Young Addaction Shropshire has become one of the region’s first services to agree on a way for young people to get support for their mental health and drug or alcohol use at the same time.
The agreement between the county’s drug and alcohol service and mental health service launched at the end of last week – in Mental Health Awareness Week.
Previously, if a young person had a mental health issue and a drug or alcohol issue – known as dual diagnosis – they were asked to stop using substances before they could get mental health support. Now, they’ll get mental health support and be linked in with Young Addaction to get drug or alcohol support – both at the same time.
Sonya Jones, Young Addaction Shropshire service manager, said: “This will make a huge difference to young people’s lives and it’s something that’s taken us years to achieve. Having a formal agreement to work together – joint assessments – recognises that young people do self-medicate to cope with mental health problems and need support for both at the same time. We’re very excited to work with our mental health colleagues so closely on this and hope it becomes a blueprint for how other services can achieve a similar joined up approach putting young people first.”
Shropshire is thought to be the first young people’s service in the region that has launched a formal joint working agreement like this.
According to Public Health England (2016) 44% of community mental health patients have reported substance misuse in the previous year. Research suggests up to 70% of people in drug services and 86% of alcohol service users experienced mental health problems.