Resources: Quick guide to ... emergencies

1. Sometimes stuff happens that your ordinary resources cannot cope with.

Your capacity to carry on as normal is overstretched. That, at its simplest, is what is meant by an emergency. Someone needs outside help, because they have a problem that needs urgent attention, and they cannot deal with it in the usual way using their own resources.

2. Adults are often unaware of how easy it is for emergencies to affect young people. Being relatively powerless, with few resources to call on, means that relatively everyday incidents can trigger an emergency. Missing the bus, forgetting your dinner money, the sudden disappearance of a pet - such things might not trouble adults unduly. But they can cause acute problems for young people. Of course, young people can have severe stuff in their lives that would tax anyone - from discovering an unwanted pregnancy to accidents that require medical treatment.