At Home-Start Wessex we are fortunate enough to have received a grant from the NHS Charities Together Partnership Grants Programme to fund a ‘Rapid Response Intervention Worker’ in the team to provide specialist 1:1 home visiting support to families with the most complex needs.
Lucy is a qualified Social Worker with experience of responding to families in crisis and understanding and recognising mental health conditions. She has also completed our 40-hour training programme we use for volunteers to learn about the Home-Start approach.
With this specialist service we help families who are referred by their NHS healthcare professional because they are struggling with their mental health, combined with such things as:
- Peri & post-natal depression
- Special educational needs/disabilities (SEND)
- Domestic abuse
- Substance abuse
- Children under child protection
- Financial hardship
- Inadequate housing
Some will also have experienced child sexual exploitation, homelessness, human trafficking, seeking asylum or are being cared for by the local authority.
The pandemic and new economic challenges have acted as a magnifier, exacerbating existing issues, presenting new challenges, and creating additional pressure within homes. Families are reporting increased needs with disclosures of self-harm, suicidal feelings, and domestic violence incidents. So this service is vital and much needed.
We get into the family home quickly to address issues and prevent them escalating. Intensive support is provided for 10-12 weeks with a focus on:
- Safeguarding children
- Improving health and wellbeing
- Providing families with guidance, role-modelling, and support
- Assisting parents to develop parenting skills and routines
- Providing practical support with day-to-day tasks and activities to prevent escalation and promote safety and wellbeing.
Alongside the targeted emotional and practical support, we also help with:
- Accessing and referring to specialist support services for such things as domestic abuse, substance abuse, severe mental health needs.
- Attending housing meetings.
- Gathering information from other agencies involved and participate in meetings relating to child protection – TAF/TAC.
- Apply to the ‘BBC Children in Need Emergency Essentials Fund’ on behalf of families to secure funding for home essentials such as beds, fridges.
- Support through legal/court proceedings.
At the end of the 10-12 weeks once the family situation is stable, should further support be needed we will help manage the transition to the longer-term support from a trained Home-Start volunteer or at one of our family groups.
This project is funded until April 2023 and after this we need to raise more funds. If you can help support us please do get in touch.