Knowledge / Skills & Attributes

ABILITY (I CAN)

Living skills

Living skills

Self management skills

Self management skills

Interpersonal skills

Interpersonal skills

Attributes

Attributes

How resources and assets can be applied to meet needs and goals

Protection from harm & capacity to respond to crisis

As parents and significant others have a key role in regulating young people’s exposure to difficult and often risky circumstances, their level of knowledge and skill will strongly influence young people’s ability to manage crisis. It also depends on the degree to which a young person possesses relevant and specific knowledge and skill according to the type of crisis. Knowledge and skill combined with motivation and opportunity are key ingredients for the implementation of harm-reduction strategies.

 

Self-awareness and health literacy enable young people to regulate their own response in a crisis situation and can be the basis of appropriate and timely help-seeking behaviour. On a practical level, resourcefulness and social awareness are useful assets identifying the resources and services can be drawn on to reinforce a young person’s coping. Clients in crisis are often overwhelmed by strong feelings and experience high levels of stress and arousal. An even temperament is an asset in enabling a relatively quick return to emotional equilibrium. For young people with less stable moods and affect, moving through crisis may require assistance to learn or use skills that reduce arousal and regulate emotions.

 

Problem-solving and decision-making skills can enable young people to calculate risk and better predict and manage the logical consequences of their actions.

 

Another characteristic that is helpful during and after a crisis is the ability to make sense of experiences and put them into context. This can minimise unhelpful thought processes, such as over-generalising and catastrophising (see section 6.2.4), and reinforce a belief that addressing distressing circumstances in a constructive way is possible and worthwhile.

 

Finally, communication and assertiveness skills are likely to be very useful in the process of negotiating for meaningful support and necessary resources.

 

Summary of relevant resources and assets

  • Insight (self & social awareness) Self-care knowledge & skills
  • Health literacy
  • Regulation of emotion & arousal
  • Problem-solving & decision-making skills
  • Ability to make sense of experiences & put them into context
  • Communication skills
  • Assertiveness skills
  • An even temperament & intelligence
Stability & capacity to meet basic needs

Young people’s carers require sufficient ability to regulate the experiences of those in their care and provide stable circumstances for them. This involves being able to understand risky behaviours and negotiate with their child reasonable, age appropriate boundaries that if transgressed are matched to clear consequences. It is always preferable that any consequences have the effect of promoting growth and development rather than simply being used as punishment.

 

Some young people need skills in communication and assertiveness to negotiate boundaries with caregivers and peers. These skills also help to create and maintain supportive social networks and participation in community life. At times, difficulties in relationships and an inability to locate resources might generate frustration that can trigger a problematic behavioural response. In these cases, insight into behavioural triggers and the skills for regulating emotion and arousal can be useful. Given that a range of health-compromising issues and behaviours (e.g. mental health problems and substance misuse) can undermine stability if they develop unchecked, health literacy and help-seeking behaviour are useful assets.

 

Youth AOD clients, who often have to fend for themselves in the community, will benefit from self-care knowledge and living skills such as budgeting and cooking. This is assisted greatly by adequate numeracy and literacy skills. Resourcefulness or the ability to locate resources and take advantage of opportunities is another useful asset that is supported through effective interpersonal skills.

 

An ability to make sense of experiences and put them into context can also help a client to stay on track. Problem-solving and decision-making skills can assist young people to set realistic goals and maintain a steady course in the pursuit of these goals.

 

Summary of relevant resources and assets

  • Self-care knowledge & skills
  • Resourcefulness (knowledge & ability to access & mobilise resources to meet needs)
  • Numeracy & literacy
  • Insight (self & social awareness)
  • Health literacy
  • Regulation of emotion & arousal
  • Problem-solving & decision-making skills
  • Ability to make sense of experiences & put them into context
  • Communication & assertiveness skills
  • An even temperament & intelligence
Participation in constructive activity

Once a client has established a stable foundation, youth AOD services can work with clients to facilitate the development of the skills necessary to connect or reconnect with education and other pro-social activities.

 

Young people’s ability to access and make the most of constructive options for school, work and recreation is supported by resourcefulness in locating opportunities and possessing an awareness of the expectations of others.

 

Young people with an ability to find a healthy balance between their needs and the needs of others have a better chance to sustain constructive involvement. In this way, self-management and social skills promote successful participation and can be enhanced by attributes such as intelligence, an even temperament and appearance or attractiveness. Good numeracy and literacy will also broaden the opportunities for participation. Participation in constructive activity provides young people with opportunities to build self and other awareness via interactive experiences in a variety of social contexts (Gilligan, 2000, 2008; Kallander & Levings, 1996). Constructive activity is a vehicle for the development of a wider range of skills that assist with more comprehensive social inclusion. Rewarding activity also gives clients tangible reasons, and therefore motivation, to learn and apply the self-management skills required to regulate emotional responses, modify cognitions, make decisions and solve problems.

