A mental health and substance abuse service for a youth detention centre.

OBJECTIVES: To describe a new programme, the Mental Health Alcohol Tobacco and Other Drugs Service (MHATODS) at the Brisbane Youth Detention Centre, which aims to provide young people in detention with the same quality of mental health and substance dependency services that would normally be available to them in the community.

CONCLUSIONS: Young people in detention suffer from considerable mental health and substance abuse problems. MHATODS seeks to address the specific needs of this group of young people. Its innovative structure recognizes the limitations of the prevailing paradigm of separate service delivery for mental health and drug and alcohol treatment, and has created an integrated treatment service for young people in detention.