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Male Adolescent Program for Positive Sexuality- MAPPS

The Adolescent Forensic Health Service provides services to young people aged 10-21 years who have been found guilty of one or more sexual offences through the Male Adolescent Program for Positive Sexuality (MAPPS).

At MAPPS change is achieved through assisting young people to increase their understanding of themselves and others and take responsibility for their actions and choices. They are also supported to develop an understanding of the deliberate pattern of their offending, develop victim awareness and empathy, and create a positive lifestyle that does not incorporate offending or abusive relationships.

Young people who join MAPPS typically progress through a five-stage treatment process over a period of approximately 12 months:

• Assessment
• Basic Group
• Transition Program
• Advanced Group
• Follow Up

In Basic Group young people are asked to think about and talk about their offending behaviour, as part of a process of taking responsibility.  The Transition Program is one of the many unique aspects of MAPPS which involves young people attending a three-day intensive wilderness based program, where they learn to recognise and understand their own feelings and the feelings of others, including the victims of their offending.  The Advanced Group is all about the future, developing healthy relationships and preventing further offending, where the young person learns a range of strategies to ensure that they continue to lead a life that does not include offending.

MAPPS also offers individual counselling to those young people who are assessed as requiring it and work with families throughout their young person's involvement in the program.