Working with teenagers for the first time...

This week I had my first experience of working with teenagers. I have been convinced for quite some time that this is the age group I’d like to work with when I qualify as a social worker, but I hadn’t actually had any experience to base that on. I’ve done youth work with 10-12 year olds for years but teenagers was a new thing. My experience on my first placement, working in a residential project for adults with mental illness had taught me many skills that I thought would also help with this age group. My role as keyworker had been all about developing one on one relationships, and I had worked with clients with a range of emotions, from aggressive behaviour to apathy and disengagement, all of which I felt would be relevant. This week I worked as a mentor on week 2 of a three week programme. (I still have week 3 to do, but it’s not residential.) It was an incredibly inspiring process and massively reinforced my desire to work with this age group. There’s so much written about young people, many of these stereotypes we discussed this week – of violence and anti-social behaviour, of laziness and apathy. But this group of young people couldn’t have been more different. In fact, one of them, on his 16th birthday, was on a visit that we lead to a care home where they engaged with people with both dementia and schitozphrenia, and turned to us to ask if he really had to leave then or if he could stay longer. He’d been going round giving the older people nicknames (in a good way) to make them feel part of our team. He was singing songs with them and generally having a pretty great time. This is the stuff that should make the press. This programme is all about inspiring future leaders and discussing engagement in the local community. As our group had signed up for drama, we worked with an incredible practitioner, who helped them make sense of their experience through theatre, and express many of the emotions and difficulties they had felt, in such a powerful showcase on the final day, that it brought some of the audience to tears. They left their families with a message of possibilities and hope. And they’re coming back next week to work on a campaign about raising awareness of mental health issues, in older people within their local community, to try to inspire and engage other young people. In addition to all this group work, myself and the other mentor of the team, carried out one on ones with each young person, spending time with them to discuss their goals in life and identify their strengths. This was probably my favourite bit of the week. Because this week was a huge learning for me too. At times I felt a bit despondent, looking at the other youth workers and feeling that I was a bit too shy in comparison, that I didn’t have their outgoing ability to jump into a room and instantly energise 63 kids. But over time, I have come to accept that there’s little point comparing yourself to those around you and to accept who I am and the strengths I do have, and I’d like to think that working in this way, through one on ones plays to my strengths. Getting to know these young people and inspire them to see quite how amazing they are. The theme that constantly came through was their lack of self belief. One of the things I most enjoyed was talking at the end of the week, to the mother of the drama’s leading lady. The girl whose acting skills blew me away but who was filled with insecurity. I really enjoyed telling her mum quite how great she was, and using the one on one time, to try to drum that in, just a little bit more. I also found certain moments a real challenge and learning for me. Having mainly worked with much younger children, I was in a few situations that I was not used to, where I saw young people upset and where it wasn’t for me to help. This was something I struggled with at first. One night I came back to my flat to find 2 of the 4 young people I was ‘looking after’ in tears. I got the sense that it was about something like a fight with a friend and I asked if they wanted to talk but they didn’t. It was incredibly difficult that evening going to sleep, hearing people crying from their rooms but accepting that they are not kids, they are young adults and they are entitled to their own space and their own way of coping, knowing I am there if needed. I think this is all part of learning about life development, and understanding how to tailor your communication appropriately. How to build the relationship of a mentor, not a friend or teacher. How to guide, support and inspire, not patronise or preach. I’m only halfway through my social work journey and I still don’t know where it will take me. But I really do feel privileged to have spent 6 months working with adults with mental illness and this last week and the next to come working with these young people. I don’t know what job out there is going to be right for me, whether it will be a pure social work one or not – but I do know that working with these young people in the last few days, has made me feel more fulfilled than I have in a long time.