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PROJECTS  AND  FUNDERS

 SUICIDE PREVENTION PROGRAMME AND YOUTHLINE 24/7 TELEPHONE COUNSELLING SERVICE

This service has developed significantly over the last year while we always offered services to those young people most vulnerable and at risk from suicide funding from the “protect life strategy” and N&WH&SST has allowed us to develop this work in partnership with Opportunity Youth to offer a rapid response service of counselling or mentoring within 24 hours from initial contact with the 24/7 helpline.  This means young people at risk have an immediate point of contact with swift referral into services either counselling or mentoring or on to statutory services.  Our telephone helpline Youthline continues to operate staffed by clinical placement volunteers from 4-9 pm every evening but now it also operates 24/7 to address the needs of the most vulnerable and suicidal clients also. It is a free phone number 08088088000, which is widely publicised through posters and leaflets.  It allows young people in crisis to access a counsellor immediately as well as allowing the facility for young people from rural areas or with difficulty with mobility or safety to have a weekly appointment with a counsellor by phone.  This service operates throughout all holiday periods including Christmas day.  Because of the high risk levels of some of the clients presenting to the helpline we work very closely with CAMHS teams and other statutory providers including out of hours GP,Social Services and A&E departments.

A specialist project working with young people affected by sexual identity issues and at risk of suicide has been developed in the NH&SSB area as a pilot, clients can access counselling and support through a secure website page as well as parental support and groupwork for parents and teachers.

This work is funded by N&WH&SST, DHSS&PS, Big Lottery and Investing for Health as well as NH&SSB.

 

CHILL SERVICE

This service operates in the Eastern Health Board and the Southern Health Board.  We work in partnership with Opportunity Youth to provide counselling, mentoring and group work to young people aged 8-17 who are directly or indirectly affected by substance misuse.  The partnership allows a diverse range of services to be delivered in a flexible way to engage with this often hard to reach target group.  Viewing the young person in a holistic way and responding to their own specific individual needs allows a very tailored package of treatment.  This project works closely with CAT teams , CAMHS teams and statutory service providers.

This work is funded by EDACT & SDACT

 

CREATIVE THERAPY SERVICE

 This service is currently in its developmental phase and will be linked in to our schools work but we are looking at ways in which a creative therapy team could be deployed throughout our project portfolio.

This work is primarily funded through DE and Charged to other projects as and when required.

 

REGIONAL COUNSELLING SERVICE

 All our other counselling services are delivered through what we describe as a community development model of therapeutic counselling.  We recognise that most young people in need will never make it to our building or service.  Therefore in an attempt to reach out to those young people in the most deprived, conflicted and difficult situations we partner with a local group to deliver professional youth counselling from their site.  This allows us to normalise counselling and to bring it right to those who need it most.  We select the groups carefully to ensure they fit with our youth centred ethos and we do not work with those who do not.  Through this model we have been able to place counsellors in Schools, Youth Groups, Voluntary Organisations, Health Projects and Community Organisations thus making therapeutic counselling more accessible.  The other advantage is we can be responsive if there is an incident in an area or a short term pressing need we can place a counsellor there until the crisis passes and there is no longer a need then we can move our services on.

This work is funded through a variety of Health& Social Services Trusts, Investing for Health and the Executive Programme Funds.

 

SCHOOLS COUNSELLING PROGRAMME

In September 2006 we were commissioned by the Department of Education to provide counselling services to all 230 post primary schools in NI this is a very exciting development and allows us to reach out to the majority of young people in NI who can access an independent counsellor in their school.

This work is funded by the Department of Education

 

Our core funders YCNI and CRC support us to ensure counselling services are offered to all youth work providers as well as victims and survivors throughout NI who fall within our age category.