Opening Doors

Submitted by JMB on Fri 03/Jul/2009

I’m in the wrong game; I should have been a web designer.

Opening Doors Bristol

Herewith, yet another web site promoting a vaguely worthy intervention by a partnership of local authority and government funded organisations:

Opening Doors is the new umbrella name for specialist substance misuse services for young people in Bristol.

It is part of the wider youth offer in the city forming part of the ‘Someone To Talk To’ services. The service involves the joining together of services commissioned by Safer Bristol from:

  • Youth Offending Team
  • Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services
  • NHS Bristol
  • Voluntary Sector

The aim of Opening Doors is to deliver a more joined up service to the most vulnerable young people across the city. Reaching out to young people in the settings and communities where they live.

One of the “Service Users” dictated the following:

When I was 11 I started smoking cannabis with my friends. I loved smoking and used to smoke it everyday. I have also tried ecstasy a couple of times but it made me feel really ill and I stayed in bed for days. At about the same time I had other problems going on and I got help from D&YPP (Drugs & Young People’s Project), BASE (Barnardoes Against Sexual Exploitation) and YOT (Youth Offending Team).

The workers at the services have helped me because they have stuck by me and they are there for you when you need a chat. One worker talked to me about the risks of using harder drugs and it made me think that I didn’t want to do anything like that. As I got older I realised that I needed to pretty much stop using cannabis as it made me lazy and I lost the plot!

I helped decide on the new ‘Opening Doors’ name. Me and other kids had to choose between lots of names and we all liked ‘Opening Doors’. I now go to the feedback group where we chat about the ‘Opening Doors’ service and we do fun activities like canoeing. It’s good to be part of the group cos everyone gets along.

Current Service User in Bristol, Aged 17

If one is relaunching a service that purports to reduce the incidence of drug abuse by young people, why would one use an exemplary story from someone who was first “engaged” (collared?) by the local authority at aged 11, and yet six years later still appears to be a regular drug user? But at least he’s had a go at canoeing.

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