STAGE 4: Parent seeks intervention strategies

STAGE 4: Parent seeks intervention strategies

At this stage when a parent (s) begins to feel that attempting to manage their teen’s crisis on their own isn’t working or sustainable they try to find help.

This can be a needle in a haystack proposition as parents may need to contact many different agencies, professionals and organisations trying to navigate a maze of medical, mental health, and youth service organisations.

As a parent or carer you will want help that is appropriate for the style of family living situation and relationship which you and your young person share.

This is where it’s important to note that the profile for what was previously thought of as a “typical family” has undergone significant changes in the last few decades. Today, young people grow up in a variety of family types, including:

• Traditional ‘nuclear’ families (married father & mother and their children)

• Blended or step-families – a coupled family with children who may be the biological children of the couple, as well as children from previous relationships (this includes heterosexual and same-sex couples)

• Single-parent families – with either mother or father as primary carer

• Extended families – a family group consisting of the parent(s) and children, as well as grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, other relatives or kin

Young Indigenous people are less likely to live in two-parent families, more likely to live in single- parent families, and are more likely to live with extended family. Grandparents are likely to play a significant role in bringing up children and young people in Indigenous families.

Many young people also live in non-parental care or shared care arrangements, where the biological parents are unable to care for their children. Carers may include grandparents, foster parents, adoptive parents or other family members.

Engaging and working with the family of a young person is a vital part of early intervention and treatment approaches – especially with young people experiencing mental health, substance use or other psychosocial problems. When meeting with a professional or service provider you and or your young person may feel anxious, vulnerable, impatient for answers and overwhelmed.

As a consumer you are well advised to look closely at whether the care you and your young person receive includes the following perspectives. When meeting with the provider, remember that everyone has:

• The need to be heard and understood. Ask yourself if the person you’re talking to listens to your concerns and acknowledges that they have heard and understand your perspective.

• The need to not be blamed. Family members need to be able to discuss the factors involved in causing or maintaining the young person’s difficulties without feeling at fault.

• The need to be included. Does the service provider seek to engage family members as partners in a collaborative approach to the care of the young person?

• The need for information. Depending on the young person’s age and what you has been negotiated with their consent in regard to sharing information- does the service provider offer the family with information about the young person’s concerns? Have they clearly discussed possible treatment approaches and the role of the parents or carers and family members in supporting the young person and any treatment plans?

If your young person becomes involved with the juvenile justice system for the first time, it can be critical to feel prepared for encounters with authority figures. A good overview of young people and youth issues can be found on the NSW Police Force website.

For more information:

What Happens to Young Offenders After They Are Charged?

OR for information and help with what to expect in family court visit Legal Aid NSW.

For more resources explaining organisations that can help support parents listed by category, please see our resources page.