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Quest (Youth Justice Pathway)

What is Quest?

Quest is a dedicated service providing practical and therapeutic support to young people who may be at risk of becoming involved in the youth justice system.

About Quest

The Quest team can support you to make positive informed choices and progress through practical information, advice and guidance support, low level CBT and therapeutic interventions. 

Through targeted interventions tailored to meet your needs, we will offer you a safe and confidential space to discuss and make sense of your experiences, reduce your exposure to risk and offending behaviours whilst supporting you to identify and achieve your future aspirations and goals.

What will this service help me with?

  • Housing and homelessness 
  • Budgeting / benefit advice and support
  • Education, employment or training
  • Life skills 
  • Developing problem solving skills
  • Setting and achieving goals
  • Engagement in positive activities
  • Confidence building 
  • Maintaining positive mental health and wellbeing
  • Challenging unproductive thought processes and feelings
  • Healthy and positive relationships
  • Advocacy
  • Substance misuse
  • Access to health services
  • Keeping safe
  • Reducing offending behaviour
  • Signposting to specialist services

FAQs

How do you refer? +
Referrals are received from the liaison and diversion team and the youth offending service.
Do you have to engage if you have been referred? +
Engagement with the Quest service is voluntary.
Will you share information with anybody else? +
When you receive support from YPAS the things you tell us about are kept confidential. This means that it stays with us. However, if we feel you or someone else is at risk of harm, we will need to share this information in order to keep you safe. If we have to tell someone we will always try to talk to you first.
What happens on my first visit? +
On your first visit, you will meet and get to know your therapist. You will talk about what you need and how therapy can help you. You are welcome to bring another person for support to the first session.
Your Therapist will explain how we can support you and keep you safe, this is called Confidentiality.

Your Therapy sessions will remain confidential unless YPAS is concerned about your safety and that of others, but we will make sure you are fully informed of the limits to confidentiality in your first session. This is called Contracting because all Therapy sessions at YPAS are voluntary and free of charge.

How many sessions will I have? +
This depends on your individual needs and will be discussed with you throughout your engagement with the service.
Where will my sessions take place? +
Face to face sessions can take place at any YPAS Hub or at an education setting. We can also meet with you more informally in a community setting depending on the intervention you are receiving. If you would prefer, we also offer virtual sessions or telephone support.
Are all the therapists qualified? +
All YPAS therapists are qualified and either BACP Accredited (or working towards) and HCPC registered. We also have some trainee therapists in the team.

All YPAS Therapists adhere to the BACP Ethical Framework – you can read this here https://www.bacp.co.uk/media/3103/bacp-ethical-framework-for-the-counselling-professions-2018.pdf

Amazing, thank you for the information and support. It's a scary world being a parent to a child with ASD but now I feel there is light at the end of a very dark tunnel. Such a lovely, friendly team. Thank you.

Parent/Carer

I worked with Emily. I enjoyed talking about what's going on in my life whilst it is being fun, it's never 'there's something wrong', it's always 'how do we help you' which I like. Emily is amazing, she's helped me so much and she's just a lovely person!!!

Young Person Aged 15

YPAS was the first organisation that took me in and also the quickest, Sonia helped me get through a very difficult stage in my life and has bettered me as a person. I feel better equipped to deal with situations in life and my mental health has improved overall because of it.

Young Person Aged 20

My son has loved coming to sessions each week with Lisa. He has calmed down a lot. This has been a fantastic service with people who genuinely care. Thank you, Lisa!

Parent/Carer

I felt progression and I found my strength and resilience through the sessions. I am proud of myself for staying strong and showing my commitment through the past months of my sessions. I also gained a handful of coping strategies and I maintained my balance by controlling my worries.

Young Person Aged 18