SORTED | Youth alcohol and other drugs service Bay of Plenty

Your young person will be offered an appointment to see a SORTED worker where and when they feel comfortable. This could be at your home, at school or at their course for example. The initial meeting and everything that happens afterwards is very much led by your young person as they have rights in engaging with services. This is also important to give the best chance for your young person to engage well with our service and have the best opportunity to get something out of this engagement.

Initially the SORTED worker will look to complete an Alcohol and Other Drugs (AOD) assessment with your young person. This is an interactive process and most often takes place during 2-3 sessions. The purpose of the assessment is to then inform what goals might be agreed to with your young person for work to be done with their SORTED worker. After the assessment, goals will be agreed to between your young person and their SORTED worker and work done to try and achieve these goals.

These goals will be continually reviewed and length of time this work will take will be dependent on a number of things such as the motivation of your young person to engage with their SORTED worker and what the goals are that they are trying to achieve.

It is always our goal to involve family as much as possible when working with a young person and for this to be throughout the process- from assessment, goal setting and through to transition out of service. However, confidentiality is very important to SORTED and for us to have any chance of working effectively with young people we have to take this seriously.

This is explained very clearly with your young person at their first appointment with their Sorter worker.An information sharing plan is agreed at the start of working with your young person so depending on this, information will be shared with family and others accordingly.

The limits to confidentiality are around issues of risk and if there is risk of serious harm (e.g. to your young person from themselves or others, or from your young person to others) then you will be informed immediately. Even if your young person does not want their SORTED worker to share information with others regarding what they discuss, you are still able to talk with their SORTED worker about the process they are working through, without getting into the content of what is discussed.

In short...no, SORTED has no legislative power to make a young person go anywhere for treatment for their substance use. Everything we do is by negotiation and collaboration with your young person, making use of our skills and knowledge as Youth AOD workers and our hopefully positive engagement with your young person.

Evidence tells us that we have to tailor the work we do with your young person according to where they are at in their thinking about their substance use. We call this the Cycle of Change and one of the first things your young person’s SORTED worker will be doing will be assessing where your young person is at in this cycle and pitching the work they do accordingly. Why? Because we know this is what has the best chance of bringing about positive change. See Cycle of Change Explained.

If your young person is motivated to make changes and thinks doing so in the community will be difficult we can support them to attend a Youth AOD Residential Service for a period of time. There are a couple of options for these services:

• Rongo Atea (Hamilton), see Rongo Atea Youth Alcohol & Drug Service
• Youth Odyssey (Auckland), see Odyssey Youth Treatment Services

There can be lots of different reasons for this but deciding when to end work is normally a collaborative process between your young person and their SORTED worker. You will be involved in this collaborative decision depending on consent. Reasons work may stop can be due to the thinking of your young person about their substance use and their stage in the Cycle of Change (See Cycle of Change Explained).

If there has been no shift in where they are in their thinking then it is important that continued engagement with SORTED does not continue unnecessarily. It is of the upmost importance that any engagement with SORTED is a positive experience for your young person so that even if they are not ready to make changes now, they will be more likely to seek support in the future when they start thinking about change. This will inform when your SORTED worker finishes with your young person as will other factors such as whether your young person has achieved goals they had set for their work with SORTED or whether they have further goals they want to achieve for example.

In short... no, your young person’s SORTED worker might call this Co-existing Problems (CEP) which is mental health problems alongside of AOD problems. The relationship between mental health and substance use is complex but put simply there are two ways to think of this:

• Substance use which has led to mental health problems. E.g. A drug induced psychosis or the negative cycle of withdrawal issues/cravings leading to mood problems (anger, mood swings). In this situation there were little or no symptoms of any mental health problems prior to substance use and so the young person’s substance use has greatly contributed to the mental health problems they are experiencing. NOT helpful.
• Mental Health problems that have led to substance use problems. E.g. feeling depressed or anxious and so smoking cannabis to relax and feel good. Young people will quite often use these kinds of reasons to justify their use- e.g. “it calms me down”, “it helps me sleep” or “it helps me feel happy”. Unfortunately using substances as a way of coping with these things does not solve the problem, it masks it for as long your young person is under the influence. This then increases the risk that they go back to the substance again and again to cope. This can lead to addiction. It also means that the substance your young person is suggesting is the solution to their problem actually becomes part of the problem, e.g. if they smoke cannabis to calm down, the more you smoke cannabis the more agitated and frustrated you get when you don’t have it. NOT helpful.

