Parental Mental Health and Child Welfare Network - October 2007 Newsletter
Smoothing the transition into autumn
Welcome to the autumn edition of the Parental Mental Health and Child Welfare Network newsletter. We are delighted to report that we have been granted £16,000 from CSIP North West Development Centre to support the transitional work of the Network until we are able to obtain a more financially secure footing for its crucial activities.
This money will support the ongoing and developmental work of the Network, including establishing its potential contribution to the successful implementation of the emerging ‘Think Families’ agenda; feeding into current reviews such as the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ review of its Patients as Parents policy; organising and running study days on key issues of concern to practitioners, policymakers, service users and carers (see below); and playing a key role in the implementation of SCIE / NICE guidelines on parental mental health next year.
Hospital visiting review
This key review, commissioned in an innovative partnership across key statutory and voluntary sector agencies, heard from staff, patients and children and young people as well as Mental Health Act Commissioners, in an investigation into the policies, arrangements and facilities that promote contact between parents and children when a parent is in psychiatric hospital.
It found a pressing need to improve support systems and visiting facilities. Although many Trusts have good policies on family visiting, it found no correlation between good policies and good practice, and a considerable gap between the perspectives of staff and those of patients and young people.
Link here to full article (19kb PDF)
Building Bridges services evaluation
FWA’s Building Bridges services were featured at the February study day earlier this year. They support families affected by enduring parental mental health problems and other complex needs. The model aims to bridge the gap between adults’ and children’s services and was developed in response to evidence that adult mental health services often failed to take account of the parenting role undertaken by many users.
The success of the model has now been confirmed by an independent evaluation undertaken by Dr Jenny Morris between 2004 and 2006 based on an analysis of 680 service users.
The Building Bridges model provides individually tailored support to families using trained Family Support Workers, recruited from the local community, who go into families’ homes to help with practical issues, as well as providing emotional support. The service is available at times when other services often are not, such as at weekends, evenings, early mornings, bath times and getting children to school.
Professionals generally expressed a great deal of confidence in the Building Bridges services. The overwhelming message from parents was their appreciation of practical support, support to their children, and in particular the warmth and understanding of Family Support Workers. They thought that Building Bridges helped prevent deterioration in family relationships, helped their children to understand about mental illness and assisted in their relationships with other agencies.
The summary report and the detailed evaluation are available on the website. There will be more on the project in the next newsletter.
Safeguarding children in fragmented families study day
The study day which was the number 1 choice of Network members is taking shape. It is on Wednesday 28th November 2007 9.30am – 4.30pm at Ort House, 126 Albert Street, London NW1E 7NE
It looks at the impact of separation. It examines children separated from their parents by trafficking and migration, by extended periods of hospitalisation and by imprisonment. It looks at how the impact can be mitigated and how the reunification process can best be handled. It examines the impact of mental health as a risk factor in safeguarding.
Speakers include:
- Marian Brandon, (author of national review of child death reports)
‘Parental Mental Health as a risk factor in cases of serious child maltreatment’
- Nicky Stanley, Professor of Social Work, University of Central Lancashire
‘Children’s and Adults Services: Interagency Communication’ and
- Anthony Douglas, Chief Executive, CAFCASS
‘Positive Outcomes from Partnership Working’
Workshops include:
- Afruca – Africans united against child abuse – Trafficked children
- Sheila Fish/Sue Bairstow (SCIE) – A systems approach to risk management
- Sara Lewis/Salina Bates (SCIE) – The Children of prisoners: the unseen victims of crime
- Clare Mahoney, Senior Consultant, National Social Inclusion Programme (families), Louisa Harrison, ex young carer Barnardo’s ‘Keeping the Family in Mind’, Louise Wardale, Keeping the Family in Mind Coordinator, Barnardo’s Action with Young Carers - Parents in Hospital: How mental health services can best promote family contact when a parent is in hospital (National Review July 2007)
- Lorraine Wiener (SCIE) – Safeguarding leads in mental health trusts – a new network
- Marlborough Family Centre
The fee is £100. For a booking form contact Jean.Healy@scie.org.uk
Safeguarding Leads in Mental Health Trusts Network
Hello to everybody reading this newsletter and thank you to Vicky Nicholls, Coordinator at SPN for inviting me to write a short article about my new post. I was recently appointed to coordinate the development of a national network for safeguarding leads working across mental health trusts. My new post is a secondment, one day a week for a year and is jointly managed by the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) and Care Services Improvement Partnership (CSIP).
The network will provide an opportunity, through study days and an on line forum for professional development, allowing practitioners to share their experience, debate and discuss key themes, contribute to, and comment on topical issues and develop standards for safeguarding practice. The intention is to ensure that the unique needs of mental health services are addressed as part of key policy developments.
I look forward to working collaboratively with the Social Perspectives Network (SPN) and building important links with the PMH&CW network steering group over the coming months. I hope to meet many of you at the study day on the 28th November. I am really pleased to be facilitating an afternoon workshop for safeguarding leads in mental health trusts at the study day. The workshop will provide an opportunity to meet together and to begin to identify and discuss key issues and themes to address over the next year.
FOCUS ON RESOURCES
Keeping the Family in Mind resource pack
Back by popular demand and with an updated edition of the very moving and inspiring video ‘Telling It Like It Is’ which features testimonies from young carers across Merseyside, this is an invaluable resource pack for everyone working with adults with mental health problems, their children and families, and those trying to raise awareness of the realities for children of parents with mental health problems who have caring needs.
The pack, produced with full participation of children and young people, also contains visual aids such as postcards and posters, as well as reports, booklets and advice sheets. It is now available from Barnardos Keeping the Family in Mind project on 0151 708 7323 or through Louise Wardale
Postnatal depression new leaflet
The Royal College of Psychiatrists has just updated its leaflet on postnatal depression which is a very accessible and down-to-earth publication aimed at women going through what can be a traumatic experience. The leaflet includes practical advice and reassurance, as well as a comprehensive list of other resources and organisations that are useful for practitioners, service users and carers.
From pregnancy to early childhood
Although this report is not new it presents a useful summary of a variety of interventions designed to improve parenting, family functioning and young children’s mental health and to promote thinking about future work rather a definitive summary of existing knowledge.
The Mental Health Foundation commissioned this report on the basis of its National Enquiry into the Mental Health of Children and Young People, ‘Bright Futures’. This summary defines the key points from the full report, which comprises two volumes. Volume 1 is a written report and Volume 2 summarises the research in a number of tables
Surviving motherhood
As SPN begins planning for a study day in the North West next spring on perinatal mental health, a powerful short film can be viewed by following the link that brings home the realities of some of the struggles of motherhood. In a video, produced by Mad for Arts, Veritee relates her experience of motherhood and postnatal depression to Barbara Hepworth’s Madonna and Child, a sculpture that is an example of the idealised representation of motherhood prevalent in western Christian society.
Vicky Nicholls
October 2007