 

Unique talents and physical fitness are attributes that clients can use to aid participation. Further, constructive activity can also improve young people’s physical fitness (Gilligan, 2008) and have a positive effect on young people’s mood state. The physical attributes and talents of clients may increase the chances that activity is rewarding and improve the prospects of young people’s contribution being recognised and valued.

 

Summary of relevant resources and assets

  • Knowledge & insight (self & social awareness)
  • Regulation of emotion & arousal
  • Problem-solving & decision-making skills
  • Ability to make sense of experiences & put them into context
  • Communication & assertiveness skills
  • Ability to find a balance between personal needs & the needs of others
  • Particular talent & abilities
  • Other useful attributes (temperament, concentration & attention, intelligence, appearance)
  • Fitness & health
  • Numeracy & literacy
Developmentally conducive connections

As with participation in constructive activity, certain skills and attributes help young people to form and maintain healthy interpersonal relationships. Involvement in healthy relationships helps individuals to further develop and refine these skills and attributes. Therapeutic working relationships with practitioners can provide a space or vehicle in which young people can learn relationship skills through modelling, reflection, live practice and feedback.

 

Youth AOD clients might also benefit from focused assistance to enhance their relationship skills, such as emotion regulation, assertiveness, communication, and social problem-solving or conflict resolution. Various therapeutic models with demonstrated effectiveness in treatment of AOD problems among young people also include a strong focus on developing the skills needed to maintain healthy interpersonal relationships (see Section 4). Knowledge and insight (self and social awareness) can enable a young person to apply such skills in the most timely, appropriate and meaningful way.

 

Young people with the ability to make sense of experiences and put them into context are more likely to be motivated to overcome any difficulties in relationships, thus maintaining potentially important connections. The same is true for those who have an ability to find a balance between personal needs and the needs of others.

 

Appearance and attractiveness might be useful attributes in developing connections with others, but skills are required to maintain them and resolve any problems associated with relationships.

 

Summary of relevant resources and assets

  • Knowledge & insight (self & social awareness)
  • Regulation of emotion & arousal
  • Problem-solving & decision-making skills
  • Ability to make sense of experiences & put them into context
  • Communication & assertiveness skills
  • Ability to find a balance between personal needs & the needs of others
  • Appearance & attractiveness
  • Other useful attributes (temperament, concentration and attention, intelligence, appearance)
Greater control of health compromising issues / behaviours

Problematic substance use and many other interrelated issues and behaviours stem from traumatic experiences and are therefore closely associated with the inability to effectively regulate impulses and emotions. The exercise of personal agency by clients in gaining increased control over these health-compromising issues can be supported by the development of emotional regulation skills. As with problematic and dependent substance use, clients who engage in behaviours such as self-injury and/or offending will be better positioned to establish or restore a sense of control by learning the triggers that precede episodes. Health literacy and insight (self and social awareness) are therefore critical assets.

 

Clients might also learn to de-escalate heightened emotional responses by putting words to feelings. Robinson and Miller (2010) identify that this is a key element in “…developing internal control and integrating painful experiences” (p37). They also point out that “…young people who have experienced chronic trauma and disrupted attachment have often not had the opportunity to learn this key emotional developmental competence” (2010, p.37). Further, the ability to find meaning in experiences, even those that are frightening and overwhelming, increases the prospects for resilient reintegration following disruption (Robinson & Miller, 2010).

 

 

Enhanced planning and decision-making skills can enable young people to identify and solve problems that might lead to or stem from the occurrence of health-compromising issues and behaviours. Self- awareness can support problem-solving as it enables the timely identification of problems.

 

Resourcefulness and self-care knowledge and skills can be crucial assets for young people striving to maintain or establish a secure base. To add to this, assertiveness skills can offer young people the confidence to negotiate for viable resources and opportunities necessary for meeting their needs. These skills can be applied to enable young people to find a balance between personal needs and the needs of others and thereby maintain mutually supportive connections.

 

Summary of relevant resources and assets

  • Health literacy
  • Self-care knowledge & skills
  • Resourcefulness
  • Knowledge & insight (self & social awareness)
  • Regulation of emotion & arousal
  • Problem-solving & decision-making skills
  • Ability to make sense of experiences & put them into context
  • Communication & assertiveness skills
  • Ability to find a balance between personal needs & the needs of others