Opinion: Hot Issue - Is email really an alternative to face-to-faceyouth work?

NO - Graeme Tiffany, vice-chairman, the Federation for Detached Youth Work

I would say no, although good practice teaches us to respond to what young people say works for them. We know, for example, that sexual health educators find short-term contacts provide young people with the independence to ask whatever they want. Email may provide a similar freedom.

Despite this, email is limited in that information often takes precedence over dialogue and it becomes difficult to assess whether advice is acted upon. Face-to-face relationships make this possible.

We might ask why young people are inclined to use email and what we are doing to help them build supportive relationships. Detached youth workers have long since known that young people come to them because they encounter problems accessing other services, and because workers are willing to make themselves available in places where young people naturally gravitate to. I bet many of the emails say "go and talk to someone" anyway.