Psychologists’
In Shelter home.
Working in a
Child Care institution requires a tremendous amount of mental energy. It not
only requires you to be mentally present, to be able to take hard decisions but
also requires emotional strength. The type of cases you usually deal over here
gives you the feeling that you are working in Govt. Hospital OPD, but with
in-patients only that too of not your choosing, but rather you will find a
sudden surge in the cases provided either by Child Welfare Committee or by the
Police. Therefore, thinking on your feet and knowing the child & their case
history becomes highly essential.
Being a
Counseling Psychologist & Psychotherapist, I deal prominently with cases
like Trauma, Runaways, Orphans, Domestic Violence, Neglect, Emotional/Physical
Abuse, Single Parent, Poverty, Suicide, Grief and the list goes on. Many a
times I have felt a culture shock because we are yet to discover, know &
learn so many things about Indian Society and I am not talking about casteism
here; because the cases that I have dealing herewith are a category of
subculture in itself. This experience in itself is vastly different than what
we have read in our Masters Textbook. But volunteering or having stayed closed
to this kind of society had somewhat helped me be conscious about the
grievances that the people sometimes face.
For a budding
professional Indian Society is an experience in itself, in Mumbai itself you
have people migrating from different cultures, subcultures, languages, accents
that your brain is constantly trying to learn and adjust to new things. Trauma
has been an upcoming topic for discussions and lectures, and Shelter homes or
Hospital becomes a useful place to discover the variety of categories. To
understand trauma, it is important firstly to understand culture of oneself or
the client is coming from, knowing from Intergenerational Trauma to
experiencing a personal trauma & their reaction to it. Usually, child from
Shelter homes is mature, when I say this word “mature” I do not mean to say
someone is able to take decisions responsibly but rather in a somewhat negative
connation. Here, in these situations the word “Mature” means they have seen,
experienced, felt emotions of an adult at a young age.
To provide a
simple example, currently a B/C residing in a Shelter home is 15 years old,
who’s both the parents have died, therefore, he become the primary caretaker of
both his younger siblings who were dependent on him for food and shelter. He
lived on the streets, worked with Ganpati Mandals to make idols for a living.
His home was a rented place therefore they were removed by the owner. After the
B/C was shifted to a Shelter home for Care & Protection under JJ Act. As a
psychologist, during my sessions with him he expressed anger at the caretaker
as they provide him with corrections or linent punishment if he uses vulgar
language or doesn’t complete his homework. Here, he expressed that he gets the
urge to move out of the house & go on the streets. Here, we have to
understand that the B/C being the primary caretaker initially had already seen
poverty, neglect, death, emotional/verbal abuse, hunger and street life, which
ultimately concluded himself in his mind that he is an adult. Therefore, taking
instructions about himself or his younger siblings from the third person
becomes difficult for him as it questions his upbringing of the siblings. This
led him to be somewhat defiant towards the caretaker. Therefore, making him
understand the importance of proper home, making him feel calm & grounded
becomes essential as he demands then he gives respect.
Working as a
Psychologist for whole of almost 150+ children, does give you a work
satisfaction as you are able to learn, experience new things every minute of
the day. Working alongside, social workers, directors, police, CWC and other
protective services. Many a times hard decisions in matter of safety of other
children had to be taken , but as they say, some cases are beyond broken and
cannot be “saved” Not only are guiding them but you also somewhere start to
develop a sense of gratitude for small things in your own life, even if you do
think sometimes that as a professional “we should never do that”, but sometimes
these lives touch you to the core, because children experience such emotional
upheavals due to someone’s mistakes, decisions, that you have to acknowledge
& respect them for their resilience, that survival instinct. So, what have
I learned from these children? Never
underestimate yourself, no problem is too small to be neglected & no problem
is too big to be solved by sharing.
Warmly,
Bhakti
Āśā Mental Health Services.
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