Less
Tallimba was designed as
a 'short-term intensive treatment centre for young male offenders',
reflecting newer ideas about juvenile justice and delinquency just
then coming into use.
Boys who were sent there were expected to take part in their own
psychological therapy, and to engage with staff and social workers.
It had an 'emphasis on parent participation', another indication of
changing ideas about delinquency in society and in the social work field.
In the words of the 1974 Annual Report of the Department of Youth
and Community Services, with the opening of Tallimba
:
'... a new concept in the residential care of delinquent
boys began. Tallimba was developed as a therapeutic community to provide
an intensive programme of relatively short duration for a maximum of
24 boys between the ages of 14 and 16 ... Tallimba community functions with a higher degree of democracy, communalism and confrontation.'
The 1977 Annual Report described the involvement of parents as being
required in Tallimba's programme:
'Tallimba is an open unit which has established a high degree of interaction
and trust. Part of the criteria for admission to Tallimba involves the
willingness of the parent or parents to participate in the general
programme so that intensive work can be undertaken with individual boys
and their families.'
Tallimba probably closed some time in the 1980s.
