Walk in Clinics for Adolescents1

It is almost ten years since the Brent Consultation Centre started as a walk-in service for young people. The Centre has grown from its original small band of volunteers who were viewed with suspicion, to an organisation that is known both nationally and internationally for the quality of its work with adolescents. The extensive community work undertaken by members of the staff has resulted in increasing numbers of adolescents’ coming for help and the Education Department of the Borough of Brent has put the service on a sound and secure financial footing. Although the Centre has grown in size, now occupying a whole building, and has extended its service and increased its staff, the basic tenets of walk-in work have been maintained. This service is designed to meet the needs of adolescents and not the convenience of those who have to deal with them. The service is free, confidential and staffed by professionals with experience in work with adolescents. Access to these professional workers is made as easy as possible for the adolescent. There are no waiting lists, no referral is necessary and the adolescent need only walk in or telephone to be seen immediately.

Walk-in work has not only become an accepted form of reaching out to and dealing with the adolescent, but has in fact become one of the new fads. Walk-in and advice centres seem to be springing up every day. It is important therefore to examine the assumptions underlying the establishment of walk-in services, and the staffing requirements. We should look too at the limitations and possibilities within walk-in services and their potential for further development.

Looking back over the history of the Brent Consultation Centre and listening to those who ask for advice about starting or running a walk-in service, it has become apparent to me that there is an implicit assumption regarding the target population. It is assumed that there is a group of adolescents who, though troubled and unhappy, do not fall into the ca