troubled teens, Health and Social Services Minister the Hon. Quinton Edness has disclosed.

Teen Services' grant from Government in last year's Budget was almost slashed in half.

The Youth Health Education Development Programme, under which it was set up, was promised $265,000 in the 1993/94 Budget, compared to $415,000 the previous year.

But Mr. Edness insisted that didn't mean Government did not realise the importance of the agency.

And he stressed that Government fully supported the agency's work.

"This year was a bad year for them because they had overspent and they had to make it up in this year's Budget,'' Mr. Edness said. "All of that should be back to normal in the next Budget.'' He pointed out that Teen Services not only counselled pregnant teens and trained them in child rearing, but helped young mothers to complete their education.

"Some of them (teen mothers) are able to keep up with high school classes through Teen Services until they come to term and then they go back to Teen Services to complete their education,'' Mr. Edness said.

On average Teen Services helped six to seven teens to graduate each year, he said. But it could have anywhere from 14 to 16 in its care.

"Some may have decided to go back to school,'' he explained, "Others may have fallen out of the programme and gone to work, and some remained with the programme.'' In addition, Mr. Edness said, Teen Services had an outreach programme in which counsellors visited young people to talk to them about promiscuity and protecting themselves.

"It is one of the best outreach programmes we have,'' he said.

Noting that Teen Services depended on a Government grant and donations from the community to stay afloat, he said: "I would hope that their traditional sources of fund-raising will continue.''