Children in Difficulties

New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 895, 28 September 1956, Page 6

Children in Difficulties

The second of two articles on the work of the Child Welfare Division of the Education Department ot

AST week we saw how the Child Welfare Division looks after hundreds of deprived children, acts as a vast clearing house for the adoption of children, and helps many families to solve difficulties which are distressing to themselves’ and their children. This week it is the other side of their activities we shall be looking at--the treatment of problem or delinquent children. "This treatment may range from friendly and informal oversight of a child in his own home, supported by discussions with parents and teachers, through many intermediate stages to the extreme step of arranging for a child’s removal from his home and placement in a training institution," says the Division’s report and it also states that many delinquent children have been deprived of a normal home life. Each year about 2,000 children come before the Children’s Court for a wide . range of offences. These children, unless in very unusual circumstances they are sent to a Borstal institution, then come under the .care of the Child Welfare Division. Despite the Welfare Officer’s supervision the child who has stolen a bicycle may in a few year’s time convert a car and once again make a Court appearance. At this stage he will probably be given another chance and for a few years everything will appear to be going smoothly. Then a greater crime

may be committed and a Borstal sentence may be the prelude to a life spent in and out of prison. On the other hand the Welfare Officer’s advice may mean that the first appearance in Court is the last. The Listener recently visited the Head Office of the Child Welfare Division where we were able to learn a little more about the kind of children who come up against the law and to discuss typical cases. "We have all kinds of children with a great range of intelligence," said an Officer. "Here, for instance, is a boy who first came under our notice when he bit and kicked his teachers. On investigation we found his home was very unsuitable so we took Court action which deprived his parents of their rights of guardianship and placed him with foster parents. He still proved very difficult to manage and frightened the life out of his fostermother by an outburst of cowboy and Indians stuff. He has a very poor social sense so we decided to try him out in a boys’ home. It is difficult to say at this stage what success we will have with him here." "Then there is a boy like Alan. He first came under notice when at the age of eight he stole money at school. The Headmaster reported it to us and one of our Officers soon discovered that there was virtually no home supervision. The

father was away for long periods and the mother sometimes went out working. The father agreed to "preventive supervision" and for a few years there was no trouble. Then came another outburst of stealing, this time a bicycle and money from a women’s cloakroom. Our officer reported that while the family seemed concerned about the boy’s behaviour there was still something lacking in their control of the boy. He recommended that he be placed under the care of the Superintendent and he was then sent to one of the four boys’ homes we have in the main centres. "The lad stayed here for a year with no further trouble and when he left school we found him a job on a farm. Shortly after this, on his first visit to town he broke into a shop and stole another bicycle. Fortunately for the boy he was not sent to Borstal but returned to our care. We found him another job and at present things are going smoothly. The striking thing about this case is that the boy can advance no real reasons for his actions. It seems as though there is some disturbance which has up.set the boy’s personality and so far we have failed to touch it." Quite often psychological treatment is tried but the Officer first does his best to improve the situation by trying to understand the boy, his home, his environment and making changes or sug-

gestions here. If these methods fail a boy can be sent to the re-education centre at Levin. We asked about the kind of re-educa-tion that takes place there and by way of an answer we were introduced to the Superintendent of the Division, RS + Peek, a former Manager at Levin. Mr. Peek, from his years of experience at the centre, warned us that it was very difficult trying to give an impression of Levin as so many aspects of it had to be appreciated. Levin is an open-establishment with no forcible restrictions. They have room for about eighty boys who are divided into two groups, junior and senior. They are given vocational training, which is secondary however to the main aim of providing social training and helping the boys to adjust socially. "There’s a very fine workshop," said Mr. Peek, and he pointed to the furniture in his room which had been made there. "If a boy becomes intensely interested in something we find his special problems may go-the new interest in what he’s doing may fill his thinking. The recreational side of the place is also very full. Some of these lads experience for the first time what it is like to play in a team. They might have been lone wolves before but now they can feel the responsibility of an individual to a group." ; With an open institution such as Levin, the tie that ‘holds the place together is the goodwill of the boys. "We try to get the boys to see the part he has to play in a small fellowship," said Mr. Peek. "Our control methods are positive. There is a range of privileges the boys may qualify forpicture outings and so on. A very important aspect of the Centre is the way in which it has been integrated into the Levin community. The boys have made themselves useful in a practical way and

