WILDERNESS REHABILITATION: AN 18-MONTH FOLLOW-UP OF THE WHAKAPAKARI YOUTH PROGRAMME.

• Author: Eggleston , Erin J.

INTRODUCTION

During August of 1993, as a participant observer, I attended Te Whakapakari Youth Programme, on Great Barrier Island in New Zealand, with 12 young people. I interviewed programme participants at the conclusion of the programme (Eggleston 1996), and in the present study 10 participants were re-interviewed during late 1994 through early 1995. The challenge for this study was to organise youth texts on rehabilitation in a way that did justice to their perspective. This article summarises and analyses the talk of youth as they reflected on their experience of a wilderness programme and the 18 months that had passed since then.

The Background section of this paper discusses some of the literature on the use of outdoor pursuits and adventure therapy programmes. The following sections in turn describe the Whakapakari programme, outline the methodology of the study and analyse the key themes of the findings. In the final section I discuss policy implications.

BACKGROUND

Exercise and outdoor pursuits have long been understood as therapeutic. The 17th century poet John Dryden wrote, "the wise, for cure, on exercise depend" (cited in Spencer 1990). The idea was first put into official practice during World War II with an Outward Bound training programme in Scotland intended to physically and psychologically prepare men for life at sea (Berman and Anton 1988). Outward Bound has blossomed to cater for populations ranging from high school students to corporate managers (Burton 1981) and physical activity programmes have become a popular adjunct to mental health services (Minor and Elrod 1990, Marx 1988, Hilyer et al. 1982, Wright 1982, Collingwood and Engelsjerd 1977). The environmental education (Miles 1986), life-changing experiences and personal growth (Berman and Anton 1988:42) that Outward Bound and other wilderness programmes facilitated were not readily duplicated in traditional school, home, office or clinical environments; and the emotional benefits of physical conditioning became well documented (Hilyer and Mitchell 1979, Stanaway and Hullin 1973, Collingwood 1972).

While such personal growth and experiential education generated by spending time in the outdoors may well be considered therapeutic, to call it therapy is tenuous to say the least. Therapy is a western term which generally refers to a psychosocial intervention designed case by case to address specific problematic thoughts, feelings and behaviours that an individual, family, or group are facing (Bunce 1997, Itin 1997, Hawton et al. 1989). More recently in the literature the outdoors has emerged as a useful place to do therapy, not least because of nature's therapeutic qualities and the diversity of metaphors for healthy living that nature provides.

As Davis-Berman and Berman (1993) have suggested, such a distinction between therapeutic and therapy is clouded by issues of training, therapeutic rationale, measures of success and definitions of what it means to be doing therapy. With particular reference to New Zealand, what it means to be doing therapy may be different for Maori than for New Zealanders of western origin, and therefore some flexibility is needed in allowing for alternative definitions of therapy. The distinction between therapy and therapeutic is further clouded by the diversity of programmes, some of which use the outdoors as a place to do therapy (Bandoroff and Parish 1997, Crisp and O'Donnell 1997), while others use the outdoors as an adjunct to, and/or transition from, traditional office-based therapy models (Goldthorpe 1997, Eger and Kilby 1997). In the latter the outdoors becomes a place to action therapy-centred goals.

The 1980s saw the emergence of a range of wilderness and adventure therapies tailored to specific clinical populations. Clients have included psychiatric patients (Crisp and O'Donnell 1997, Pawlowski et al. 1993, Stich and Senior 1984), the chronic drug-dependent (Gillis and Simpson 1991), adolescent offenders (Sachs and Miller 1992, Burdsal and Buel 1980), the emotionally disturbed (Clagget 1989, Behar and Stephens 1978), families (Bandoroff and Scherer 1994, Mason 1987), sexual abuse survivors (Asher et al. 1994), and adolescent sex offenders (Eger and Kilby 1997). Common threads of purpose for wilderness therapy include learning interpersonal and cooperative skills (Sachs and Miller 1992, Berman and Anton 1988, Behar and Stephens 1978), developing positive self-concept (Klorer 1992, Brown 1986), connecting of physical and cognitive dimensions of self (Mason 1987), transforming body image (Arnold 1994), reducing substance use (Behar and Stephens 1978), promoting adaptive, pro-social behaviour (Berman and Anton 1988, Pawlowski et al. 1993) and increasing motivation (Berman and Anton 1988).

