Intervention needed to help wayward youth – psychologist

- by Barbados Today May 27, 2023

A detailed counselling intervention framework is critically needed to assist deviant young persons on the island.
This is the opinion of Juanita Brathwaite-Wharton, a senior psychologist in the Student Support Unit, Ministry of Education, Technological and Vocational Training. Noting the numerous social and mental challenges facing young people who utilise the services of the Student Support Unit, Brathwaite-Wharton said there is a need for a more significant push towards providing necessary interventions for wayward youth.
Her comments were made during the second day of a Crime Symposium at the Sagicor School of Business at the University of the West Indies Cave Hill campus.
She said: “There has been a lot of resources spent on counselling recently, but we want data-driven counselling interventions put in place. We know that the statistics show us that the large-group kind of counselling programming does not work; and that children with these significant challenges do need individual therapy, where you can go and look at the issues that may have caused the onset of the behaviour from the beginning and help them work through them.”
She also said some cases called for controlled group therapy where parent influence is used along with the expert who is working alongside the child.
The psychologist also stated that the country’s social service agencies needed to play a big part in delivering the help that was so desperately needed.
“We believe that there needs to be an empowerment of social service agencies to provide the intervention. We kind of operate in silos as it is right now. So oftentimes the children are engaging with the services that exist. So you may have the same at the Juvenile Liaison Scheme, who is working with Student Services, who is going to [counselling] at the Psychiatric Hospital, but there is a lack of collaboration and a lack of a comprehensive approach.”
She suggested: “I think we need a national plan for youth at risk… it needs to be a policy where we coordinate and collaborate so that we are more effective in what we do.”
Meanwhile, Carlene Perryman, Coordinator for the Youth in the Ministry of Education, Youth, Sports and Culture in Grenada, shared similar sentiments. She told the symposium that the issue of bullying has gone under-recognised in the region’s schools for far too long.
According to her, a structured and functional reporting system should be implemented for schools in order to guarantee that bullying cases never go unreported.
“A lot of the bullying could be prevented if we give our young persons an opportunity to talk, and we listen. Oftentimes when [children] report certain things, ‘oh go sit down in the corner’ because we don’t have a proper referral system. It escalates and escalates and then eventually they take matters into their own hands.
“It makes no sense telling the teacher, it makes no sense telling the parent when you get home because nobody listens.”
(SB)

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