Case Studies

Young Addaction Derby help young people up to 18 who are experiencing problems with drugs and alcohol. They also offer a unique ‘transition’ service for young adults aged 18-24 who require support for any kind of drug use, and for whom adult services may not be appropriate. It is the latter service that this case study focuses on.

Young Addaction Derby is very much a holistic service. With each new referral, the Addaction project workers will devise an individual treatment plan that looks at the major substance misuse problem, but also explores all the other issues that might be happening in that person’s life. The treatment (or care) plan is designed to help the young adult address problematic issues in their life and ultimately change their drug/alcohol using behaviour.

Project workers provide young adults with information on drugs and alcohol, but they also focus on building self-esteem, confidence, family relationships, physical and mental health, fitness and general wellbeing. They do not have a set pattern in the way they engage and work with a young adult. It is very much dependent on the individual person, and is identified through an assessment of their needs.

“If [a young adult] is at uni doing a degree, they’ve got a supportive family, and so have a variety of factors that mean that they have developed a strong resilience to issues they might face in their lives, but perhaps had begun to develop issues with alcohol or started using cocaine and it was getting out of hand. They might need to talk to someone about the triggers for alcohol and cocaine use and ways of controlling or stopping their use. So that’s what we would do for that young person. But say for someone who had just come out of care, poly-substance user, got learning difficulties, the worker would work with them in a very different way. It’s based on their individual needs.” (Project development manager)

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Within Addaction as a whole, certain services (Liverpool, Derby, and also Lancashire) were noticing that the support package being provided was not meeting the needs of 18-25 year-olds. These young adults were indicating that they did not feel the adult drug services were appropriate for them. They did not identify with the older service users, who had crack or heroin addictions, and felt their lives and their drug-using behaviour were very different.

As a result, young adults were either not arriving at adult services or they would go briefly but drop away soon after. Research conducted by Liverpool John Moores University exploring the needs and perceptions of drug users in the 18-25 age range, and a needs assessment conducted in Derby confirmed this.

The need for the service was also underlined by the concern of mixing young adults, who often have lower levels of drug use or use less serious drugs (i.e. cannabis and powder cocaine), with older adults, who are likely to have more serious and long-term drug problems.Young adults were therefore at greater risk of both upgrading to more serious opiate usage and subsequently getting involved in crime, or alternatively, feeling their problem was not serious enough and that they were not receiving the same level of support.

“If you imagine, a young person who’s been using cannabis really problematically, they’re going to a young person’s service where the majority of people there will include cannabis users. They then go on to an adult service where the majority of people there will be heroin and crack users, and there’s a waiting list, and they’re never seen as a priority. They will always drop to the bottom of the list. The young people are made to feel that their issue isn’t really that big a deal. It then undermines the young person’s experience and makes them think either, ‘oh I don’t really have a problem’ or ‘you don’t understand my issues’.” (Project Development Manager)

Young Addaction Derby is part funded by the Barrow Cadbury Trust and part funded by the Community Safety Partnership. Funding was originally for one year, but has since led on to a second year. The service is reviewed on a yearly basis for funding purposes, and is linked to meeting targets such as, numbers accessing the service, retention and outcomes from treatment.

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Referrals can come through a range of sources. A common referral route is through the courts, as part of court orders. Other referral methods are GPs and also self-referrals. In many cases, young adults simply move directly on from the under 18s service, often working with the same team they had in the children and young people’s service. There is also a preventative focus to Young Addaction Derby. Project staff will often target local colleges, universities and housing providers to access young adults who may be at risk of problematic drug use.

There are six project workers at Young Addaction Derby, three of which work with the young adults group. Caseloads are between 15- 20 young people per project worker. This is half the caseload of adult services project workers, but reflects the much higher level of support.

“It’s much more intensive support. Workers have much lower caseloads than they would have in adult services, meaning that all the time spent on the holistic needs that that young person might have is much greater... if you are perhaps only seeing them once a month, how are you helping them with their issues?” (Project development manager)

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Adult drug services tend to treat the individual, exploring primarily the drug and/or alcohol misuse problem.Young Addaction Derby, however, offer a holistic service, which supports the young adult in all aspects of their life. Below are some of the innovative ways Young Addaction Derby work with young adults.

