The short guide to working with children and young people by Conradie Liesl Golding Tyrrell

Author:Conradie, Liesl, Golding, Tyrrell [Conradie, Liesl, Golding, Tyrrell]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Children's Studies
ISBN: 9781447309598
Google: KWamAwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Policy Press
Published: 2013-02-20T05:09:59+00:00

Handling disclosure

This leads us to the skills needed to effectively deal with a disclosure without inflicting a form of ‘secondary victimisation’ on a child or young person. Disclosures are when a child or young person tells you themselves that they are concerned about their safety and welfare. They are telling you that something is happening to them (or to others) that they want to stop. Depending on the age and developmental maturity of the child, the way of disclosure (be it verbally or through play) as well as the setting will differ.

When a child or young person discloses information about abuse to you, it is crucial to listen to them. You must portray a willingness to take what they say seriously. In the past, when children and young people have shared stories of abuse they have not always been believed. A perception that children in care or looked-after children could not be trusted contributed to the perpetuation of abuse in care institutions in the 20th century (Waterhouse, 2000). In recent times there has been a greater emphasis on listening to children. This is mostly as a result of the UNCRC, which advocated a participatory rights-based approach. This means that children and young people should have a voice in aspects that concern them. The Children Act 1989, the Every Child Matters agenda, the Children Act 2004 as well as the ‘Learning to Listen’ framework (CYPU, 2001), ensured that this international agenda made its way into national legislation and practice in the UK.

It is important that you remain calm, attentive and reassuring as well as non-judgemental. This includes not making any assumptions or judgements concerning the child or young person disclosing the information but also not making assumptions about the person who is abusing them. The abuser can be a beloved parent or carer whom the child loves and they may already be feeling disloyal and conflicted about sharing the abuse.

It is a skill to be able to effectively deal with hearing heart-wrenching and sometimes also quite shocking disclosures from children and young people. It is important to work through possible feelings before you find yourself in this type of situation as this is not the place to look shocked or to break down yourself. This is where reflection on practice through case studies and examples shared by other practitioners, as well as training and supervision, can be useful. Think back to what you learned earlier in this chapter in the section on connecting with children and young people. If what you are verbally communicating and what you are non-verbally communicating are at odds with each other then the recipient will remember the non-verbal messages. Therefore, use positive body language and appear to have time and portray the competence to deal with the disclosure and the needs of the child or young person involved. As practitioners ourselves we feel strongly that everyone can do this through focusing on the positive. You are making a difference to a child’s life and helping them to move forward.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.