Placement Stability
Our work is based on the fundamental understanding that young people have come to us with a history of negative experiences, broken homes and fractured relationships.
In order to cope with what they perceive as a hostile world, young people develop coping strategies and defences which lead to further exclusions; from placements, from schools, and sometimes from entire communities. Young people feel out of control and unsafe, with their lack of trust in adults preventing then from allowing anyone to take care of them.
All of our services have exceptional resilience and there are very few circumstances under which a young person would lose their placement. At Bryn Melyn, where all of our young people are long term residents, we have a non-exclusion guarantee which has been in place, and unbroken, since 1993.
- Building trust - our first task is to convince the young person that we will never abandon them - no matter what their behaviour. When the child believes that we will not give up on them, different strategies for coping with emotional pain and communicating distress are suggested. When they believe we can keep them safe, they are freed to let go of previous negative strategies for coping with the world.
In our emergency placements, trust is built through adventure activity. Experiencing the challenge, thrill and excitement offered by such activities is in itself healing, and the sharing and teamwork, an essential element of outdoor education, promotes rapid bonding. The sense of achievement enhances self esteem, and the energy released through activity allows young people to take a fresh look at their life and their choices.
In our longer term places, relationships are built on a deeper level. Adults are seen as 're-parenting' young people, replacing the many negative constructs which they have developed with more positive responses. For children with profound trauma this can take many years and we expect placing authorities to share our commitment to seeing this work through. - Thorough Training - our staff are trained in a range of approaches, including:
- Attachment theory
- Child-development
- Transactional analysis
- Counselling
- Therapeutic Crisis Intervention
- Understanding the pathology of abuse
They are able to use their skills and knowledge base to provide a containing and nurturing environment in which the child can grow and learn both emotionally and socially.
Our teams are supervised and supported by appropriately qualified managers, therapists and psychologists. We view our residential workers as competent professionals and view the residential task as a skilled and important one.
If you need advice or assistance with a young person, call us today and speak to one of our Directors.