The Isle of Wight Youth Trust is today calling on the Island community to help the charity support young Islanders.
In common with many local health and care agencies, the Isle of Wight Youth Trust is experiencing high demand whilst at the same time being affected by staff shortages.
Youth Trust CEO, Jo Dare, explained that the team were working proactively to remedy the situation and ensure that young Islanders have access to top-quality counselling and mental health support services.
They said:
“We have seen an unprecedented increase in demand for our service, with an average of 115 young people reaching out to us for support every month since March. Not only are we seeing more young people reaching out for support, but the reasons young people are coming to us are increasingly complex.
“In addition to the increase in demand, and as is the case with many health and care services across the country, we are facing staff shortages. That is why we are currently recruiting for play therapists, counsellors and psychotherapists, who have experience working with children and young people, to join our team.
“Our Island community can support the Youth Trust by sharing our recruitment details and encouraging anyone in their networks to join our team in making a difference to the lives of young Islanders. All recruitment opportunities can be found on our website www.iowyouthtrust.co.uk/jobs“
They added:
“While we address these staff shortages, we will be making temporary adjustments to how we deliver our services to safeguard the wellbeing of our staff team and the young people we support.”
“From Monday 25th October, we will temporarily pause our intake of referrals for one-to-one counselling, so that we can manage our waiting list. We will be reviewing the situation every week and will start accepting referrals again as soon as we can. Anyone currently on the waiting list does not need to do anything and we will get to you as soon as we can.”
“While we are not able to take new referrals for counselling at this time, we will be continuing to deliver our services and would like to highlight our Youth Mental Health Drop In, which is open from our Hub on Pyle Street every Wednesday from 2pm -5pm. We will also continue to deliver training and information sessions for parents.”
