Youth Access

Member profile: 42nd St, Manchester

10 February, 2009

Read a profile of this outstanding Youth Access member:

The 42nd St mission

Since 1980 42nd Street has been providing services to young people under stress in:

• Manchester
• Salford
• Trafford
• And some projects have a national reach.

One of the founding principles is the belief that a range of different approaches can be effective in responding to young people's mental health needs and this is reflected in the breadth of services offered, including:

• Psychotherapy
• Counselling
• individual support
• a wide range of other youth work interventions
• a new volunteer programme for young people.

In numbers:

42nd Street receives some 700 new referrals a year and in an average quarter:

• Delivers 7 different weekly groups attended by over 50 young people
• Provides individual counselling and support to over 240 young people
• Provides ongoing online support to 19 young people with over 300 contact sessions

Increasing access: working in partnership

42nd Street strives to be community based – providing multiple access routes for young people. On average 35% of referrals are from young people themselves and individual support and counselling are provided in around six high schools a week. Groups run in partnership with Youth Services and other voluntary sector organisations mean that young people who would not easily access traditional mental health services are able to benefit from mental health initiatives and direct support.

Therapeutic work – a wide variety of approaches

The Counselling and Therapy Team incorporates practitioners from a variety of modalities including Person Centred, Gestalt, Drama & Play Therapy and Psycho-dynamic.

Long term therapy where it’s needed

While there is a pressure to offer short term interventions the team have continued to provide long term therapy to many young people in recognition of the need for sustained therapeutic work where young people have complex needs.

Talking about what they valued about therapy one young person summed up the importance of the insight and strength they gained:

“Coming to terms with my problems here as I can think about them in a different way- I can’t go round problems: here I go through them.”

Groupwork is key

Groupwork has continued to be very much central to the range of services available to young people. This reflects the benefit young people can experience in meeting, sharing and working with their peers – sometimes in relation to particular issues and sometimes in a group where there is a shared identity such as recent group work with disabled young people and LGBT young people. Feedback from young women involved in the weekly Under 18s Women’s Group points to the importance of this peer support in tackling stigma and isolation:

“Since I started at the group I have gained many things. The most important achievements gained from the group are confidence, self-worth and family... If it wasn’t for 42nd Street’s under 18s Women’s Group I don’t think I would be the person I am today and I would [not] have done all the things I have done."

Self harm: pioneering, nationally recognised work

42nd Street has developed a national reputation for its work in the area of self-harm. The two published books, ‘Who’s Hurting Who?’ (Spandler, 1996) and ‘Beyond Fear and Control’ (Spandler & Warner, 2007) have contributed to practice and debate in this area.December 2008 saw the launch of a major new resource for young people affected by self harm. Developed in partnership with YouthNet and DePaul UK, this online service provides fact sheets, a moderated discussion board and an individual question and answer service. The resource can be accessed at www.thesite.org.uk.

Youth Access membership: essential

Sharing and learning from the experience of other youth information and counselling services is invaluable and the Youth Access information bulletins, research studies and information service has provided this opportunity. Staff have benefited from the training programme and Youth Access has offered a mechanism for the sector to have a collective voice in a changing and challenging social policy climate.

The challenges

42nd Street faces many of the same challenges that are common to other voluntary sector mental health providers

• sustaining services in a harsh funding climate
• evidencing impact
• retaining experienced staff
• keeping the voice of young people at the heart of what we do.

A balancing act

42nd St’s former Chair, John Shiers highlights the challenge of balancing the requirements of funders with the needs of young people, and the service delivery role with the campaigning spirit:

“The challenge is to develop services from the bottom up rather than the top down through listening and responding to the experience of children and young people. 42nd Street and other organisations rooted in the community and voluntary sector have an important role to play not just in delivering commissioned services, but as a genuine partner in shaping children and young people’s services for the future.”

Visit 42nd Street’s website

Look at 42nd St’s online self harm resource

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