Our innovative clinical team improves the outcomes and protection for families affected by parental mental health difficulties
The Helping Families Team bridges the gaps that often exist between specialist child and adolescent mental health care, adult mental health, child protection and safeguarding services.
Families who experience complex psychosocial difficulties can face multiple stresses that dominate their lives, making it harder to manage the day-to-day tasks of parenting and meeting their children’s needs.
Families may have had numerous, often negative experiences of services and as a result find it difficult to trust practitioners and commit to the support available.
Our specialist multi-disciplinary clinical team offers a range of interventions for families and provides consultation to multi-agency colleagues. The Team’s effective family engagement and intervention methods are based on the evidence- based methods we have evaluated in research trials, such as the Helping Families Programme, Family Partnership and EPEC.
The Team offers detailed and effective 1:1 home-based assessments focusing on the impact of parental mental health problems on family ecology, parenting, child development and safety.
The Team works together with families to develop a shared understanding of key risk and resilience factors affecting parenting and family life. We use evidence-based techniques to develop parents’ ability to mentalise their own and their children’s needs, accept and manage their feelings and work towards realistic and meaningful parent, parenting and family goals.
“After 6 months, I am confident in my parenting, have found specific well-being activities, and I am starting to rediscover myself”
The Team provides advice and consultation to multi-agency colleagues in relation to Parental Mental Health. We also provide a wide range of teaching and training that promote the importance of Think Family, and increase understanding of engaging and working in partnership with families impacted by parental mental health.