Listen Up - Social Welfare Portal

listenup!36 | Chapter 5Case StudyThe Youth Employment Project wasdesigned to support young people aged16 to 25 experiencing mental healthproblems, into education, training oremployment. This included support in lifeskills and therapeutic input where required.“We believe in having services that focus onemployment, housing, education, and thatincludes personal development programmesand access to support and counselling.”Project worker, Community Links,Canning TownPractical support can also take the form of directingor signposting young people to other appropriateagencies that can support them. The services didthis verbally, via leaflets and written information orby providing access to phones. Young people acrossthe organisations emphasised how valuable thisinformation could be in meeting the full spectrumof their needs and how much they valued theknowledge of staff at the services.Complementary therapiesTwo of the organisations involved in the project,Sorted Not Screwed Up, Aberdeen Foyer, Aberdeenand Support @ the Junction, The Junction, Colchester,took up the specific call from Youth Crisis I forchoice to be opened out to include complementarytherapies (see the wish list for services in Appendix 1).In addition, staff at Streetwise, Newcastle were, at thetime of going to press, receiving training in auricular(ear) acupuncture with the view to offering this toyoung people in the near future.“It is important to be flexible and take risks intrying out new ideas, such as yoga groups, whilstalso evaluating all new practice to ensure that it iseffective.”Project worker, Support @ The Junction,The Junction, ColchesterFunding from the Mental Health Foundation wasused by Aberdeen to fund a range of therapiessuch as shiatsu, Reiki, Indian head massage andacupuncture. These were found to be very popularand not only helped in times of crisis but acted as aform of early intervention too:“these are… offered to clients at any stage of theirstay. This service can be used when young peopledetect early warning signs of/or to reduce furtherdeterioration.”Project worker, Sorted Not Screwed Up,Aberdeen Foyer, AberdeenThese complementary therapies were providedso that young people could have a choice, andeither opt for something less conventional than, forinstance, counselling, or have the complementarytherapies in addition to more conventional therapies.Young people explained that having different typesof support brought them into contact with morepeople, helped them to form relationships and buildtrust, and provided them with a wider range ofsupport mechanisms.