TAZÍ

Besides the fact that ‘The Shire’—as I often call the care farm—is usually a fairly peaceful place, conflicts certainly do arise between clients. And that was exactly the case this time.

Let’s start with the fact that group cohesion isn’t always as strong as it could be. There is actually one person who takes on the role of the informal leader. And on our team, there are two scapegoats. To clarify these terms:

The informal leader often takes charge of the group, pulling many “groupies” along with them. There are also two scapegoats who are always at a disadvantage—often, and in this case as well, because they are less resilient. It is frequently the case that the informal leader is actually very insecure themselves and takes their frustration out on someone else—at least, that is my assumption.

One day, the informal leader and one of the scapegoats got into a major conflict yet again. I don’t actually remember what it was about, but it went from verbal attacks to one shutting the other out (the scapegoat was shutting out the informal leader), and then things got really serious. To be honest, there was no supervisor around at that moment, so I took matters into my own hands. I stepped in between them and tried to defuse the situation. I called a supervisor, and when she arrived, I told her exactly what was going on: a conflict had broken out between one of the scapegoats and the informal leader. Not to blow my own horn, but she told me she was impressed by how well I was able to state the facts and how well I handled it.

Conflicts is a recurring theme in the mental health sector in general. You need to be prepared for these things, because it could happen at any given moment, even when you least expect it.

Thanks for reading and see you next time.

Yours,

Rein