Scoutmaster Podcast 59

The next time you go out into the wilderness and you're up there in the mountains, I encourage you to sit still and look at the vista before you and listen carefully, because you can hear the mountains speak Honestly. You can. They talk about a range of topics. A range of topics- mountains- Yeah, Oh, my go-well. Hey, this is podcast number 59.. Welcome back to the Scoutmaster Podcast.

This is Clarke Green, So let's take a look at the email bag here. Actually it's not a bag, but you know sounds good, right? Bob Martin wrote this. Thanks a million, Clark. I did a survey at the end of the day and your session averaged 4.5 out of 5. Slightly ahead of lunch.

It's always good to be slightly ahead of lunch. That was from a virtual appearance that I did in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Bob Martin, thanks again for helping out and making that happen. We had a great time. Tom Gillard was at the conference and he wrote this. I heard from you yesterday.

I'm going to enjoy catching up with you on your webpage and listening to the podcast. Thanks again for the work that you put into your blog and podcast. I'm enjoying it. As corny as the jokes are, I do laugh at them. Maybe just a little chuckle.

Hey, you know better than nothing, right? Thanks again for all the work you're doing to help us and help us help the boys. I got this announcement this week. If you're taking a trip into the Boundary Waters canoe area this summer or you're going on a river paddling adventure or dreaming of an extended wilderness trip, maybe you need a refresher covering the fundamentals or something to sharpen your backcountry skills. And Cliff Jacobson, who was interviewed a couple of podcasts ago, legendary paddler and guide and author, donated a weekend of his time to conduct a special workshop, And all the proceeds from this workshop are going to go to Northern Star Council's Eagle Scout Scholarship Fund And it provides post-secondary scholarships for 25 Northern Star Council Eagle Scouts. This is going to take place at the Fred C Anderson Scout Camp in Houlton, Wisconsin, which is just outside of Stillwater, Minnesota, from April 1st to the 3rd.

There will be a link in the post that contains this podcast at scoutmastertypepadcom so that you can find out more information about this. Cliff is a distinguished Eagle Scout and is offering his time to do this and it's a pretty modest cost and it looks great and if I was any closer to Wisconsin I would be there. But just in case you're in the area and this appeals to you and it should follow the link in the post that contains this podcast. The newsletter went out in February and we had our monthly giveaway contest. This month's giveaway winner is Dave Klein, And Dave is from Lake Forest in Orange County, California. He's an assistant scoutmaster and he's been involved in scouting for about 7 years and he has an 8-year-old and a 13-year-old scout at home and he listens to the podcast on his lunch break at work and he says it's better for his blood pressure than political talk radio.

Well, yeah, I guess the joke part might send some people's blood pressure up, but you know, oh wow, Dave answered a trivia question to win four of Nalgene's newest water bottles- Yeah, with some really cool features, and we've talked about those on the blog and the podcast and he will be receiving those. The trivia question Dave answered was: who was the author of the original handbook for patrol leaders?

Who was the author of the original handbook for patrol leaders? And the correct answer was William Greenbar, Bill Hillcourt. Bill Hillcourt, You can subscribe to the Scoutmaster newsletter.

Go to wwwscoutmastertypedcom and you'll see a link to subscribe to the newsletter and there's always a great monthly giveaway and the giveaway for this coming newsletter are products from E-Lite. E-Lite- You might have heard E-Lite mentioned in the interview I did a podcast or two ago with Dr Paul Auerbach and we'll talk a little bit more about that in the newsletter and you'll see a review of those products on the blog very soon. Speaking of Dr Paul, Frank Maynard wrote in to say he enjoyed the interview in podcast number 57 with Dr Auerbach. Tracy wrote in to say some of our guys never miss an episode of Survivorman or Man vs Wild. Thanks for your help and thanks for the highlight at the beginning of my every week this blog.

Well, thank you, Tracy, certainly do appreciate it. We had an interview last week with Les Stroud, the Survivorman guy. This week we've got lots of interesting things to do in Scoutmastership.

In seven minutes or less We're going to be talking about mental health- Not your mental health, not my mental health, because you know that's a foregone conclusion. I think Yeah, but we're going to talk about mental health awareness in Scouting.

And then we have a telephone call that came in about what are we going to do to make moms feel safe and confident about their first year Scouts going to summer camp? That's a big one And that is plenty to do for this podcast.

So let's get started, shall we?

Scoutmastership in seven minutes or less. Several years ago I missed a backpacking trip and I had a couple of job related things I had to do and there was just no way out of it.

So I sent the Scouts off backpacking and then the following Monday night, at a troop meeting, I was approached by a very upset parent whose son had been physically attacked by another Scout during the outing. This was not good.

We have these moments. So I spoke with both the Scouts and you know it was clear that one of them was mouthing off and really pestering the other one and the other one decided that he was going to react physically.

