Supporting Young People to Navigate Safety, Ethics, Identity and Preference in Relationships

Supporting young people to navigate safety, ethics, identity and preference in relationships: Let's talk about S-E-X

The workshop explores Social Work practice with young people who have engaged in sexual behaviours that are problematic or harmful and are working towards healthier, safer ways of being. The workshop details some of the key ethical challenges in the work including the potential for services to engage in oppressive and harmful practices with young people who are still developing their sense of identity and sexuality. It explores the challenge of supporting young people to navigate the values, desires and wants that young people identify that may be different to our own or that may pose risk or feel confronting. It explores the Social Work skills that clinicians draw on when young peoples sexual behaviours have become harmful to themselves or others. It also explores the Social Work framework that service providers draw on in supporting young people to make informed, ethical decisions about their preferred future identity, relationships and sexuality.

Facilitators: Melissa Brown, Samantha Ivancsik, Peta Adams and Caroline Ellis, New Street, ISLHD