Mulvey et al. (1993) conclude that, while claims are often made about the apparent effectiveness of wilderness programmes in the treatment of juvenile delinquency, the "nature, extent, and conditions under which positive outcomes occur is unknown" (p.154). It seems illusory, however, to try and compare a vast array of programmes on the basis of possibly only one similarity- that they occur in wilderness settings. While programme diversity makes evaluative comparisons difficult, it lends well to descriptive approaches. Research on wilderness programmes to date has concentrated on testing clinical objectives rather than more openly trying to learn from those who have experienced the programmes. In particular, few researchers have privileged the knowledge and experience of the young person above their own, when determining key benefits of wilderness programmes.

In New Zealand the outdoors is commonly used as a place to run rehabilitative programmes. New Zealand cultural values strongly associate the outdoors with the development of one's potential, whether through sport, adventure, or simply appreciation of nature. Geographic and financial accessibility to sea, surf, mountains, lakes, rivers, and forests are key reasons for this.

TE WHAKAPAKARI YOUTH PROGRAMME

Originating as a Maori Affairs initiative in 1977, Te Whakapakari Youth Programme was specifically designed to help young Maori involved in drug and solvent abuse. The programme was run according to Maori principles of life, and encouraged participants to work together in order to survive in their wilderness surroundings for the period of one month. Referrals came primarily from the Children Young Persons and Their Families Agency (now the Department of Child Youth and Family Services) as a result of a Family Group Conference.

The goals of the programme, as described to me by the coordinator, Hone daSilva, included:

* providing an alternative to an institutionalisation,

* developing a positive whanau/family experience,

* promoting the personal development of participants through experiential learning,

* time out from negative peer pressure,

* facilitating trust through positive experiences,

* developing constructive relationships with adults and peers,

* violence reduction using Maori methods for releasing anger,

* respect for the rights of others,

* time out to think about the past,

* learning Maori culture,

* detoxification, and

* promotion of a holistic approach to health which stresses good food, exercise, work and play.

While on the programme, participants were divided into groups and their daily work consisted of fishing, preparing fish, gathering firewood, assisting with building, cleaning and cooking. They played organised sport in the late afternoons and had free time before dinner. In the evenings participants either practiced their waiata (songs) and haka (chants) or engaged in korero toko-toko sessions (group-based discussions) facilitated by the supervisors. Further elaboration on the programme itself can be found in Eggleston (1996).

Whakapakari supervisors were often former participants who had graduated to the status of supervisor through spending extra time on the programme (although more recently, trained supervisors have been used). On the programme I attended there were three paid supervisors (two men and a woman) and two trainee supervisors (both male). Hone and Willi daSilva were the primary facilitators of each programme. They maintained a directive role, organised activities, directed supervisors, coordinated new referrals, and provided occasional individual counselling for participants.

METHODOLOGY

Twelve young people attending the programme, aged 13-16 years (including one female), participated in the present study and were interviewed at the end of the programme. They had experienced sexual and/or physical abuse and :neglect, were recreational substance users (marijuana, alcohol and/or solvents) and had become unmanageable in institutional settings (usually due to violence). Participants had been in trouble with the law from an early age and had each spent time in youth institutions due to involvement in theft, robbery, use of firearms or assault.

At the outset of my month at Whakapakari I realised I was entering a world culturally different from the one I was used to, a world which my psychological and analytical "tools" were not equipped to "measure objectively". I became immersed in this world in order to be able reveal to those outside it my experiences, interpretations and perspectives, as well as those of my friends within the programme, the participants in my study who I came to know as whanau.(2) Throughout the programme I heard snippets of each person's life. In the last...