More Maltese young people are getting caught in the problem of internet gambling because there was no control on this activity and it was accessible to youths regardless of their age, Joe Gerada, CEO Foundation for Social and Welfare Services, said yesterday.

Mr Gerada explained that internet gambling provided real-time satisfaction and was not limited to adults because there were very little means to control access to it.

Mr Gerada and Social Solidarity and Family Minister Dolores Cristina launched a series of integrated services for youths, to mark World Youth Day, involving Agenzija Appogg and Sedqa.

Mrs Cristina explained that the integrated service aimed to reach a wider audience of young people in need of social support and would adopt a holistic approach.

Mr Gerada pointed out that other stakeholders needed to be included – the Education Division, Employment and Training Corporation, correctional and probation service, and NGOs, for instance – to provide a truly holistic range of services.

He added that, in the future, a series of fora would be held with various stakeholders to continue strengthening and improving the programmes on offer.

The Sedqa Teen Support Service offers an intervention service to adolescents who are either self-referred or referred by their school because of substance abuse-related difficulties.

Mr Gerada explained that specialised staff would be able to identify and work with young people at risk in small group sessions carried out in schools. The service would reach out to the youths before they have a problem with substance abuse.

This service aimed to offer help to around 150 youths aged between 13 and 19 years who had substance-abuse problems and were referred to the programme by the education division or the probation services.

Services that were preventive were extremely important as they would save youths from a life of social exclusion or substance abuse, said Mrs Cristina.

“Youths need to be included in all national policies and we need to give them more focus,” she said.

Mrs Cristina said the government would launch the information campaign to create awareness about the Underage Drinking Act that was recently approved in Parliament.

Furthermore, said Mr Gerada, the FSWS would launch two new services in the near future to help a particular sub-section of youths at risk.

These two projects, budZ and Young Adolescents Programme, would be a joint collaboration between Agenzija Appogg and Sedqa, explained Sedqa operations director Jean-Claude Cardona.

He pointed out that mainstream services on offer were not sufficient for certain youths. As a result, Appogg and Sedqa created a highly-structured programme for youths aged between 13 and 18 years who behave in a socially-deviant manner.

The programme aimed to reach around 35 people in 2007 and would be held three times a week in five-hour sessions where the youths would be taught life skills.

Catherine Fleri Soler from Agenzija Appogg explained that these youths would be referred to the programme by social workers and be followed closely throughout the programme.

Mr Cardona explained that the Young Adolescents Programme was set up to help young people who come from a difficult social background and were at high risk of social exclusion.

Ms Fleri Soler added that through working in Cottonera, Appogg felt the need to set up a service that targeted a younger audience of youths aged between 11 and 13 years.

“The Young Adolescents Programme will be community-based and help out youths that have a difficult family background and often leave home. The programme will try to reach out to these young people before they are caught up in a life of crime or substance abuse,” she said. Sedqa will launch another service in the near future – Teen Support Outreach.

Mr Cardona said the service would help young people with a highly vulnerable behaviour, especially substance abuse and anti-social behaviour.

It was estimated to target a total of 160 youths aged between 13 and 16 years every six weeks – of these, 10 per cent would require further interventions, he said.

Mr Gerada spoke about the importance of community-based services as opposed to residential services.

“Research has shown that services need to be community based – with the professionals moving towards the clients and not removing the clients from their familiar environment to an institution,” he explained.

Minister Cristina pointed out that not all youths with challenging behaviour came from families with difficult backgrounds.

“There are many youths that come from good, solid families but still have a problem of challenging behaviour. Unfortunately, in these cases discipline is not enough to solve the problem,” she added.

For more information about the services log on to www.sedqa.gov.mt, or www.mfss.gov.mt or call Helpline 151 or Supportline 179.