Positive choices - Video and audio transcripts

so we'll move on to the next section now so we have uh

oh Amy Amy first me okay yeah you put your camera on you threw me I'm thinking but yeah thanks everyone so I'm Amy I'm a resilience worker I work at positive choices so today I'll tell you about the service they support and offer and how you can make a referral so if we're able to go to the next slide please thank you so we work with young people in the city from the age of five up to 24. we are confidential and we are voluntary so we don't make young people do anything that they don't want to do we offer support and guidance around substance use so whether that's the young person using substances themselves or if they are affected by a loved one's use and we work with young people around unhealthy partner relationships both online and in the community and sexual health so if we can get to the next slide please thank you so this shows the team structure everyone in the team has a specialist lead so that basically means that we do our best to identify the young person's needs at assessment and then allocate them a worker that is most appropriate and can offer the most appropriate level of support based on these needs and we try and kind of like buddy up and match as as close as we possibly can so that that young person gets the most useful beneficial support on offer I will also say that we have student placements so they'll be joining us again in September which is always great and we have volunteers too um okay thank you very much if we can go to the next slide thank you so this slide goes into a little bit more depth about the support that we offer though I will say it's not exhaustive so for example if a young person is using substances we would deliver harm reduction advice that's so that they know how to use the substance as safely as possible so it's not our job to tell people what to do young people do not like it they don't respond well to it whereas actually we want to make sure that they have all the information and they can then make that informed decision themselves we will always try and motivate and encourage them to maybe make behavioural changes using psychosocial interventions and where possible we'll also use relapse prevention to support with maintaining their goals hidden harm is working with young people whose family members use substances so we have a fabulous dedicated children and family team that deliver this specific intervention they work closely with the adult change go live service so that might include parents or carers um that you know making sure that they've got safe storage boxes so that young people can't access the substances especially if they're younger it's about making sure that young people can stay safe and importantly that they know that it's not their fault we aim to also increase young people's confidence in recognising signs of a healthy and an unhealthy partner relationship as i say whether that's online or in the community so online safety work is part of our offer as is essentially that like lower level exploitation work that's what we are commissioned to deliver with regards to sexual health support it is about kind of being able to recognise potential signs and symptoms of STIs or even being knowledgeable around the fact that not all STIs show signs or symptoms uh it's also about being able to be aware of the different contraceptive methods the pros the cons of each one and how effective they are and how to use them most appropriately but it's also about developing understanding of feeling ready to engage in stages of sexual intimacy um and really being able to even understand consent uh and where to go actually if you know a young person has experienced something non-consensual if we can go to the next slide please thank you so with regards to parent carer support our children and family team run a program for parents it's peer-led uh so we are in a position where we can offer support to the family and therefore work holistically and not just with the young people the program utilises the Solihull approach and it's focused on communication reciprocity it's very strengths-based and I've got to say we've had really great feedback about the programme it will be running again in September and it's for parents or carers of young people are accessing the service and and getting that support uh if we can get to the next slide please i will say as well we have an allotment it's on Radford road by the Aldi it's been an amazing place for young people to be able to get involved in activities that they might not usually do so they can build plant paint or even just sit in a hammock chill practice mindfulness and we've had really positive feedback especially from young people that are maybe a little bit more difficult or challenging to engage they maybe actually really enjoy getting outdoors rather than being in maybe a more clinical environment they've definitely kind of said that it's helped them feel more relaxed they feel far more able to kind of open up and share experiences um and we are starting research with Coventry university later this month so that we can hopefully show how beneficial ecotherapy is for young people's emotional well-being which I'm very excited about if you can get to the next slide thank you i won't spend too long on this however with regards to trends we have noticed since the lockdown that we've seen a deterioration in mental health uh we've seen more problematic alcohol and cocaine use we've seen an increase in nitrous oxide so there's little canisters floating around we've seen an increase in self-medicating with over-the-counter and prescribed medication and quite often this substance use is as a result of poor mental health and it being used as a coping strategy we've also seen a massive rise in young people sharing youth produced explicit images these being shared being bullied as a result and the implications that this has on self-esteem their desire to go to school and very much that kind of knock-on effect so it's definitely something that's really important for us to advise kind of professionals to be aware of so that we can kind of try and get that support as as quickly as possible and i will say that we offer training on the various strands that we deliver and the training is free so if there's anything that in your team uh you want to know more about i definitely encourage you to get in contact and we'll certainly see what we could do to up skill and help support there and if we can go to the next one thank you I appreciate this is the long list and I have very briefly talked about quite a few things but if i can just highlight that we also have a peer mentor scheme for young people that have access to service and and they maybe want to stay involved and support other young people and it's it's been a really brilliant experience and young people have definitely found it to be quite empowering being able to stay involved and kind of champion the service and champion other young people we also have boxing sessions and other positive diversionary activities that you know can keep young people safe keep them engaged and hopefully improve emotional well-being and disrupt any potential exploitation concerns

thank you so the important bit is how to refer so the speediest and most secure way to make a referral is on our web page you can literally type in positive choices Coventry or in any of our email signatures there's a link there as well so we've tried to make it as fast as we possibly can we ask that if a young person is below the age of 13 we do need parents to consent over the age of 13 we don't need parents consent however

if if they're open to it it is beneficial just means that we can kind of again work holistically and make sure that everyone is aware of um kind of how we can support one another we always ask that the young person is aware of and consents to the referral being made it can make things very challenging if the young person isn't aware to the point that we won't necessarily accept it because it's their consent that is the important thing that we need to remember here and I would always say if you want to discuss a referral beforehand it's okay you can ship it to the next song so if you want to discuss a referral beforehand you can contact us with all these details um I would encourage the email address controlyp.info cgl.org.uk um or a phone number that doesn't seem to be on this slide which is 024 7655 3130

and I would just say in terms of how and where we work with young people it's very much led by them so we meet them where they feel most comfortable that could be at school college at our office in town a family hub at the allotment we've had walks and talks around various parks, uh I will say whilst we will do home visits we do try and discourage this because we find it can be really good for young people to change their environment and maybe not worry about people being able to listen in and we have also noticed that some young people do prefer to continue working digitally over social media teams zoom email so we try and be as flexible and creative as we can to suit the needs of that young person so if you know how that young person likes to work and where they want to be met if you can include as much information as possible on the referral that is always really beneficial for us and I think that is me speedy done thank you very much.