Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), through which trained specialists help at-risk youth or offenders to examine and improve the way they think, encouraging healthy decision making and behaviour, is the latest tool being used by The MultiCare Youth Foundation to empower young Jamaicans in difficult situations.
A critical move relevant to the Foundation’s priority of targeting the 15-29 year olds most at-risk of becoming involved in crime and violence; this adds a fifth “pillar” to MYF’s mandate of positive support strategies for its primary clients. The others are vocational skills training; life and employability ‘soft’ skills; mentorship and paid internships. MultiCare is now integrating these with the Jamaican version of a CBT model – the ROLE (a Spanish word pronounced ‘rolay’) model – developed in Mexico and used successfully there and in North and South America.
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 MYF ran a trial of the local model of CBT dubbed the ‘Transforming Our Perspective’ or TOP Model at a May 17 – July 18 workshop at Haile Selasse High School in Kingston. Dr. Morgan notes that the Jamaicanisation of the Mexican ROLE Model did not affect the core material, but added cultural inputs such as local music, narratives and popular phrases.
She explains that the TOP CBT intervention features three main components: future projections or positioning oneself for the future you want; automatic thoughts and the benefits of thinking about consequences before acting; and identity or examining how you think about yourself and challenging some of these thoughts. And of the three, she noted, all the youngsters in pilot groups and early community workshops have been enthusiastic about the sessions dealing with automatic thoughts.
“The youth have really grabbed onto this,” Dr. Morgan reports, “We call it System One and System Two. System One is the quick, knee jerk approach (to an event or incident). And System Two is when you actually think about it, think about the consequences, think about how it’s going to impact you, and make a different decision. In every one of about six groups so far, feedback has been that they remember this part of the curriculum.”
The MYF workshop at Haile Selassie High School was implemented as a part of the Foundation’s YUTE for Tomorrow Project funded by USAID through FHI360’s LPD Programme. The first presentation of the TOP CBT Model in a Jamaican school, it targeted 16 male students recommended by then Dean of Discipline Kenroy Rowe, 13 of whom completed the 21 sessions. The non-judgemental presentations were highly interactive, with incentives such as stipends and meals for attending. Among the aspects particularly appreciated by the youth were features such as guided meditation sessions and breaks for field trips in Kingston and Ocho Rios. The latter provided a break from the intensive curriculum, and allowed the facilitators to check what they had retained from previous sessions.
The joint report of Lead Facilitator Mrs. Banton Morris and Co-Facilitator Mrs. Stoney Dryden noted that preliminary pre and post test findings showed that 82% of the 13 participants who were tested indicated a reduction in their aggression and 73% had a reduction in their impulsivity. Mrs. Stoney Dryden notes,
“The workshop was a success, in that there was definitely, both empirically and anecdotally, a change in the students’ aggression and impulsivity.”
Although the MYF TOP CBT workshop at Haile Selassie High has ended, the participants will continue to be engaged by the Foundation. Ten of them have been matched with adult mentors, three are now engaged in paid internships at the Denham Town Police Station and the Hope Zoo, and six have begun Passport to Success Life and Employability skills training at the MYF offices at 7-9 Harbour Street. Meanwhile, MYF will be introducing the TOP model of CBT at a September Workshop in Ocho Rios, for social workers and other stakeholders across the island, as well as using it in upcoming new projects for at-risk youth.
