When a child is in crisis, there is rarely a simple solution.
Emotions are high. A child may be overwhelmed, frustrated, scared, or unable to communicate what they need in that moment. For the adults supporting them, the focus is always safety. But how we respond to that crisis matters, too.
At Alexander Youth Network’s Facility Based Crisis Center in Greensboro, our Program Manager Patrick Brown, has seen firsthand how introducing Ukeru has given staff and clients another way to navigate those difficult moments.
For Patrick and his team, Ukeru is not just about introducing a new tool. It is about expanding the ways staff can respond when a child is struggling.
So, What Is Ukeru?
Ukeru is a trauma-informed approach focused on creating safer, more supportive responses to crisis while reducing the need for restrictive interventions.
One of the tools used in this approach is the Ukeru pad. These large, soft pads give children a safe physical outlet when their emotions feel too big to manage.
That might mean holding onto a pad, lying on it, throwing it, or hitting it to safely release frustration.
For someone unfamiliar with Ukeru, that may sound simple. But in the middle of a crisis, having a safe way to release emotion can make a meaningful difference.
The pads are not meant to replace support from trained staff. Instead, they add another option. While a child is using the pads, staff remain present, providing reassurance, emotional support, and guidance to help them work through the moment.
Because children do not all regulate in the same way.
Some may need quiet. Others may need to talk. Some may need space, movement, or a physical outlet. Ukeru recognizes that there can be more than one path to helping a child regain control.
Adding Another Tool to the Toolbox
Before Ukeru was introduced at the Facility Based Crisis Center, staff primarily relied on verbal de-escalation and individualized coping skills as less restrictive ways to help children during a crisis.
Those tools continue to play an important role.
But when a child was unable to regain control and became a danger to themselves or others, more restrictive interventions could become necessary to maintain safety.
Ukeru added another layer of support.
Patrick and his team began to see that many of the children they serve could use the pads to safely release frustration and begin calming themselves. Children may hold them, lie on them, throw them, or hit them. What looks different from child to child can serve the same purpose: providing a safe outlet during an overwhelming moment.
Rather than immediately moving toward a restrictive intervention, staff have another tool to help support the child through the crisis.
The Clients Helped Make Ukeru Their Own
When Ukeru was introduced, the pads did not stay plain for long.
Clients and staff decorated them, adding color and personality to the unit. The pads became part of the environment, helping create a space that feels more welcoming for current clients, future clients, staff, and visitors.
And that creativity has continued.
To this day, clients and staff still enjoy decorating and redecorating the pads. It has become one more way to make the environment feel welcoming while maintaining a visually and physically safe space.
The Pad Is Only One Part of the Approach
A Ukeru pad is a tool. The real impact comes from what happens around it.
When a child is in distress, staff provide immediate support and emotional first aid. As the child begins to regulate, that support can open the door to something just as important as getting through the immediate crisis: connection.
Staff can begin rebuilding rapport, helping the child process what happened and supporting them as they work toward returning to their baseline.
For Patrick, that added layer of support is one of the most meaningful parts of Ukeru.
The goal is not simply to stop a behavior. It is to help the child move through the moment safely while maintaining their dignity and creating an opportunity to reconnect.
More Than One Way to Respond
Patrick hopes parents, guardians, and members of the community understand that there is more than one way to respond when a child is struggling.
Supporting children through unsafe or challenging behaviors takes consistency, patience, and sometimes creative thinking. It requires adults to look beyond the behavior itself and consider what may be happening underneath it.
Ukeru has helped the Facility Based Crisis Center add another option to that toolbox.
It does not mean every crisis will look the same, and it does not mean one tool will work for every child.
It means there is another way to approach the moment.
A Different Response Can Create a Different Outcome
Ukeru is not about ignoring unsafe behavior or lowering expectations.
Safety still matters. Accountability still matters.
But how we respond can make a difference.
Sometimes that support looks like a conversation.
Sometimes it looks like giving a child space.
And sometimes, it means giving them a safe way to release what they are feeling while someone stays close enough to support them through it.
Because when we create safer responses, we create more opportunities for children to regain control, reconnect, and move forward.
Patrick Brown, MSW, LCSW-A
Program Manager, Facility Based Crisis Center
Alexander Youth Network, Greensboro
Written By Shay Woodard
