Child and youth work in a residential treatment facility is most effective when youth workers make task centred approach to counselling a regular and relevent part of daily child care strategies. The treatment method teaches youth how to self-monitor emotional states, to develop self-control, and how to problem solve. This approach helps to maximize the youth's learning by teaching him to organize his interactions. The following paper discusses the application of such a specific intervention technique for a youth labelled Conduct Disordered.
SUBJECT:
Martin a 13 year old Crown Ward of a referring Children's Aid Society (CAS) was placed at Haydon Youth Services, Oshawa, Ontario. He has been in care and treatment since the age of nine. Initially, the CAS intervened and apprehended Martin from an emotionally and physically negligent, cocaine addicted mother who was unable and unaware of providing the basic necessities of life for Martin due to her limited intelligence, emotional problems and poor reality testing. Martin was also identified by the police as constantly being involved in petty crimes and displaying aggressive acts towards other younger youth. Father left the scene prior to Martin's birth and has never been a part of Martin's life. Structured family therapy was attempted but Martin was placed in a series of foster homes due to the fact that mother did not follow up on her commitments.
Martin likes to roller-skate and play Nintendo. He demonstrated that he was independent, and individual sports and activities were his strengths. He often felt pressured and awkward in group sports, such as basketball, or road hockey where he was faced with more competitive, team structures. He frequently became upset when placed in situations where he would have to work, or socialize collectively. Prior to coming into placement at Haydon, Martin, according to the referral information, had been able to respond to structure and simple expectations and thus followed basic routines such as looking after daily personal hygiene, doing his part in chore allocation, etc. Although below the educational level for youth his age, he was able to function in a regular school environment at a grade 6 level. In fact he was good at math.
OBSERVATION:
When Martin arrived in treatment he demonstrated difficulty in relaxing and interacting positively in all group situations. In other words, his diminished capacity to understand anothers point of view and to be empathetic to their feelings would label him a Conduct Disordered Youth. (Gottman, Gonso, Rasmussen, 1975).
Within a two week period, the following four serious incidents were observed and recorded in Martin's daily log:
Incident #1. Physical aggression towards another resident. Here, Martin and RW were simply joking around when Martin became angry and said he was going to beat RW up. At this point he approached RW in a very aggressive manner and although staff tried to intervene by stepping between them, Martin pushed angrily past staff and shoved RW. Once in a restraint until he could regain his control, Martin kept yelling, "Let me go. Let me go. I'm going to get you, you monkey..."
Incident #2. Anger threats towards another resident escalating into suicidal threats and a physical restraint. In this instance, during his chore, Martin became frustrated and began cursing other residents doing their chores. Rather than cool off, Martin began raising his
