Social work interest

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33456, 11 February 1974, Page 6

Social work interest

Helle Byrnak, an international agricultural exchangee from Denmark hopes to visit several New Zealand j kindergartens and social welfare institutions before returning home at the end of April.

One of the exchangees from the contingent of 70 which arrived in New Zealand last November. Helle, aged 24. selected the scheme’s only alternative to agricultural work — domestic work on a farm — all in a quest to see more of life. She is on a Mid-Canter-bury cropping farm about seven miles from Methven, the property of Mr A. C. Yates. But before returning ' home she hopes to take time i off to pursue further her real ' interests — people and social I work. SOCIAL WORKER A qualified social worker, Helle was employed at the Copenhagen Kommunes Bornehave Kindergarten before coming to New Zealand. There she worked as the head of a department with 20 children and one assistant, helping the children to adjust to group living, and teaching them to communicate and work in with other children before they went to school. Helle sees her work at the kindergarten as preventative, in that social casualties may be prevented in the same way as industrial and traffic accidents. If the children learnt what I was and was not acceptable i to the other members of I .their group, irrespective of I ! i whether they be teachers or f ■children, at an early age,! .Ithere would be less instances' of maladjusted children in the schools later on, she > said. The leaders of the group, did not enforce authorityl “because they were thei teachers, and bigger than the i children,” but encouraged the group to set its own standards and stipulations of; what was and was not ac-j ceptable to the other members. Also experienced with I teenage problem children, Helle worked as a pre-student at a social welfare institution in West Berlin and at a Dr Barnado Home in London. After her return home, she

hopes to work with psychotic or psychologically disturbed children. Discussing welfare work generally. Helle said that she isaw no advantage in taking

[children away from their I problems and difficult home (situations, treating them for six months, and then “dumping them back in the middle I of them.’’ “OPEN FLAT” Similarly-minded friends 'who have also qualified m i pedagogy at the Skoivtofte Borneforsorgssemina|rium College have recently [made moves to establish an ! open flat in Copenhagen where, with the aid of a qualified psychiatrist and the support of the city council, young people having difficulty adjusting to society or relating to their parents could be treated. From this central point the welfare officers could work with the people in their home situations, helping them to cope with their problems and adverse circumstances, and at the same time providing a sense of security and contact in that there was always a place nearby to go and someone to turn to, if things got (“too bad.” : With the limited view she 'has so far had of New Zealland’s welfare system it appeared to be about 20 years [behind most European counItries in ideas and methods, although the country consequently avoided some of the iextreme liberalism which had

arisen from social reform in; some Scandinavian countries. To illustrate this further, Helle cited instances in Denmark recently, where prisoners had gone on strike for more pay and told of how economic inducements to study while imprisoned were now often more favourable than for Ihe average person. UNFRIENDLY Helle is one of about 20 international exchangees in Mid-Canterbury, and so far the impression of local people gained by her and the exchangees is one of general unfriendliness. Emphasising that she was not referring to the host families, Helle said that when entering a local bar the people “stared at you and then ignored you. “When you went to leave; they took no notice, but asi soon as you were out the' door they just about climbed! over each other to look at you. “Perhaps shy. the people give us the impression that .they do not want to mix with us,” she said. A trip to Queenstown and Alexandra lover Christmas had revealed (that this was not so in all I parts of the country, and the exchanges had generally found the people there to be “very friendly.” COLD SNAPS Cold snaps had caught many of the exchangees off guard as they had been expecting continuous bright sunshine after being told to take one warm jersey “just jin case. “We have been just freezing,” said Helle, who described the weather as that .similar to a bad Danish autumn.