12 MAY 2000
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INTERNATIONAL CHILD AND YOUTH CARE NETWORK
12 MAY 2000
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Controls from WithinFritz Redl and David Wineman offer a set of ten techniques for the creation of a treatment climate for working with troubled youth. This is their introduction to number 5:
"Symptom tolerance guaranteed, old satisfaction channels respected"
One of the sharpest dividing lines between institutions with a primarily educational goal and treatment homes can be drawn around the concept of symptom tolerance.Ordinarily, institutions convey to the child the expectance of as much positive behavior as they can produce and load undesirable behavior with a variety of punishments or avoid its production altogether by restrictive programming or heavy impulse limitations. It is obvious that this cannot be the basic strategy of a treatment home.A treatment home is interested, not in avoiding and squashing the problem behavior resulting from the disturbances of the children, but in giving it a chance to come out in the open so that it can be manipulated and used for treatment purposes. This means that we must convey to the children from the very outset the awareness that the difficulties which are part of their natural problem can be expressed and lived out without too severe consequences or rejection from the adult.On the other hand, it is equally important to avoid the impression of "total permissiveness" in the children's mind. For, if they thought we not only tolerated but really enjoyed or did not mind their disturbed behavior, what motivation in terms of gradual treatment changes would there be left?In a nutshell, the treatment home must convey to the youngsters from the very start a climate which could be summarized in the following words:We like you, we take you the way you are, but of course in the long range we'd like you to change. Just how to convey this atmosphere seems to be one of the most serious strategic problems.
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