March 17, 2009

Psychological Support Must Be Integral Part Of Retraining For Young “Boot Camp” Offenders

The Government’s programme of boot camps for teenage offenders must be fully supported by high quality psychological training to have any chance of success in preventing re-offending.

This is the view of Werner Naef, a Waikanae-based stress management and human factors specialist who works with many companies in New Zealand, Australia and Europe in developing team training.

The Government has announced that 40 of the worst offenders would go through the boot camp, and a further 175 would be subjected to tougher supervision orders, which would include mentoring and self-esteem building. Over one year, up to 1000 youngsters will be involved in this programme.

Mr Naef said that the key to the success of this proposal was to ensure that the trainers and supervisors understood the personalities of the troubled people they were working with, and could tailor their communication to reach the offenders in the most positive way.

“Whether we like it or not, these young offenders are under distress. That is why they offend. They have inner psychological needs that are not being met. We need to identify those needs and then reward them positively. If we can do that, we will see a remarkable turnaround of behaviour and attitude and confidence,” he said.

“Recent American research into the Process Communication Model, one communication, motivation and distress management programme, confirmed that inmates of an American juvenile detention centre had shown major behaviour and attitude improvement, which lead to a zero expulsion rate, 25% recidivism rate (best in nation), 44% reduction in student incidents and better social awareness, better relationships with their families and friends and a rise in confidence and self esteem.”

This research was conducted in some of America’s toughest environments of schools and juvenile detention centres. The results showed improvements in test results, student attitudes and behaviour, dropout rates, student/teacher/parent satisfaction, and reduced suicides, bullying incidents, fights and serious incidents.

Many students who had been previously diagnosed with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) were found to be top performing students once their teachers and family were able to complete specific training, which opened lines of communication, motivation and helped the students to feel safe.”

Nearly 500 students in seventh grade were the subjects of a study that showed results such as 93% of the teachers reported that the training helped them to recognise distress signals and defuse potentially disruptive situations; 87% said the training reduced discipline problems, and 87% recommended the training in providing for their student’s diverse psychological needs.

In another study, children of incarcerated parents were successfully looked after in summer camps. Mr Naef said that such training was the foundation to bringing those young people from a rebellious negative state of mind to a positive contributor to society. Boot camps on their own made no difference. It was the mentoring and post camp supervision, which ensured that these youngsters changed their lifestyles and behaviour and did not re-offend.

NASA pioneered this model for crew management for astronauts going into space. In the mid 70s NASA understood that if highly trained people were going to be contained within a space station for days or weeks, they had to be compatible and they had to understand when individuals showed signs of going into distress.

Over the past three decades this training has been expanded into the high-risk industries such as aviation, defence, high-speed transport, occupational health and safety and hospitals. Today in the tough recessionary times, every business in New Zealand is under stress in some form or another, and the people in those businesses are in stress. Professional people management enhances the resilience of the business in such tough times.

“Managers need to be able to identify those early warning signs of stress and distress. That is what human factors training does. Once the basis of the personality is understood, professional intervention can turn those people around from a negative disruptive attitude to a positive contributory role.

“The same principles apply in education. Once we understand the personalities of the young people we are talking to, we can help them move from the negative to the positive frame of mind. That results in new attitudes and behaviours from them, and a much more positive outlook on life. Then they are receptive to education, advice, direction and they prosper in an atmosphere of support and positivism,” Mr Naef said.

“In those areas where such training has been implemented, we have seen a big difference in re-offending rates. They have dropped significantly, and society has been a better place as a result. This is exactly what we want to achieve in New Zealand”, he said.

ends

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