Open Door is dedicated to improving the mental health and emotional well-being of young people in their transition to adulthood. We offer tailored specialist mental health interventions to young people aged 12-24 in Haringey which includes some of the most deprived local areas in the country. Over 65% of the young people we support are from BAME groups, 20% have special educational needs and disabilities, over 35% have experienced neglect or abuse and 20% domestic violence.
We aim to:
• reduce the risk of suicide and self-harm and alleviate the effects of abuse, trauma and mental ill health
• help young people feel more in control of their lives, make positive choices, fulfil their potential and prevent social exclusion
• ensure the delivery of effective evidence-based interventions through monitoring, evaluation and research and to contribute to service improvement more widely, including the support of specialist professional trainings in adolescent mental health.
We provide fully evaluated therapeutic support by specialist child and adolescent psychotherapists/psychologists/school counsellors to young people aged 12-24 in Haringey experiencing mental health difficulties. Young people are able to self-refer; we undertake full needs assessments and deliver tailored treatment via face-to-face and/or telehealth solutions to suit young people's needs and broaden access.
The young people we see are often extremely vulnerable and have endured adverse childhood experiences and trauma leaving them with profound mental health difficulties which can impact on every aspect of their lives. The pandemic has intensified these difficulties and made seeking help even harder for many. Weekly psychotherapy provides a consistent, non-judgemental safe space for young people to explore and more fully understand their disturbing thoughts and feelings within a trusted therapeutic relationship. Young people will feel understood and better able to express their emotions with less resort to social withdrawal, destructive, risky or self-harming behaviours. They will feel more able to manage daily life, engage in education or training, and build and sustain more positive relationships.
Open Door has a comprehensive system of evaluation and feedback; we use validated clinical outcome measures to measure change and conduct follow-up interviews and log crisis presentations. Through our clinical case database, we track the profile of the young people accessing the project and the numbers of young people from our target groups