If you are concerned that your young person may be using these are some possible signs to look out for:

• Having bloodshot eyes or dilated pupils; using eye drops to try to mask these signs.
• Skipping class; declining grades; suddenly getting into trouble at school.
• Missing money, valuables, or prescriptions.
• Acting uncharacteristically isolated, withdrawn, angry, or depressed.
• Dropping one group of friends for another; being secretive about the new peer group.
• Loss of interest in old hobbies; lying about new interests and activities.
• Demanding more privacy; locking doors; avoiding eye contact; sneaking around.

Unfortunately this can describe most adolescent's right? This can make it tricky so be careful not to jump to conclusions…

If you are worried about your young person's substance use here are some tips:

• Lay down rules and consequences: Your teen should understand that using drugs comes can come with specific consequences. But don't make hollow threats or set rules that you cannot enforce. If you have a partner make sure they agree with the rules and are prepared to enforce them.
• Talk with your teen about their activities: Talk with your teen about where they are going, who they are going to be with and what they are doing to stay safe.
• Encourage other interests and social activities: Expose your teen to healthy hobbies and activities, such as team sports or interest clubs.
• Talk to your child about underlying issues: Drug use can be the result of other problems. Is there underlying issues and while they may not want support for their substance use (because they think it helps them), they might be willing to get support for their mood, grief or other issue/s.
• Get Help: Teens often push against their parents boundaries but if they hear the same information from a different adult, they may be more inclined to listen. Try a sports coach, family doctor, or youth AOD worker.

When thinking about how you talk with your young person and what type of message you will want to give them it is important to be non-judgemental, try to keep lines of communication open and emphasise staying safe for them and their mates.

See our frequently asked quesitions above for some useful questions parents have for SORTED or see our useful explanation about the Cycle of change [PDF, 436KB] and how this relates to your young person.

Any other questions please get in touch.

The gaming industry is bigger than the music or film industries and professional competitive gaming, known as esports, is a rapidly growing global phenomenon worth almost a billion dollars, with professional players earning potentially millions of dollars a year while tens of millions of viewers log-in to watch them train, play and compete.

As well as this the weapon-skin gambling industry grown out of such games is also worth billions of dollars and furthermore free-to-play games earn sometimes more than a million dollars a day despite being 'free to play'.

Even in New Zealand we have national high school esport competitions developing from which players have already been drafted to overseas teams to play professionally. For more information about the gaming industry and some of these facts, please see our resources below about esports, Massively Multiplayer Online games and the Monetisation of Gaming.  

Games are awesome. They are fun, challenging, immersive, and interactive, and can be incredibly social. Some franchises have developed amazing worlds and detailed characters with in-depth and interesting stories.

As well as these things games can provide:

• A sense of purpose and goals - games provide clear milestones and tracks for progression. They create a sense for players of having a meaningful impact on the game world.
• A sense of achievement and mastery - games provide competition and challenge, and give clear feedback about achievement and success.
• A sense of belonging and community - games create a sense of being needed and valued by others in the game world, including opportunities for leadership and team work.
• A sense of freedom and escape - games are fun, and also enable players to become fully immersed in the game and escape difficult feelings such as stress.
• A sense of identity - games provide players with an alter-ego, and the opportunity to create a new identity for themselves without judgement.

None of the above needs games can meet are wrong or bad but it can become a problem when gaming becomes the ONLY or primary way to meet these needs. This is when more and more time is often spent gaming, people can become disconnected from any face to face friendships or activities, commitments such as school begin to suffer, sleeping patterns can change and all of this can impact on mood and relationships as well as behaviour when not gaming.

Games themselves are designed to keep you playing for longer and often also designed to try and get your $ through micro-transactions in the game (through loot-box mechanics for example or other psychological techniques). To learn how to keep your gaming in balance and to be aware of the crafty tricks game developers use to hook us gamers, have a look at the Being Game Savvy resource below.

Resources

• eSports games [PDF, 913KB]
• Game Savvy [PDF, 407KB]
• Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) games [PDF, 926KB]
• The monetization of gaming [PDF, 930KB]
• Gaming Continuum [PDF, 227KB]
• My Gaming - Questionnaire [PDF, 100KB]
• Gaming Parent Tips [PDF, 181KB]

If concerned

If you are concerned about your own or someone else's gaming please get in touch or complete the My Gaming Questionnaire [PDF, 100KB] to have a conversation or a think about this issue.