James Blewett, a British expert in social work, emphasised that Malta needed to provide more resources to the sector. Photo: Jason Borg

Malta is seeing a rise in adolescents who engage in self-harm, alcohol abuse and promiscuity; a situation that is compounded by a lack of trained specialists able to help, according to experts in the field.

James Blewett, a British expert in social work, emphasised that Malta needed to provide more resources and services geared at helping troubled adolescents over any other group.

In particular, he underscored the need to reach out to troubled teenagers.

“Hospital-based therapeutic services may be accessible for adults and younger children who could be taken there but adolescents don’t want to walk into a clinic or into a hospital for therapeutic support. You’ve got to have creative ways of going out into the community and reaching them where they are.”

Adolescents don’t want to walk into a clinic or into a hospital for therapeutic support

Innovative strategies were adopted abroad, Mr Blewett added, pointing out that the UK adopted a system where professionals such as youth workers work in the community alongside the police to ensure teenagers stay safe.

Mr Blewett is the London coordinator for Making Research Count, a national research dissemination project, as well as a qualified social worker who has worked in a variety of children and family settings for 17 years.

He was recently in Malta on his ninth visit, delivering seminars to Aġenzija Appoġġ.

Appoġġ operations director Ruth Sciberras fully corroborated Mr Blewett’s assertions.

“From our own experience and whenever we speak to other professionals like mental health professionals, educators and therapists, we’ve all come to the same conclusion — the biggest challenge currently facing us is adolescents.

“Teenagers have been caught up in a society which is changing ever so rapidly and they need to adapt to these changes.

“We have noted the emergence of a number of trends, particularly self-harm, alcohol abuse and promiscuity at an early age.

“We are in great need of specialists who are trained in dealing with the challenging behaviour of teenagers.”

The biggest challenge currently facing us is adolescents

Ultimately though, those in the best position to observe and guide teenagers are the professionals who are in regular contact with teens.

“A good way to tackle the problem would be to have targeted workers or child mental health specialists based in schools who can then identify the more vulnerable children and teens,” Mr Blewett suggested.

“However, it’s very difficult for an agency such as Appoġġ to do community outreach work because of a shortage of resources.”

Drop-in centres, Mr Blewett pointed out, proved to be particularly effective in England.

Such centres would provide treatment, information or other services to those who dropped in without appointment or referral.

“And because it applies to everybody, it doesn’t have the same sense of stigma that, say, being referred to a child protection service inevitably does.”