Multi-disciplinary work to safeguard young people Facilitator: Carla Thomas

Multidisciplinary work in the Restorative Justice process The importance of professional work with victims The work with offenders needs a clear understanding about the nature, type and impact of the offences committed Commitment to seeing youth justice work as an integral part of the judicial process, and not a service add-on to that process

When Confronting Behaviour... What happened? What were you thinking of at the time? What have you thought about since? Who has been affected by what you have done? In what way? What do you think you need to do to make things right?

When Someone has been Harmed... What did you think when you realized what had happened? What impact has this incident had on you and others? What has been the hardest thing for you? What do you think needs to happen to make things right?

Multidisciplinary work Children Services, Police, Probation, The Courts, Health Services, Education Services

Trauma Recovery It has four aspects: Presenting behaviour Underlying need Types of intervention Sequenced intervention (Johnny Matthew)

Presenting Behaviour The TRM does not encourage a focus on behaviour as the goal of intervention. But it does require that we observe, note and manage it. Behaviour is a signpost for development and tells us something about how and to what degree a child has developed normally. (Johnny Matthew)

Underling Needs These then – as the cause of the behaviour – become the focus of intervention. Behaviour is the symptom; skewed developmental experiences are the cause. To help kids heal we must address the causes. (Johnny Matthew)

Types of Intervention Intervention extends beyond the technique or theoretical basis for the work being done to help a child to recover. It applies equally to the setting of the intervention. The stability of such settings can be a real bonus in accelerating the progress (Johnny Matthew)

Child first, Offender second… Our attitudes The language we use The hope and effort we bring to the work, and in particular… The strength of our advocacy (Johnny Matthew)

Trauma Recovery

Working to support adolescents

Adolescence from Latin adolescere, meaning 'to grow up‘

Adolescence In adults, various parts of the brain work together to evaluate choices, make decisions and act accordingly in each situation. The teenage brain doesn't appear to work like this

Adolescence For comparison's sake, think of the teenage brain as an entertainment centre that hasn't been fully hooked up. There are loose wires, so that the speaker system isn't working with the DVD player, which in turn hasn't been formatted to work with the television yet. And to top it all off, the remote control hasn't even arrived!

Adolescence The brain's remote control is the prefrontal cortex, a section of the brain that weighs outcomes, forms judgments and controls impulses and emotions. This section of the brain also helps people understand one another

Adolescence The prefrontal cortex communicates with the other sections of the brain through connections called synapses. These are like the wires of the entertainment system.

Adolescence What scientists have found is that teenagers experience a wealth of growth in synapses during adolescence. But if you've ever hooked up an entertainment centre, you know that more wires means more problems You tend to keep the components you use the most, while getting rid of something superfluous The brain works the same way, because it starts pruning away the synapses that it doesn't need in order to make the remaining ones much more efficient in communicating

Sequence of Intervention Because the difficulties faced by children with developmental trauma have skewed their development, the order in which we address the problems really matters. For example, if a child is not functioning at a cognitive age commensurate with their chronological age, talking therapies may not work well, if at all. And yet we tend to focus on these almost by default. In order for a child to benefit optimally from any intervention, we must sequence the timing and type of input to the child’s needs and developmental progress (Johnny Matthew)

Thank you