A few programmes help troubled parents, children

On last night’s newscast we told the story of a Belize City mother who confessed that she no longer has the ability to control her twelve year old son. It’s not an isolated incident and today I looked into what programmes are available to deal with what appears to be a growing problem.

Fermin Olivera, Dir., Community Rehabilitation Dept.
?Some kids, their playground is the street. From very young that happens, their home is waterlogged… it?s no place to raise children, and these children wonder from street to street, that becomes their lifestyle.?

Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
In 2004, the Community Rehabilitation Department handled just over a thousand cases. This year that number is expected to increase significantly, as to date there are six hundred cases before the C.R.D. According to Director Fermin Olivera, they specifically provide help to young offenders sent to them through the court system. But for the last three years most of the cases they have handled are all walk-ins… families who find themselves with few other alternatives.

Fermin Olivera
?That is basically what we see. Most people that come to us for services come with that in mind or come with that focus; that their children are out of control and they come seeking help. So I can safely tell you that makes up the largest percentage of the clients we serve.?

There are a number of factors that are affecting children?s behaviour. Some of these children do receive help through a number of small service providers, but a greater number of youths are not getting the support they need and the result is kids out of control.

Ava Pennil, Director of Human services
?Almost children want to be productive, they want to be a part in the world, they want to play a part. But something happened why they don?t feel a part, and that is why they are lashing out. A part of the process of rehabilitating children that are uncontrollable is to go back to that cause.?

In many cases, counselling is recommended, but as explained by Human Services Director Ava Pennil, not too many Belizeans respond kindly to that assistance because they associate it with mental illness.

Ava Pennil
?You need to know what affected you in your life why you behave the way you behave and why the way you are behaving is not somehow connecting with the way the child is behaving.?

Poverty, death, trauma and separation are just some of the factors that affect a child?s behaviour. Olivera says C.R.D. does not have a comprehensive programme, but in Belize City they provide a counselling centre and use a community based approach to handle many of its cases.

Fermin Olivera
?In the districts it?s a little bit more complicated where we harness the expertise of volunteers. Some of them are workers of other departments, of other government institutions that might have some level of expertise as it relates to counselling. However, we also provide assistance, what we consider immediate assistance for tuition, for books. We have assigned mentors to children. Those kinds of things we?re working on. But to say some comprehensive programme that deals with the families with children which have these problems, no.?

Presently there are only around twenty social workers countrywide, only half of whom are professionally trained. Olivera says he is concerned about the case of the twelve-year-old boy featured on our newscast on Tuesday night and says he would like to try and help the family.

Fermin Olivera
?It looks like the systems that would have tracked it or at least flagged it did not recognise it. From four years old this lady says she has been having difficulty, so I have to believe that this child was probably a problem in school for a while. I don?t even know if this child is going to school right now. I understand he?s been at the Dorothy Menzies Child Care Centre, obviously for protective reasons, the family remains in this condition. So I guess the mother?s opinion that maybe the system has failed her, she?s the best judge of that. What I can say is there are things that we can do right now, and I?ll be honest with you, it is based on resources we have. You know, hopefully we can come together and held this mother and child.?

Children who have been deemed uncontrollable by the court system are sent to the Youth Hostel for rehabilitation.