Listen Up - Social Welfare Portal

listenup!34 | Chapter 5Delivering a successful service:Providing choiceChoice is at the core of the person-centred and holistic services offered bythe eight organisations involved in this project; a young person should beable to choose not only the type of care and support they receive but alsohis or her keyworker.Choice of care and supportThe organisations in the project offered a very widerange of choice in terms of the type of care andsupport offered. Below are some examples of thetypes of support offered. This is not a definitive listbut gives the main areas.Drop-ins, one-to-one support, therapies andgroup workFive of the organisations offered a formal dropinwhereby young people could turn up withoutappointments and be provided with emotionaland/or practical support.“The drop-in service supports clients with complexneeds and experiencing crisis and where maintainingregular appointments can be difficult. This facilityis regarded to be equally as valuable as the moreformal appointment-based counselling service.”Project worker, The Market Place, Leeds“I’ve been advised and guided and it’s been brilliant,and when I found out there was a drop-in servicethat was an added bonus.”Young personOne-to-one support is offered to young people byall the partner sites. This support may include helpwith life skills, discussing care options such as groupwork and counselling, looking at certain situationsand how the young person can cope with those, anddiscussing progress with the young person. There isnot a fixed format and the sessions will be guided bythe young person and the staff member.Talking therapy was offered by all the services in thisproject. Most offered counselling, and Aberdeen Foyeroffered cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). As wellas being offered on the premises, some organisationswere able to offer counselling in young people’s homes,another suitable environment or within schools.Case StudyStreetwise in Newcastle offers counsellingin two large secondary schools, open toany young person aged 13 or above. This isfunded by Connexions, the national servicefor young people aged 13-19. Sessions,lasting between 50 minutes and an hour,take place on school premises in term-timeand on Streetwise premises out of termtime. Since September 2004, over 1,100sessions have been offered.Referrals are made by school staff, parents,GPs, social services, child and adolescentmental health services (CAMHS). Youngpeople can also refer themselves. The mainissues arising are bullying, alcohol andrelationships.