Home based Family support service

The Family Support Service is a child-focused within the home for the benefit of all the family available seven days a week, daytime and evenings.

The service is currently funded to work with families in Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham, who have a child under 16, where a member of that family, parent/career or sibling has HIV.

The main objectives are:

• To build positive relationships with Children
• Work closely with parents/careers to meet children’s needs
• Offer advice and assistance to parents/careers in a way that encourages independence and confidence in parenting

Our users

Most of the families using PPC’s service are experiencing multiple disadvantage and social exclusion. Typically, an HIV-positive parent is solely responsible for the dependent children some of whom are themselves positive. Both parents and children benefit from the service:

Parents

The parents are HIV positive, often experiencing depression and other mental health problems. Many are single women raising children alone. Some families have a male carer who may or may not be within the family home. Many are refugees and / are socially isolated, many require support around parenting skills and adapting to life in a new culture and society in addition to difficulties with housing and finance, and impact of stigma.

Although period of physical illness arise, mental health needs are predominant. New drug therapies have in some regards accentuated some mental health difficulties, because people are living for longer and their clinical depression required new strategies for longer-term management in the home. However most service users avoid a formal mental health diagnosis but have symptoms of depression i.e.. sleeplessness – tiredness/fatigue, low mood and motivation, lack of appetite.

Children

The children are affected by HIV/AIDS in that their parent has positive status. Parents experiencing some of the above often find their parenting and ability to cope impaired. For example, because of financial difficulties, fatigue and accessibility many children do not have normal opportunities to get out of the house and engage in developmentally enhancing activities. Many of the children are themselves HIV positive, some of whom experience side effects of HIV medication and developmental impairment due to the virus. Many are refugees and have survived traumatic experiences before leaving their country of origin. Typically the families have low incomes and the range of health, social and economic problems associated with poverty, this also results in a broad range of unmet psychological and developmental needs among the children.

Referrals

Referrals come in four main ways:

• Social Worker
• Health professional
• Other voluntary agency
• Self-referral

The service is underpinned by the following principles:

• Flexibility
• Promoting greater independence
• Working with the whole family
• Maintaining clear boundaries
• Maintaining confidentiality