Does anyone have experience of, or thoughts about, young people's drugs treatment being delivered in primary care settings? What are the problems and possibilities? I'm thinking more about a commissioned services rather than just working with individuals on an ad hoc basis
thanks
tony

As Child and Adolescent Mental Health qualified and experienced nurse I found shared a care a good place to work with young people (not that I saw many.) It was mostly short term work, not involving prescribing and addressed mainly cannabis use that was affecting family and/or school and involved assessment and liaison coupled with a few 1 to 1 sessions.

It does require particular skills however and awareness of the different legal, ethical and organisational issues.

However, the low-threshold, 'normal' nature of primary care has a lot to offer this group, and there can be little risk of 'cross contamination' if properly organised. It does run the same risk that pre shared-care GP-led treatment ran, that of well-meaning and enthusiastic 'amateurs' making a mess that needs to be sorted out by someone else ,so I wouldn't rush into it.

It would be the best place to treat young people in a normal GP's surgery. Less stigma and no 'Special' place for them to go to if they are using drugs.
If it was one of my Nephews or Nieces i'd rather they were treated by a GP in a less stigmatising setting oh and bloody quickly!

Thanks-thats useful. The "normalisation" factor seems important but so does ensuring the proper "skills mix" for working with YP
tony

Both seem important - often a young person needs more than a short 10 - 15 min appointment to get anywhere near the nature of the problem. Simple intervetions could be offered by trained workers within Primary Care setting, but many young people I see and hear of ( working in tier 2/3 services ) have much more serious psychosocial problems ..... I know some of these are common to Primary Care clients, but how much time is needed to build trust with YP who have: families involved in drug / alcohol use, leaving care and no support, sex work and exploitation, mental health problems, still some opiate use ( numbers are fairly steady wherever I have worked in West Yorks ) low mood / Self harm AND harmful alcohol binges etc.etc. Where is Howard Parker these days ? he does consultancy work for Northern YP services and looks at how services might be configured in the future.