reactions lead to premature discharge, because our programs may not tolerate or understand these forms of acting out. Rarely can a young person "terminate smoothly and with finality in one try" (Meeks, 1971). Even when ideal conditions are met, and a young person, their staff and their family agree to the termination, no young person leaves placement free of difficulties. "If residential placement continues until new behaviours are consolidated and setbacks never occur, it will never end" (Durrant, 1993: 23). The discharge process exacerbates all difficulties. At the same time, the reality is that most terminations from placement are complex and messy, and as such, create specific difficulties that are unique for each young person (Martin, 2003).
The circumstances of the individual discharge bring with it complicating factors that will make reactions more acute. Research suggests that clients who return to their families, while usually thrilled, have fantasized throughout their placement about this return and have particular anxieties about failure (Durrant, 1993). Young people who have not had a say in the timing or discharge destination may experience depression and hopelessness as the termination date draws closer (Martin, 2003). Clients who are discharged because of behaviour may perceive that they have been kicked out and may express their grief and anger in their mistrust of the adults in their next placement (Meeks, 1971). Lastly, adolescents who age out of care and go into independent living mourn anew for the family they have lost in coming into care, which has abandoned them once again at the end of placement (Gordy-Levine, 1990). Along with the specific features an individual termination, each young person's history with separation is relevant to understanding how they will react (Malekoff, 1997). Related to this is the child or adolescent's attachment style (Swanson & Schaefer, 1988). Insecurely attached young people are exquisitely sensitive to loss and will react with great anxiety to the inevitable uncertainties of any discharge.
VARDA MANN-FEDER
Mann-Feder, V. (2003). Termination issues in
residential placement. Irish Journal of Applied Social Studies, 4,
2. p.37.
REFERENCES
Durrant, M. (1993). Residential Treatment A Cooperative Competency-based Approach to Therapeutic and Program Design. New York: W. W. Nelson.
Gordy-Levine. T. (1990). Time to mourn again. In Maluccio, A., Krieger. R., & Pine, B.A. (Eds) Preparing Adolescents for Life After Foster Care. Washington, D.C.: Child Welfare League of America.
Malekoff, A. (1997). Group Work with Adolescents: Principles and Practice. New York: Guilford.
Martin, D.G. (2003). Clinical Practice with Adolescents. Pacific Grove, California: Brooks/ Cole.
Meeks, J. (1971). The Fragile Alliance: An Orientation to the Outpatient Psychotherapy of the Adolescent. Baltimore: Williams.
Swanson, A.J. & Schaefer, C.E. (1988). Helping children
deal with separation and loss in residential placement. In Schaefer, C.
E. & Swanson, A.J. (Eds.) Children in Residential Care: Critical
Issues in Treatment. New York: Van Norstrand Reinhold.
