WellTrust continues to lead the way in working with young people who have alcohol and/or other drug related problems.

The organisation now works with over 500 young people annually, aged between 10 and 19, and encourages a collaborative approach working alongside the young people’s families and education providers.

WellTrust, which works throughout the greater Wellington region, was established by the Community Trust of Wellington in 2000.  The main goal of WellTrust is to work alongside secondary schools to provide drug and alcohol support services.  The Trust has a very close working relationship with guidance counsellors and many other community agencies in the region.

In 2005 WellTrust won the Supreme Award at the Wellington Region Community Awards, which are sponsored by Wellington International Airport and the Community Trust of Wellington.  The Trust then attended the TrustPower National Community Awards in March 2006.

Soon after the Trust’s success at the Community Awards four people who were integral in the establishment of the Trust left the organisation.  It was up to newly employed Murray Trenberth, the Trust’s new Executive Officer, along with his team to keep WellTrust thriving, and then progressing again....a goal that the team has achieved.

Murray says the biggest change for WellTrust is its development towards gaining accreditation under the Mental Health Alcohol and Other Drug (AOD) Sector Standards. 

“This, as well as ensuring the quality of the service we provide, will hopefully make us more viable for funding support from the local District Health Boards,” says Murray.

Murray says the organisation has been especially lucky to attract the “pick of the crop” from the young counsellors who have graduated with degrees from the newly established AOD course that WelTec offers.  These new graduates are continuing their professional development in a supportive and fun environment at WellTrust.

In 2005, when the Trust won its Community Award, the Trust was in the process of being contracted to provide specialist youth drug and alcohol services to Police Youth Aid.

Since then the contract has been successfully established and for the last two years the Trust’s staff have been working with child and youth offenders.

Police Youth Aid Officers use their ‘alternative action’ prerogative to refer an offender to WellTrust if they believe alcohol and/or drugs are involved in their offending.  WellTrust then carries out an assessment, and if drugs are an issue for that youth, they work with them to reduce and stop their problematic drug use. 

What makes the programme particularly effective is the facilitation work carried out by the two Police social workers employed specifically for this programme.  They liaise between WellTrust, Police and parents.  

During the first 18 months of the new contract WellTrust had 168 offenders complete its programme and of these, 54.2% have stopped their offending and a further 25% have reduced their offending significantly.

Murray says this is a huge achievement for the Trust/Police partnership.

“79.2% of the child and youth offenders we have worked with have reduced or stopped their offending because we have been able to reduce or stop their drug use”. 

“This is a significant result and should lead the way for other regions to follow suit,”

“We also help 62% of our school clients reduce and stop their problematic drug use, which makes the students more teachable and less of a discipline problem in class,” says Murray.

As well as assessment and intervention work with young people, WellTrust provides professional development for teachers and works to raise community awareness about youth alcohol and drug issues.

Over the last two years WellTrust has also talked to more than 60 community and parent groups. 

Some groups, like the Rotary presentations, run for half an hour; but evenings which are run for parents at schools involve a two hour interactive session.  Parent feedback shows they learnt a great deal at these sessions and feel more informed.  What’s more they enjoyed the evening. 

WellTrust also managed to provide preventative education sessions for 38 polytechnic classes and pre-employment groups. 

Funding has always been a huge challenge for WellTrust as school drug education is not funded by the Government.  Since 2005, the Trust has been receiving two and a half Full Time Equivalents (FTE’s) of funding from the local District Health Boards for the work they carry out with youth.  The Trust employs seven counsellors and a registered nurse as their Clinical Manager.  To maintain their services at this level the Trust needs to find a further $400,000 each year.

Murray says that they were also given some extra ‘one-off’ grants this year to the value of two FTE’s by the Hutt Valley and Capital and Coast District Health Boards, which has helped them significantly. 

“It remains a challenge to employ permanent staff when more than half the Trust’s funding is from charitable trust donations.  The Community Trust of Wellington remains our most significant backer, after the two District Health Board’s and Police,” says Murray.

The main challenge facing WellTrust is that for each person and family the Trust helps, there appears to be another to take their place as the greater challenge is how to reduce the number of people starting on their own pathway to alcohol and drug abuse. 

“As a nation we need to delay and reduce our alcohol and drug use and be an example to the next generation.  To achieve this we continue working closely with the Police and the community, while also working to enhance our relationships with Kaupapa Māori providers, as 45% of our clients are Māori and benefit from working within their own culture,” says Murray.

Murray says winning the Supreme Award at the Wellington Community Awards helped raise the profile of WellTrust, which still uses the DVDs that were prepared for the TrustPower National Community Awards to promote their work.

“We have been blessed by the quality of staff we have been able to attract, especially given the shortage of AOD counsellors in the work force.  WellTrust is going from strength to strength, and winning the ‘Wild at Heart’ Wellington Airport Regional Community Awards was a milestone on our way,” says Murray.

For more information please contact Murray Trenberth on 04 568 0370, go to www.welltrust.co.nz or email info@welltrust.co.nz