Teen takes up healthy alternatives to substance use

Overview

14 year old Chloe* is a very vulnerable teenager who finds it difficult to share her feelings and turned to self-harm, drugs and alcohol, leaving her mum struggling to cope.

Chloe often feels distressed by unsafe interactions online and there are concerns that she is in danger of being groomed by criminal predators. She is being educated in a pupil referral unit and is not able to keep up her attendance, even with a reduced timetabled provision.

Response

A social services multi-agency meeting was organised to share intelligence and develop a joined up response, which was attended by youth mentors from Alchemy Youth, a service for young people in Sefton run by charity Parenting 2000.

Having established that Chloe responds best to a non-clinical, person-centred approach, the youth mentors set out to maximise her engagement with fun interactive sessions and activities. They arranged to go out to eat together with Chloe, and she has attended outdoor Coastal Therapeutic Walk and Talk sessions, Stress Busting Creative Arts and Crafts sessions and other diversionary activities such as a trip to the trampoline centre and a CV workshop. Chloe has also been attending Alchemy Youth Club where she has started to make new friends and open up more.

The mentors have also helped her tackle some of the unhealthy or dangerous behaviours by educating her on keeping safe while using social media, helping her find healthier alternatives to drugs through a drug awareness session.

Outcomes

Through her engagement with the youth mentors, Chloe has reduced some of her negative behaviour by giving up bottles of alcohol to be disposed of, reducing self-harming, and learning to open up and ask for help when she needs it.

She has been given a quiet space and a laptop to do homework at the Alchemy Youth Centre, and her school attendance has started to improve.

 *Name changed for anonymity