Charity gives 'hope' to young people with new residential home

Saturday 03 April 2021

A residential facility has now opened to help young people recover from substance misuse issues, or mental health conditions.

Silkworth Charity Group opened ‘Hope House’ earlier this month, for 13 to 18 year olds.

Pictured: Hope House will offer support to young people both suffering with mental health difficulties and substance misuse issues.

Now in its fourth week, the facility already has a number of young people in residence, as well as a growing referral and assessment list, after a number of delays prevented it from opening in May last year as originally planned.

As Express reported in October, the house has 11 beds, including two in self-contained flats for the oldest residents. It also includes a large kitchen, dining room and living room, as well as several other rooms that can be used for one-to-one counselling. 

It provides a space for the Silkteen programme, which seeks to offer therapy to young people who may be experiencing:

• emotional distress, anxiety, low self-esteem/depression
• Family relations breakdown
• Substance mis-use, eating disorders, intrusive thoughts/OCD
• Self-harm, panic attacks, trauma related stress. 

The programme is currently not state-funded, and relies on donations to keep it going, with the charity stating that they are hoping it will attract both financial support from corporate organisations and from Government.

Pictured: The facility finally opened four weeks ago, after a number of delays.

Speaking last year during the development stages, Silkworth CEO Jason Wyse said of the house: “It’s about giving young people hope. There are a lot of young people out there that are suffering and there is nowhere for them to go."

He added how "a lot of young people are not on anybody’s radar or using any service and suffering in silence.

“All of us are facing issues right now because of covid and this could force additional pressures on families. We’ve seen an increase in demand for adult services but also in enquiries for young people so the timing of this could not be better. 

“We have had lots of people come through and lots of calls asking for help for young people and we couldn’t give them the treatment model because we didn’t have the facility. Now we can give that support. It’s very exciting.”