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My experience.

Hand in a plaster.

August Hermann Franckehuis in Rotterdam group Sibbe, the first residential group where I worked;
I worked together with my colleague Gerrit, who had a conflict upstairs on the bedroom floor with P, one of the boys. There was a lot of noise upstairs and R, one of P's group mates, wanted to go upstairs and help P. I went in front of the door to help. I stood in front of the dividing door and told R that he could not go upstairs and had to stay in the room. R disagreed and tried to push me aside so he could open the door and go upstairs. I remained calm in front of the door and kept repeating what I had said earlier. R began to become more impatient and the pushing was supplemented by hitting and kicking. I remained calm until the moment R gave me a painful kick in my crotch. In a reaction, I figured I should do something in return. Next to me a softboard was hanging on the wall and in a flash I punched it hard. So hard that we were both startled and R ran off to the living room. The rest of the situation was calm.
In the evening my hand began to ache and when I went to sleep (in the group) I put a bowl of water under my bed with a washcloth in it to cool my hand. Next morning, when I took the children to school, a colleague said to me that I had better go to the hospital. Reluctantly I got into the car and had my hand checked. The doctor told me that the side of my hand was shattered and that he had to put a cast on it. I explained to the doctor that this was not a good time for me because I had to pick up the children from school first. At the end of the afternoon I would then return to have my hand put in a cast. The doctor looked at me and in a flash he grabbed my hand and squeezed it several times very hard (afterwards he explained that he had straightened the bones). I moaned of pain and when the doctor asked me if I wanted to wait a while so they could put a plaster on it, I answered nodding and with tears in my eyes `yes`. Back at the group it was a big shock and together with Gerrit we explained the situation to the boys in such a way that they did not feel guilty.

This situation was used in the lesson `professional attitude` of the training `Social work`.

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