Wednesday, October 27, 2010

THE PSYCHE OF GIRL INMATES IN CARE HOMES










The basis of this discussion is based on my experience as consulting physician in two care homes.

As if to compensate their varied origins resulting in a significant dissociation of the mind and body (a detailed list of such children has already been provided in my previous discussion and to this we may add child victims of rape and abuse, children of sex workers and HIV infected and affected children), I have observed a variety of emotions at play among the inmates of care homes. These emotions range from

1. Anger towards self

2. Anger towards others

3. Attitude of revenge

4. Running away

5. Rudeness

6. Attention seeking behaviour

7. Self destruction

8. Helplessness

9. Frustration

10.Withdrawl

11.Drop out from studies

12.Mental affections

13.Depression

14.Death wish

15.Suicidal tendencies

My observations led me to conclude that due to their diverse origins, some of the girls at these two homes had problems in bonding. As interactions were basically limited to members of the same sex, there were reported instances of same sex orientation and attraction. The human brain is an unique example of conditioning and deficit in love, affection, respect, duties and education in the past may have acted as seeds of adolescent and behavioural problems, slow learning and probably mental retardation. Prior exposure to physical and/or mental trauma may have also led to mental affections needing lifelong medications. And above all the incapability of house mothers to recognise all such instances may culminate in volatile/mute expressions of any of the above emotions, that may prove detrimental to the developmental needs of the child.


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