Open letter
I did write something, which i debated internally, at length, whether to post, and i decided to go ahead. It's not like a ton of people read my weblog. Literally... i bet if we all got together, we wouldn't weigh a ton. As opposed to Linda's weblog, holy cow! All she does is surprise the internet with a little good news, and poof, there's OVER A HUNDRED comments! Yeah yeah, she's smart and funny and a good writer, and her and "A" are awesome people who we really like (and it really is, really good news), but holy cow. She's, like, famous!
Uh... anyway... i went up to the girls' unit where i used to work because they were having a horrible crisis of out of control kids. I had to restrain this one girl who was trying to beat up this other girl, carry her to a locked room on another unit... blah blah, the story has been told a hundred times. But the state of the home is so sad. And the people who work there are such good people. The kids are so valuable too. So the violence got me all in a writing mood, so i wrote to the treatment team of the home, with my thoughts laid out as briefly as i could get them. Because brevity is the soul of wit. Or to steal a Simpson's joke: brevity is ... wit.
You know what? I'll even take out the references to which home it was. To make it less... uh... whatever. I went upstairs briefly in response to last night's crisis, and i was saddened and appalled by the state of the milieu. I'm aware of the monumental obstacles which block our work to achieve a safe, therapeutic home, but i'll ignore these for the moment because frankly, i'm disgusted.
Criminal acts of violence are being perpetrated on the kids and staff in your home. Girls are being taught that the easiest way to gain power is to be outrageously defiant. The ___ home is being run by the kids - the loudest, biggest, scariest kids. The team is overworked, underpaid, burned out, and often terrified. Good kids are being traumatized, becoming problem kids. Problem kids' problem behaviors are being positively reinforced.
Kids are learning, yet again, that the adults in their lives are out of control and are powerless to keep them safe.
I don't pretend to be credentialed enough for my opinions to get much respect, but something has got to be done. A shift of priorities, please! See to the health of your team first. Then see to the health of the group. Then, by all means, let's strive to get the individual client healthy. Without laying the foundation of a safe, warm, predictable milieu, our best efforts to effect therapeutic growth in our clients are being viciously sabotaged. The program is being broken to cater to the ridiculous demands of individual kids. "Gimme a can of pop and I'll go to bed" was something i heard tonight.
I want to emphasize again as clearly as i can:
Criminal acts of violence are being perpetrated on the kids and staff of your home. Your hurt, damaged kids are being hurt and damaged again. Make it stop. Your employees who work in the oppressive, terrifying milieu are being punched, kicked, bit, scratched, verbally, mentally and spiritually abused. Make it stop. Please.
“Criminal acts of violence are being perpetrated on the kids and staff of your home. Your hurt, damaged kids are being hurt and damaged again. Make it stop. Your employees who work in the oppressive, terrifying milieu are being punched, kicked, bit, scratched, verbally, mentally and spiritually abused. Make it stop. Please.”
Wow, I can hear the determination, conviction and passion in this statement. Reading this almost moves ME to write a letter to ???. Not that I would being as I have zero credentials to be taken seriously, but I hope and pray the right people read this Juanito. I pray that their spirit will be energized as has mine.
-- jj - 31 January '07 - 17:22