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Working with young people: A profile of projects funded by the Partnership Drugs Initiative
Appendix A
Inverclyde: The Indie Project
The project's main focus is making contact with young people who are experiencing substance misuse problems or who are at high risk of developing such problems. When contact is established, the staff team work to divert the client from involvement with drugs and other risky activities in a variety of ways. Both individual and family support is offered as well as information and advice.
October 2002
The project comprises five staff who come from a range of backgrounds. The project manager is an experienced social worker and two of the staff are qualified community education workers specialising in youth work. Another member of the team has a background in residential social work and the fifth member of staff is a trained nurse. The PDI funds two of the posts, the other three are secondments from the local authority.
The project is based at Boglestone Health Centre, Port Glasgow, but offers services across Inverclyde.
The project offers its services at the Health Centre in Boglestone, in schools and in the community.
Young people who are experiencing substance misuse problems or who are at high risk of developing such problems.
The age profile of the clients is illustrated in Figure 1.
Figure 1
The gender profile of the clients is as follows:-
The project staff utilises the Local Option Boxes on the SMR 24 forms and we have included this information where possible. Out of the 43 clients whose Local Option Boxes have been completed eight have a parent misusing drugs and six have both parents misusing drugs. One client lives with a lone parent who is misusing drugs and with siblings one of whom is also misusing drugs. Twenty-eight clients have had their cases closed, while 32 are still in contact with the project.
Following referral, young people are taken through an assessment procedure. If the young person is agreeable, the referrer is included in this meeting, which is held whenever possible within one week of the referral. Staff record details of each contact they make with clients and there is a review process with individual young people. The project uses a range of assessment tools including the EuroAdad. It has also looked at a number of other tools including CGAS, Columbia, YLS and POSIT and is trying to amend these to develop an instrument which will work for the project.
The project is involved in a wide range of activities including outreach work, individual support, family support, information and advice, drop-ins at children's units, awareness sessions in schools, involvement in a young person's advisory forum and attendance at local events such as health fairs. A Peer Education Programme was launched in July and is being developed further to include a programme for parents as well as young people.
The project works mainly with 14-18 year olds and clients can be recruited via telephone, thus enabling self-referral. Other routes of referral include; Social Work, Children's Units, New Community Schools and SNIPS (Special Needs in Pregnancy). As of 12 September there had been 60 referrals to the project since its inception in October 2002. The pattern of referrals is illustrated in the Figure 2.
Figure 2
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