Now both of these guys obviously needed to modify their behavior. Both of them were acting poorly. But one thing I was really concerned about was the Scout who got physical and attacked the other one. This was like the second time that he'd been part of a fight.

He was, I say, was because he went on to become an Eagle Scout and he's off to college now and, you know, doing very well. He just he had some real signs of being unable to control his actions in that kind of a situation.

And then, after I talked to him, worse yet, you know, he felt perfectly justified in what he had done and he was ready to do it again in the same circumstances. Now this was an intelligent young man and mature enough to know that this was probably not a good way to handle things. Yet he was angry enough that it caused him to see it as the only course of action he had left.

Now I sat and talked with his dad and I told him that I wouldn't allow him to participate in any other Scout functions until we were sure that things were okay, And I suggested that the best way to do that would be to get a little counseling. Now, dad was not happy with this, You know. Predictably, he felt I was overreacting to this kind of boys will be boys incident. But my decision in doing this wasn't based on finding fault. It was based on my concern that this boy could probably use a little assistance in sorting out what was causing his problems. He was miserable and he was conflicted and he was clearly having some difficulties And I got to tell you frankly, I was afraid for him.

In the end, his dad agreed and he went to do a session or two with a counselor, and the counselor reported they were successful in assisting the Scout and things were pretty much back to normal And both of the boys that were involved in the incident managed to get along and both went on to become Eagles. This might be a pretty familiar story to a lot of you. You've probably encountered something like this If you've been around for enough years.

This is going to happen, And every so often we hear of some horrible, unspeakable tragedy that ends the life of a young person And in the aftermath we see signs that led to the tragedy and we just wonder why nobody noticed. It's not one of the best parts of being a Scout leader.

It's not one of the fun parts of being a Scout leader, But we have to notice these things sometimes And we have to know how to react and what to do. So I would suggest this to you. I found some good resources at the National Mental Health Information Center. It's a real good place to start And I've made up a fact sheet from their Child and Adolescent Mental Health section And as you read, you'll see that there are some warning signs listed and some of these are pretty common things that you see in adolescence. We pay attention because these signs may point to mental health disorders. It's not that each thing is a definitive indicator of a mental illness or a serious disorder, But every once in a while a young person needs a little help and they need to sit and talk and they need to work with a counselor.

I'm not a professional counselor. I'm not.

If you have a real nice pocket watch, you don't take the back off the watch and start messing around with the guts of the watch, because you know if you've tried that- I've tried that- you can- you can screw things up. It's very delicately balanced instrument and people's- people's minds- very delicately balanced instruments, and you got to know what you're doing.

So let me go into this fact sheet a little bit and just give you a little summary of it, And there'll be a link to it in the post that contains this podcast on the blog. One of the things that says it says this: like adults, children and adolescents can have mental health disorders that interfere with the way they think, feel and act. When untreated mental health disorders can lead to school failure, family conflicts, drug abuse, violence and even suicide.

Now listen, we're being realistic here, correct? I mean just because we see some things in adolescent boys that you know are a little outside the norm and are an expression of their journey into adulthood.

It doesn't necessarily mean that every single thing we see is a cause for concern, but there are signs, and when you see them in combinations or you have a sense that things aren't going well, it's a good idea to mention it, to talk, maybe have a little discussion with a set of parents and say: you know, I've noticed these things and and, and you've probably noticed them too. I just want to make sure that you know it's a it's an area of concern for me and whether or not there's anything I can do to help you with it. The resource that I'm offering you lists a number of signs. A child or adolescent might be troubled by feeling sad and hopeless for no reason, and those feelings don't go away. They may be very angry most of the time and crying a lot or overreacting to things. They may have feelings of worthlessness or guilt.

They may feel anxious or worried. Often They may be unable to get over the loss or death of somebody who was important to them. They may be extremely fearful or having unexplained fears. They may be constantly concerned about physical problems or their physical appearance. They may be frightened that their mind either is controlled or is out of control. The other area of concern is when a child or adolescent experiences big changes like showing declining performance at school or losing interest in things they once enjoyed, or experiencing unexplained changes in sleeping or eating patterns.

They may avoid friends or family and want to be alone all the time. They may be daydreaming too much and not completing tasks. They may be feeling life is too hard to handle.

Now, some of the things that I've just said. You're going to look at the adolescent that you're living with or the ones that you serve as a scout leader, and you're going to say, wow, you know, I see this one thing happening. It's really important that we understand that these are not single indicators of a profound mental health problem. Sometimes they're an expression of growing up. But a scout leader who's on their toes is going to watch for these things and is going to make sure that they bring them to the attention of the scout's parents if they raise to an inappropriate level and create a concern.

So what are we going to do? What are we going to do as scout leaders?

I mean, this is a pretty sobering subject, isn't it? Well, this is pretty sobering talk, isn't it? I mean, here we are. We're volunteer scout leaders. We're not professionals. We're there to have fun and make life good for the scouts that we serve, But we're all going to run into problems.

