“We can try to change the students, but if we don’t get them to understand their thought processes and review how they see themselves, the change is going to be just for a while, and they will return to their former selves. However once they are educated about how they can approach challenging situations (in a positive manner), then this will be a tool for them to use for life…”
Dean of Discipline Kenroy Rowe, up to recently of Haile Selassie High School, is explaining here why he believes Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is “a great tool” for empowering young Jamaicans at risk of, or already involved with, crime and violence. CBT is an intervention in which trained specialists help persons to examine and improve the way they think, encouraging healthy decision-making and behaviour.
Mr. Rowe, now Dean of Discipline at Clan Carthy High School, played a key role in The MultiCare Youth Foundation’s (MYF) recent related workshop for vulnerable male students at Haile Selassie High. Involving 21 sessions between May 17 and July 18, 2022, this was the first time the Jamaican model of this intervention tool had been presented in a local high school. Sixteen students who were assessed to be of medium to high risk during screening were recommended for the workshop, thirteen of whom completed the sessions. Their ages ranged from 13 to 20 years.
The use of this model of CBT as an effective strategy specifically for reducing crime and violence among youth was explored at an April 2021 workshop hosted by the USAID funded Local Partner Development (LPD) Programme, being implemented by FHI 360. The LPD Programme also contracted independent clinical psychologist Dr. Kai Morgan to design and supervise the implementation of the Jamaican model, and hosted the May 2022 workshop at which MYF’s Project Manager, Taneshia Stoney Dryden and Mentorship and Counselling Officer, Janike Banton Morris were trained to facilitate the workshops for Jamaican youth.
The local model of CBT which the MYF used in its Haile Selasse High intervention has been dubbed the Transforming Our Perspective or TOP Model. It is based on the Mexican ROLE (a Spanish word pronounced ‘Rolay’) model produced by the Mexican NGO ProSociedad and used with positive results there and in North and South America. Use of the TOP CBT Model represents a critical expansion of The MYF’s current focus on the 15-29 year olds, especially males, who are most at risk of becoming involved with crime and violence.
While statistics show that members of this age cohort represent most of the perpetrators as well as the victims of violent crimes, the figures are less likely to catalogue the serious challenges facing young Jamaicans in inner city and other underserved communities. Asked about these, Mr. Rowe notes:
“The influence of gangs, and gang recruitment, is a serious challenge; lack of parental support is another – most of these youngsters live in single parent homes, or their parents are not in their lives at all. In the latter case they live with relatives, some live on their own, some have jobs while attending school. Quite a few are actually in gangs, some already have criminal records.”
Janike Banton Morris, who served as Lead Facilitator of MYF’s TOP CBT project component, explains:
“CBT is a very useful approach to helping young persons, especially at-risk persons, in reducing their propensity for crime and violence, especially this Jamaican model, which is aptly entitled ‘Transforming Our Perspective’. It involves getting into the minds of these young persons and trying to transform their perspective from negative to positive. In doing so, we look at how they react automatically to situations. We look at identity, observing themselves. A lot of these young persons never get a chance to stop and reflect, to do self-observation and to learn about themselves. So within this curriculum we teach them how to do that.”
“The final component is future projection,” Mrs. Banton Morris adds “So we help them with things like goal setting, telling them about investment for example.”
This model is excellent for its incorporation of our culture, she argues, noting that in some sessions the lessons are all linked to our patois language. “For example we have a session called ‘Investment over braffing’. This refers to the current dancehall trend where you ‘braff’ or show off and buy clothes, flashy cars, bling etc. We teach them how to set goals, short and long term, and not follow the crowd.”
“One of the good things about CBT” Mrs Banton Morris continues, “is that it teaches the participants self control, and the power of control they have over themselves. Understanding their triggers, identifying different coping strategies they can use when they are faced with difficult situations. Just being able to think about a situation rationally, that’s very important.”
She explains that the students appreciated that the sessions focused heavily on meditation and relaxation, with breathing exercises, guided imagery, and teaching the boys to become calm and relaxed before going into the sessions.
Pre and post test findings showed that 82% of the 13 participants who were tested indicated a reduction in their aggression levels and 73% had a reduction in their impulsivity. The MYF workshop’s Co-facilitator Mrs. Taneshia Stoney Dryden concludes,
“CBT has now become one of the five prosocial pillars used by the MYF, the others being mentorship, life and employability skills via the Passport to Success curriculum, short term paid job internship and vocational skills placement. While these prosocial interventions are not the end all to youth crime and violence prevention, when combined with current efforts from the school and other change agents, the youth participants stand a greater chance of self-regulation, self-control and greater self-efficacy in general, thus allowing them to show up as their better selves.”
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