An innovative project for young people in care who have been sexually abused

Professional awareness of child mental health problems and sexual abuse has increased greatly over the past 20 years, and this is especially true for young people under the care of social services. The current paper provides an overview of the research literature on needs and service provision in this area. It goes on to describe an innovative interagency project in Dorset which offers flexible, fast track intervention packages to looked after young people with a profile indicating sexual abuse, who have been reluctant to engage with conventional child and adolescent mental health services, The paper includes preliminary results from an evaluation of this project and discusses the implication for future service provision.