Overview
Last summer I was the lead boys counselor for a disability summer camp in Colorado. I was often the go-to person for handling
difficult situations. This post discusses some of my basic observations
about the people at camp. I name no names.
This is part 1 of a 3-part installation of posts. This post
will deal with the issues of counselor
power, counselor burnout, and accommodation.
Introduction of Post
The camp I worked at served a population with an extremely
wide variety of disabilities. It was initially very easy to see how different
our campers were from “normal” people. One camper might have bad teeth, another
might be extremely repetitive, and yet another could invade your personal
space. Some may seem standoffish, and others perpetually angry. The differences
seemed stark. It was an illusion.
It is too easy to see superficial differences. As a new
counselor it is easy to get caught up in your “normalized” comparisons. Ultimately,
these easy thoughts are what harm you and the rest of the camp the most. They
lead to thoughts of superiority, an expectation of control, and inevitably
result in mental burnout. This blog post will discuss these issues in more
detail.
Counselors vs. Counselors
As the lead boys counselor I soon realized that the most
challenging aspects of camp did not rest with the campers; they rested with a
large fraction of the staff. This is because of a precarious social and mental dichotomy.
Most of the counselors understood that our campers would have differences. They
knew to have more patience with this population, and they tried not to compare
these people to a falsely “normalized” understanding of human kind. But, the
counselors, and some of the staff, largely failed to do the same when it came
to each other.
We treated campers differently from how we treated each
other, and with little justification. The ridiculousness of this reality becomes
apparent when the following observations are made: 1. How similar the campers
are to those you know in your personal life. 2. How similar the counselors
are to the campers.
In the social disability rhetoric, impairments are merely
variations in a greater context of the human condition. To accuse each other of
“acting like campers” (a common insult among counselors) is to make a
differential judgment that fails to recognize commonality. It is just as
easy to say that a camper acts like a counselor in both a negative and positive
sense. Indeed, I know several instances in which this negative comparison would
fit perfectly.
Of course, many of those in the disabled population
require extra attention, a greater level of patience, and stricter controls. But,
I had to deal with some counselors who required extra attention, a greater
level of patience, and stricter controls, too.
Counselors should treat each other with the same accommodating
mindset as they use with campers. We must expect a different standard of
responsibility for counselors since they are in power positions. But the
patience and the genuine effort to understand that counselors extend towards
campers should also be extended to each other. We need to give each other the
benefit of the doubt.
Counselors vs.
Campers
The ability to adapt mentally and logistically at a disability camp is absolutely the most essential element in the smooth functioning
of camp life. Often counselors are not up to the task.
Many counselors (who tend to be in the 18 to 23 age range)
soon realize that they have a fair amount of power at camp. Power to decide
activities and power to enforce rules. Too often this sense of power
results in counselors who set their own rules
of behavior for the campers.
Asking your campers to do little things to make your life
easier (like putting their clothes in the dirty clothes bag) is not a problem.
It is when you try to enforce strict
rules like these that things become problematic. It is the difference between
“will you please” and “you must.”
We need to be as accommodating as we reasonably can be, and we need to push the definition of "reasonable" as far as we can without jeopardizing safety. If a camper insists on moving his/her bed, find a way to
move it. If a camper insists on taking a shower, find a way. If a camper
refuses to take a shower, do all you can to convince him or her to do so. But
never use force.
Do not rely on the camp director to uphold your invented
rules. The camp’s purpose is to accommodate and create a fun, safe place where
campers can have a quality vacation. The camp director’s job is to accommodate
within reason, not to uphold your non-accommodating rules.
If there is no way to accommodate a camper, and you cannot
convince him/her to live within the limitations of camp, he/she cannot stay at
camp. If you are a caring, open-minded person this is very rare. The only
time this is an issue is when safety is a concern and there is no way to
accommodate.
Accommodations
The accommodations we use are not granted due to a
disability diagnosis so much as they are granted due to individual observation
and adjustment. For example: if a person has issues walking, that person would
get a cart ride up the hill. While the diagnoses on our intake forms
occasionally helped me know what to expect and how to communicate, most of the
diagnoses were more distracting than helpful. At camp the usefulness of the medical
model of disability was limited at best.
We do all we can to follow the rules set by parents and
guardians, especially when it comes to meals. Some requests are simply
impossible to follow completely. For example: getting campers to put on a clean
shirt every morning can be difficult when trying to get down to breakfast on a
timed schedule.
We cannot worry over every single detail because if we do it
all falls apart. Sometimes it is okay to let little things slide, provided we
make an honest effort to make up for them later in the day. Ethically, our
priority is safety. If that means someone goes to breakfast without brushing
his/her teeth one morning than so be it. He/she will brush during afternoon
rest time.
Patience and
Frustration
Frustration is probably the biggest reason for counselor
burnout. Frustration is an emotional response to negative, or unmet positive,
expectations. At camp, frustration is most often a response to
unmet power expectations.
Everything you think “should be” is not necessarily the way
life will work at camp. Sometimes campers will yell at you. They will try to
run away, get in your face, and wake you up in the middle of the night. The
counselors might get in unhealthy relationships with each other, and the
campers might do so as well. They will all test you, and you will at times find
yourself in an extreme state of frustrated exhaustion. This, however, is easily
remedied.
Whenever you feel frustration think about it like this: your
frustration is your mind demanding to be unlocked. It is the fist banging on
the doors of your mental limitations. Accept the situation as uncontrollable
and try to guide it to a new and better reality.
When one of our young campers kept running out of the boy’s
dorm one night he set off the alarm at least four times. We tried to get him to
settle, and all of my counselors were frustrated (including myself). But, the
last time the kid ran I ran with him to the main lodge. It turns out that he was
having issues with the chaos of the dorm while everyone was getting ready for
bed. He has hyperactivity, and he said his “brain just would not tell [him] to
sleep.” So, we waited together until he felt tired enough to sleep. I accepted
the situation, and I was able to guide it to a reasonable solution. As I went
to bed that night the frustration I had felt seemed childish.
Redirection is as much an internal skill as it is an
external skill for maintaining a positive environment. Redirect your
frustration into wisdom by expanding your limitations.
Conclusion
As with everything disability related, we have to understand
the false nature of “normal” to overcome the internal and external barriers we
construct in our lives. Camp is no different.