We're all going to see things that concern us. Now what do we do next?

Well, we need to raise those concerns. We need to be brave enough to talk about them, And we need to be brave enough to approach a set of parents about them. If they raise a major concern like this, It could be something that has a broad effect on a young person's life. It's definitely something for us to be aware of.

It's a skill set for us to develop so that we know how to address these things when they do arise.

This is Cliff Jacobson, and you're listening to the Scoutmaster podcast with Clarke Green, And now here's one of your phone calls. You, too, can pick up the phone and give us a call. Hi, this is Blaise Vitelli. I'm a Weebles leader who's about to become the scoutmaster of the newly reborn Troop 560 of Grantsburg, Wisconsin. I've truly enjoyed listening to each of your podcasts. As each topic is brought up, I tended to develop some fear about a problem I had not really understood.

However, by the end of the podcast I usually feel that I'll be able to handle that issue. Currently I'm trying to get my Weeble 02s to sign up for Boy Scout summer camp. I've run into some resistance from the parents who don't think their son can be away from mom for a week. I'd appreciate any advice related to how you encourage participation in Scout camp, how you deal with the parents and how you deal with homesick kids. Thanks again, bye, Hey Blaise, thanks for getting in touch. I'll tell you this is something that comes up every single year.

That's right. Right around this time of year we're signing boys up to go to summer camp, getting them committed to go, And they'll be these younger guys.

These guys probably just crossed over from Weeblows and just joined the Troop And I'll get a phone call or an email or I'll have mom kind of come up to me at a Scout meeting and say: I want to learn a little bit more about this whole summer camp thing. And I can see that their brow is furrowed with worry And they're not really worried about the boys. They say that they are, But I've learned to tell over the years they're more worried about how they're going to take having their son away for a week of time.

It's usually the first time that a Scout is going to be away for this long from home And moms worry about this- They really do- And it's something that we need to get in touch with. If you're not a mom, You need to know what they're concerned about And you need to really address those concerns.

Now listen, I think it's a great thing for boys to go to camp for a week. I know that usually they start off being a little miserable. Sometimes they get a little homesick, Sometimes they feel a little troubled about the experience, But usually within a couple of days everything straightens out and they do just fine. While mom's sitting at home and she's wondering if what he's eating, if anybody's asking him to take a shower once in a while, if he's putting on clean clothes, if he's feeling bad or homesick, whether she should maybe get in touch with him. It's a tough thing. What I recommend is directly addressing this and making sure that moms understand that the concerns that they have are important and that they will be met.

I found a real good article about this and there's a link to it in the post that contains this podcast And it says this in part. It says I found I was uncomfortable turning over full-time care of my son to people I didn't really know. I worried about whether he would like the food. I wondered who would make sure he had clean clothes, that he took a shower every day, what the other boys were going to treat him like, whether they were going to tease him.

What if he just didn't like camp? I told him that if he was unhappy he could call us and that we'd come and get him and that I would call him to see how he was doing. But it turned out that wouldn't work because the use of telephones was actively discouraged. She went on to say I actually cried when he left for camp And at home the house seemed very quiet and since we couldn't call, I wrote him lots of letters. The first letter we got back sounded miserable And I thought about going to get him and having to bring him home. But the next letter sounded like he was really having fun.

It's a tough thing for a mom to do Boys. It can be a little tough, but they'll get over it. Moms, this is a big deal.

We need to make sure that moms are reassured about this. It's very simple And you just need to have good, direct talk about it and not be one of those guys that says, hey, you know, oh, summer camp's really hard on a first year guy, but they get over it and they get tough and things like: no, no, Moms don't wanna hear that. What they wanna hear is all of their concerns will be addressed and that they'll probably make it through the week.

The mom will, you know, as well as the boy. There's a couple of things that you can do to make this happen. I have a couple of go-to people in the troop, go-to moms who, if I get serious concerns about summer camp, I will ask the mother who's talking to me to talk to one of them and kind of help them through the experience a little bit. It's also worth talking about in the materials that you distribute for summer camp, just as a reassurance that the boys are gonna be looked after, that there's medical staff there, that there's standards for hygiene and food and that somebody's looking after the boys. Because if mom's never been to scout camp before, she has no idea what the experience is gonna be like and you fear things that you don't know.

So getting to know about. It is a pretty important piece for any mother who's gonna be sending a younger scout off to camp for a week.

As far as dealing with boys who get homesick, well, I've got some references for that too and I'll have those linked on the blog post that contains the podcast, just to give a very quick review of it. Homesickness is for real.

It's very treatable and there are some measures that you can take before you go to camp to make sure that it's manageable for all of your scouts. Blaze. I really appreciate you getting in touch. It's a great question and you can call up with your questions, and what I wanna hear this week is I'd like you to call in and give me your favorite scout joke, because, if you haven't noticed, I'm kind of running out and you're gonna learn how to do that in a minute.