again begin to feel for themselves wha’ it is like to be part of a community." We asked Mr. Peek if his methods ever failed. "I think it’s wrong to create the impression that sweet reasonableness always prevails," he replied. "There are always some individuals who don’t respond and sometimes it is necessary for the good of the whole to use methods that could be described as negative." These may range from deprivation of privileges to "six-of-the-best."" Nowadays the tougher and more vicious type of boy does not enter Levin but goes instead to Borstal. "One thing I haven’t mentioned and it’s the most important of all," said Mr. Peek. "This is the effect the men and women of the staff have on the boys. If a boy likes a man, he respects him, emulates him and won’t want to let him down. This isn’t necessarily restricted to key persons like the manager and the matron but any member of the staff can have this effect on him. If you meet a lad years afterwards you find he doesn’t talk about the things he did at Levin but about the people. This to me is the real measure of the effectiveness of the institution." This theme of personal influence was to recur when we later returned to discuss different types of problems. "Throughout all our work we are dealing with human relationships," said an Officer, "so we can never over-simplify no matter how tempting it may be. The trouble is that people get so used to thinking that one thing may be the cause of the trouble, that if we change this or alter that, then everything will be fine. But it just doesn’t work that way. Most of our work is slow, patient and undramatic. But sometimes miracles do ‘happen. Something clicks and then there’s no doubt about it being dramatic. You may have a disturbed child who goes through several foster-homes then suddenly he finds the person who is right for him. When that happens it is like a miracle. "Unfortunately for some of the children this never happens. Here is the case of a seriously disturbed and delinquent boy, whose home from any point of view seems an excellent one. After a series of thefts he came under our guardianship. He was seen by a psychologist and reported as being a serious personality problem. When he was 13 he was sént to Levin, where he still is. The verdict on ‘his case is "baffling,’ but there is to me at least, one hopeful sign, he is enthusiastic about art, though this in itself may not be enough to save him." A dark undertone to the work of the Division, much of which is concerned with severe suffering that might have been avoided, is the small group of people to whom no help can be given. This group forms what society calls "criminals" and the psychiatrist, calls "psychopaths." Although many of the people in this group may never have passed through the hands of the Child Welfare Division, their problems are only the magnification of problems which the Division is gradually learning to solve. "These are the people who can’t keep a job, who are immovable in human relationships, whose personalities are such that we can make no contact with them. We are unable to help them because we don’t know enough about their human problems. If they go to prison, as

many of them do, they are unhappy in prison. There has been no space to describe Burwood and the ‘work being done there by Miss K. Scotter, the present Principal. Boys tend to express difficulties through violence, girls on the other hand, tend to take it out on themselves. "Their crime is mainly against themselves," says Miss Scotter. "At Burwood the staff might not always approve of what the girl does but they always approve of her-they’re on her side..We. try to help the girl to understand, the reason for her own anti-social behaviour." At Burwood many girls show such aggression that it is over a year before their problems can be unravelled and rebuilding can start. Often they are consumed with hatred of the Child Welfare Division, of themselves and of their family. Nor hes any mention been made of Otekaike in North Otago, where boys of low intelligence, including delinquent boys, go-or-of its sister institution at Richmond .in Nelson. Nor of another type of home, the "family-home" which is being developed to bring about the permanent cure of difficult children who do not need long-term care. These are special homes able to take from eight to ten children, and by the end of this year there will be four ees New Zealand. ‘ A form of treatment for PERE disturbed children and one which has been extensively tried overseas is that of providing facilities where the children can have complete and utter freedom. In Sweden, where social problems are. much worse than they are in New Zealand,

they have found that complete freedom is the best way of dealing with this type of child. To be effective it requires people who will not be upset by the child’s behaviour and who will accept the child as he is. A first experiment in this type of work was recently carried out at Glenelg Health Camp in Canterbury. A group of unhappy and disturbed children attended for two to three months. Many of these children had had restrictions placed on them all their lives which had only aggravated their condition. They now had a chance to build up their mental and emotional health, before passing on to other forms of treatment. Medical observers were very impressed with the results achieved in this comparatively short time.

With knowledge and treatment, of delinquent children in its present stage of development, there may still be too many unanswered questions and taco many failures for our comfort. These, however, must be balanced by the preponderant success which attends most of the Division’s efforts. On their part they ask that their work be regarded with understanding, which in turn will yield them the necessary freedom to try new methods, and where necessary experiment freely. (A documentary programme on the work of the Child Welfare Division will be heard in the Main National programme this coming Sunday, September 30, at 9.30 a.m.-not 9.30 p.m. as stated in the last issue.)