Frances Russell: Touchgrass clinical lead on the launch of NZ's first treatment centre for cellphone addiction

A nationwide-first treatment phone-addiction centre is launching next month.

The Touchgrass service in Auckland's Grafton will treat 13 to 24 year olds - and their families.

Forty percent of young people in a recent Internet NZ survey reported being addicted.

Clinical lead, Frances Russell, says there isn't a one-size-fits-all approach to helping.

"What we're talking about here is different levels of harm. So it's really about matching the level of intervention to the level of need for that young person and their whanau." 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
And on that subject then McNaulty will be with us
just after the half past five news. Now, a new
treatment center is being set up to tackle cell phone
and screen addictions, called the touch Grass Service. It's opening
in Auckland. It's going to be the first of its
kind in the country. Francis Russell is the clinical lead
for touch Grass and is with us.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
High frances Hi, Heather, thank you so much for having
us mate.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
You are more than welcome. I'm fascinated by the subject.
How do you treat cell phone and screen addiction?

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Look, I think that there's no one size fits all
approach for treating cell phone and screen addiction. But what
we do know is that behavioral addiction is treatable and
we've been treating it for a long time here at
PGF Services. So touch Grass is a offshoot from PGF
Services and you know, we're really familiar with treating it here.

(00:44):
I think for young people, particularly though, we've got some
different approaches that we might be using as well. So
when it gets to the point end of addiction, what
we might be looking at is things like one to
one counseling, family therapy, group therapy, and also what we
call peer support, which is people who have a lived
experience of screen addiction working with young people too.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
Okay, so are you actually going to check people into
a clinic and they stave there for a period of time?
Is that kind of a thing.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
That's a great question. Actually, So we're not a residential service.
We are a community based place where people can come into.
But we have a flexible approach, so we can see
people online or we can see people in person. But no, unfortunately,
we don't have a residential service for people.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
Francis, is this something that's so serious that we need
to actually do this clinically rather than simply I don't know,
doing any of the things that people are currently doing,
like buying a dumb phone or gray scaling your phone,
or just deleting your social medias.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
Look, I think those are all really good approaches, and
I think what we're talking about here is different levels
of harm. So absolutely those approaches are fantastic. And what
we are seeing though, is that parents and young people
are telling us that they're really concerned about their cell
phone use, and we're seeing quite widespread impacts in terms
of what's happening for them. So it ranges from things

(01:58):
like mental health problems, sleep issues, even physical health issues
that are arising from cell phone use. So it's quite
holistic and how it's impacting them. So I would say
whilst we as a service have a a like a
like a layered approach where young people can come onto
our website and get some resources and tools like you're
just like you're talking about, yeah, where it might be

(02:20):
like more of a lower level need.

Speaker 1 (02:22):
Okay, So what you're saying is I've got a thirteen
year old child at sixteen or whatever and they're spending
too much time on the phone. I can come to
you for some low level help. But then I've also
got like somebody who's massively addicted and it's become a problem,
and I can come for that kind of extreme help
as well.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
Exactly, that's makes sense, and that's what we want to do.
Is we call that a step care approach. It's really
about matching the level of intervention to the level of
need for that young person in the AFARNO.

Speaker 1 (02:47):
How much is it going to cost?

Speaker 2 (02:49):
So at this stage we're currently unfunded, but our aim
is to provide services for everybody that needs it and
it's a priority for us to meet this for all
New Zealanders. So we committed to creating like a sustainable
solution for New Zealand young people in their far No.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
Yeah, I'm worried about this. Are you worried about this?
Like I'm worried about young people being raised addicted because
you and I I don't know how old you are.
I'm making an assumption you're about my age. But we
at least got through a bit of our lives before
we came up against addictive stuff like this is right
there in their faces. So young.

Speaker 2 (03:21):
I agree, And I think what's really concerning for me
is how normalized it is. Yeah. I think what we
really want to see is young people who are not
being impacted by this to the point where it's impacting
their academic performance, their social development, even their job prospects.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
Yeah, interesting stuff, Francis, thank you very much, appreciate it.
Francis Russell, clinical lead for touch Grass. I don't want
to be unkind to parents at all because because I'm
coming from the perspective of somebody who's got kids who
are preschool age, right, So I haven't come up to
that thirteen fourteen, fifteen sixteen, that kind of stuff where
it's really really crunchy. I don't want to be unkind
to parents, But why don't you just say no? Why

(03:58):
don't you just take the bloody phone away from them
and say no. And if they're gonna if they're gonna
cause a drama and they're gonna pack a tanty and
they're gonna slam a door, let them do it and
then start removing the start start giving them consequences and
removing treats and rewards. Why don't we do this? Why
do we need to go no disrespect to Francis and
because clearly there's a need for a service like that,
But why do we have to go and find people

(04:19):
like that? Why can't we just parent our kids and
just be a bit hard on them? Please tell me,
because this is a genuine This is not a rhetorical question.
This is a genuine One nine nine two is the
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