Changed spending sought

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33277, 14 July 1973, Page 18

Changed spending sought

It was obvious from; the Department of Social Welfare's report ! on juvenile crime that the millions of dollars, being spent on national institutions needed to be

turned towards more personal services—“for people to work with people”—said the senior psychiatric social worker at Sunnyside Hospital (Mr A. H. Clark).

“All concerned social workers will be saddened at the apparent inadequacy of the social services in stemming

<’ the tide of juvenile delin- - quency,” he said. J Mr Clark, who has spent / one day a week for the last y three months at the Anglican sjCity Mission's Open Door i:centre in Christchurch, said sithat he was tremendously e] impressed with both the volr unteers and the partlyr trained social workers at - “drop-in” centres in New s Zealand. Part of the future :l success in controlling delin-

iquency lay in these centres,! he said. “People ought to realise' that disturbed and lonely]: youngsters are no different:' from the rest of us and most/ desperately want to find a.i better life but lack family 1 support, encouragement, and the skills and opportunities to do this. “It ought to be realised that they are not satisfied in any way with their life of crime. They tend to remain fearful and apprehensive , about help, and we must do something about this urgently,” said Mr Clark. “Frankly, I think that society has contributed a great deal more to the delinquency of the young person than any of us has realised.” It was important for social; 'workers to take their expert-' ise to the areas of rehabili-l tation and get behind the] people who were involved/ he said. The Anglican city mis-' sioner and director of the. Open Door centre (the Rev.) M. Goodall) said that (changes were more rapid to-: (day than in the past and that) iinsufficient training was be-!

ling given to young people to (cope with these changes. ' There was also a need to; 'help over-burdened mothers.] They needed not only finan- ; [cial but also social help. The ' mother-craft course at the Open Door was proving very successful, he said. He also said that the Government could help more in job training for the unemployed. “It’s ridiculous to grab them from the centre of the city and dump them out at Ashley Forest or elsewhere in the country. They only last a comparatively short time.” The minister in charge of youth services and consultant with the Methodist Central Mission’s Youthline (the (Rev. B. Mackie) said that 'more help, rather than criticism, needed to be given to (parents. i “Many parents are quite Jost and need positive support and encouragement to (do a good job as parents,’” he said. Mr Mackie suggested that parents’ centres could be (given more support and publicity; the Church could fur-!

> ther its work in upholding ;and supporting family life; /and the media could be used (to educate parents on childj rearing and home manageJment. : The chairman of 6A Incor(porated (Mr D. McCauley) said that the department’s [report was important because jit brought home to the public . that what was being done was ineffective. i It was because present . measures were not proving ( effective that it was decided : to start 6A, he said. • The strength of groups : such as 6A was that the voluntary workers were able to get far more involved in the . lives of the youths they . worked with than profes- ■ sional social workers with : large caseloads. Voluntary ■ workers were able to help fill i some of the gaps left by an unsettled early environment. i Mr McCauley said that the ■ Government should help such i organisations by providing ’ ! finance. 6A desperately (needed to employ a person to direct the activities of its (volunteers, but requests for (Government finance had so [far brought no response.