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Forum Counselor: Michal Herbsman

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Total messages: 3
announcement and threats
Annelies
17:59 05.10.2011
Hi everybody,

Today an announcement was made for a young man of 17 years old.
He threatened a social worker verbally ("I will destroy you"), he twisted her arm and poured pepper on her hair, he took her by the arms and threw his soft drink over her and often he pretends to throw his hot thee over her and then he sees that she gets afraid...

Now half of the announcement was read to him and he reacted with violence towards himself and made threats: "I will kill myself, it was a joke, she was laughing with it, I will jump out of this window, I will destroy the face of the social worker, you'll see, I want to die," At the same time he was hitting his hand against the window and wall.

The coordinator decided not to leave him with the letter because he thought it could lead to more escalation.
He told the young man that he would come back to read the second part.

The announcements lead to escalation, as we were told during the training. But at this time we are more afraid then before the announcement, towards the safety of our staff... So we'll have to prepare ourselves and increase the safety measurements.

Maybe reactions of this forum could strengthen and encourage the team, because automatically people wonder if we did not provoke him by making the announcement and choosing for NVR...

Greetings,

Annelies
network?
ulla
11:10 05.11.2011
Hello again Annelies,

Sounds like NVR is the only option you have at the moment, no?
What network is there? How do the groupmembers think about it? Wich position does he have? It sounds like he has a lot of power at the moment... Is there anyway you could reïnforce your autority as a team, as an institution? Friends he has, kids of school, family...

In our facility I feel as if it's kind of easy to do the part of announcement, sit-ins etc... but to have the network meeting etc... always provokes a little resistance (weerstand)... We are so used doing it by ourself... Needs an attitude change I think...

Bye!
Ulla
bad reaction
michal1
20:47 05.14.2011
Hi Annelies,
it does get scary when kids react with extremes to anything that we do and i think its a natural instict to start wondering if we were maybe to severe but i think that it exactly that kind of "paralysis" that is even more damaging to kids. If you think about it, how "severe" is the announcment, saying that you will resist his violent behavior? I truly believe that it cannot possibly be in the child best interest to have adults "walk on egg shells" because they are afraid that he might hurt himself or turn into a monster. It is however, in his best interest to be told that the adults are not giving up on him and will DO ANYTHING to help him but they cannot accept his violent behavior. I think you are right that if his reaction is so extreme than you have no option but to increase safety measures for the staff and for his own protection. ANd I also agree with Ulla that you can think how you can reinforce the message. You can also think how to incorporate "softer" measures, i.e. making sure he has someone to talk to, reinforcing positive behavior etc.. But in my mind, it is more damaging for a child to walk around with such destructive power than being confronted with the calm and determined resistance of adults.
best of luck
michal
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