Service outline
Assessment, consultation and training
We provide specialist community forensic mental health services for young people. The service is designed to help meet the needs of those young people who present a significant risk of harm to others in the context of complex mental health difficulties.
Young people referred to the service are frequently both vulnerable and challenging. They typically present with severe psychosocial problems, are often difficult to engage and are either currently involved with the criminal justice system or are at risk of being so in the future. Their forensic or ‘high-risk’ behaviours are likely to include aggression and violence towards others, sexually harmful behaviour, fire setting and/or harming themselves.
Our service has considerable expertise in forensic adolescent mental health and offers multidisciplinary holistic assessments of young people to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, youth offending teams, local authorities and other agencies involved in youth justice. We understand the complex and high risk nature of the referrals and aim to deliver timely and flexible responses, including home and community assessments where appropriate. However, where there are acute mental health concerns these would need to be addressed by relevant local mental health services prior to any involvement from Youth FIRST.
In addition to conducting comprehensive assessments we aim to help services manage the risks young people present to others by assisting them in developing suitable care pathways. We can support referrers through a range of bespoke training packages and ongoing consultation/liaison arrangements as appropriate. We also recognise that there is sometimes a need for community forensic services to provide direct input with young people and their families. At present Youth FIRST do not provide direct interventions with young people, however, we recognise the need to further develop this aspect of the service.
Medico-legal services
Youth FIRST is able to provide a range of psychiatric and psychological opinions and reports for the purposes of court proceedings. Please contact us if you would like to discuss your request further.
