Strategies for Healthy Youth

By: Heather Seibel, Bismarck Social Worker

I was recently reading an article called, A Different Approach to High-Risk Youths, from Social Work Today. The article was written by Peter Smyth, MSW, RSW, a Specialist for High Risk Youth Services, Edmonton & Area Child & Family Services, in Canada. The article provided some wonderful, strategies to build strong relationships with the youth we serve.

Many times youth that come into care, have few positive supports in their lives and struggle to make positive relationship connections; especially those they view as in authority. Therefore, it is very difficult as social workers, foster parents, and other helping people to engage with these youth.

Edmonton and Area Child and Family Services in Alberta, Canada, have begun work on developing a program that will better serve high-risk youths. Since 1999, the organization has been developing a practice framework and philosophical approach targeting the most vulnerable youths in the child welfare system. With a focus on building relationships, they are utilizing harm reduction and strength-based/resiliency approaches to work with youth as well as developing partnership with the community to get the most out of the services offered to the youth.  Because so many high risk youth experience trauma at a very young age, which impacts brain development and the child’s ability to form attachments, the focus is on trauma –informed practice.

• Value youth and believe they’re worth the effort. Youths’ voices should be heard, and social workers and all others working with youth must commit to being creative and flexible.

• Be available. People involved in the youth’s life need to be available both physically and emotionally to accommodate high-risk youths when they’re ready to work on improving their situation.

• Go the extra mile. A small thoughtful gesture challenges youths to ask themselves why somebody cares about them and to adjust to this reality.

• Be self-aware. Social workers must know who they are both as people and professionals, especially with respect to their beliefs, values, judgments, and power. This can help social workers to become allies in the lives of high-risk youths. Given their life experiences, these youths typically can easily detect others’ genuineness, truth, and integrity.

• Communicate a consistent message: “I will not give up on you.” High-risk youths constantly have experienced people giving up on them, so they won’t expect the relationship with their social worker or anyone else working to help them to be different.

• Expect to be tested. Given their life experiences, high-risk youths have the right to be skeptical and suspicious. They won’t easily risk being hurt again and will want to know whether the social worker will abandon them or follow through. Social workers must avoid falling into the youths’ beliefs and reinforcing that adults can’t be trusted.

• Explore youths’ motivation to change. Fear of failure and change often can be mistaken as lack of motivation. Labels can contribute to this in the form of learned helplessness. It’s often necessary for social workers to hold these youths’ hands at first and to “check in” to ensure the youths feel safe.

• Be patient. High-risk youths may not know how to develop healthy relationships, so this will take time. Many youths expect to fail and feel unworthy of help.

• Allow trust to evolve naturally. If high-risk youths perceive this is one of the social worker’s goals, they may feel threatened and pull back. Some youths may not develop the capacity to trust while they’re involved with child welfare, so getting to the point where they know their social worker won’t harm them can be significant and allow for progress.

• Create healthy confusion. Social workers should be attuned to the needs of high-risk youths and show that there are people who worry about and care for them. The youths’ view of the world as lonely, frightening, and unsafe can be challenged over time, allowing for deeper conversations regarding relationships.

• Inspire hope. Social workers should celebrate even the smallest successes and allow these youths to define success as experts of their own lives.

• Intentionally interact. Every action and conversation should be carried out in a purposeful, thoughtful, respectful way.

The organization is working towards letting the youth have a voice, letting that voice be heard, allowing youth to be part of the decisions that are impacting their lives, and increasing the face to face interactions in order to develop meaningful relationships.

This article was intriguing, and the strategies listed above sounded so very familiar to the work we do at PATH, Inc.  It was a pleasure to share this information with all of you as a reminder of the good work that all of you do.