Flexible working:

The transitions service is based around the model of a young people’s service, where flexible working is at the heart of what they do. The project workers give as much time as they can to each young adult they work with, often adapting their schedules to accommodate them.

“The service is much more flexible in terms of appointment times if someone doesn’t turn up. In an adult service, where people have huge caseloads, they’re not able to be as flexible with appointment times. [Our] workers are able to go and meet the young adult wherever they are, and again that’s different to adult services because again they’re not able to afford that.” (Project development manager)

“...sometimes I’d have a relapse and I’d disappear for two weeks and I’d see [the project workers’] calls on my phone and I’d just ignore them. But whenever I was ready to go back and see her she was never like, ‘oh well you’ve missed the last three sessions, I’m not gonna see you now’. It was always, ‘OK, well let’s rebuild what we’ve lost on’. I thought like after I’d dogged her off like three sessions and that, I thought, she’s not gonna want to know me now. But it totally wasn’t like that. She just gave me the space and the time I needed.” (Matt, 23)

Finding innovative ways to work with young adults:

Project workers emphasise the importance of strong relationships between themselves and the young people they work with. They use activities, such as ‘box-fit’ to help the young person build relationships with the worker and move the focus away solely from their drug/alcohol misuse.

Providing advocacy and practical support:

The Derby project workers offer young adults practical support to help them organise their lives. This might be accompanying them to other appointments, advocating on their behalf or informing them about their legal issues
and rights.

“[Project workers] can actually support the young person to make sure they are getting the right help, and that they’re not being fobbed off by services. Or to stop them getting really, really frustrated and then just giving up.” (Project development manager)

Linking young adults up with other services:

Project workers will also find ways to link the young adult in with other services they may need, including: housing; education; benefits; health services; young parent services; YOTs and probation etc.

Being aware of the young adults’ support networks (or lack of): Young Addaction recognise the importance of wider support networks in a person’s recovery.As part of the holistic service, project workers will explore the young adult’s support networks outside the service. This will often influence the level and intensity of support provided.

“... it’s not like they’ve necessarily had that guidance [that a parent offers]. Whereas [most young adults] can ring a parent or a family member and say ‘I need help’, or ‘can you help me out financially’, they wouldn’t have someone to help them like that. Even sometimes if they’re living with their family, if their parents are substance misusers themselves, the level of support they are going to get is minimal. It’s about being aware of the environment they’ve grown up in.” (Project development manager)

Linking in with families: Project officers will also explore the young adult’s family situation, to better understand how those relationships affect the drug use behaviour of that person.

“As part of the service, they have a ‘Breaking the Cycle’ co- ordinator, who works with parents who have substance misuse issues. Some young adults coming through, they might actually be parents themselves or have parents that are using substances. So again it’s about doing work around other areas of their lives...” (Project development manager)

Helping young adults develop life skills:

In addition, the service also aims to support young adults in developing their life skills, for example, budgeting, time-keeping, dealing with conflict, anger management and understanding the importance of working and living with rules and procedures. Skills felt to be key to helping young people grow up and integrate back into the society from which they have been isolated.

Building confidence and self-esteem:

And finally, underpinning the practical support offered by the service is a continual process of empowering young adults, and building up their confidence and self-belief. Many of the young adults accessing Young Addaction suffer from very low self-esteem. Their drug/alcohol behaviour is often a direct result of this. The project workers therefore work on overcoming these barriers in order to help young adults make real and lasting change.

“She definitely helped me to build my confidence back up. I got to a stage where I felt like, because I had been out of work for so long, I was never gonna get another job again. And I’d messed up jobs before. I dug myself that deep. She definitely gave me the confidence and the boost to say, ‘no I am capable’. She made me feel intelligent again, and find things in myself thathadgone.” (Matt,23)

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• It is hoped that the service will develop assessment tools to compare 18-25 year-olds who are in other drugs services with those that are in the young adult service, to underline the positive impact the tailored service has on young adults.
• Ultimately, the goal is to have a dedicated funding stream for the transition service, where funds are directly diverted in to the young adult model and are not part of the wider adult services.

Young Addaction Liverpool: Transitions Service

Addaction have another transitions service for 18-24s based in Liverpool. The Liverpool service started in 2006, and is funded solely by the local Drug and Alcohol Action Team (DAAT).

For more information, telephone: 08000 196 197

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