Family Connections Good News Stories

South and East Belfast Family Connections have been supporting families throughout the pandemic through a range of programmes and individual support. We have tailored our service delivery to respond to the expressed needs of families and have used creative and accessible methods to engage with parents.

 

Parents Wellbeing Group

As we went into Lockdown 3 we noticed that many parents were really struggling with their own stress levels and wellbeing. We responded by developing a Parent Wellbeing Group which was delivered online. 20 parents from across South & East Belfast registered for the programme. 

 

In the group parent were encouraged to take time for themselves and to explore their own stress levels, thoughts & feelings. Parents were able to support each other, share tips for self-care and wellbeing and have a bit of craic together! The activities were tailored to the parent’s interests and included meditation, yoga, self-care bingo and a wellbeing scavenger hunt.

 

One parent reported “My house is calmer, I’m remembering to take 5 minutes to breathe through the day.  It’s really good to have this group just for me and to see that I’m not the only one feeling the way I do, but it’s also giving me wee easy ideas to make myself feel better”

 

Awesome At Home

Parent of children with additional needs reported that they were finding lockdown particularly challenging. In response to this we developed the Awesome at Home programme which aimed to provide much needed support to these families.

 

We used the Five to Thrive Autism approach (KCA) as our evidence base for developing the programme. This approach provides five building blocks (RESPOND, CUDDLE, RELAX, PLAY, TALK) for promoting healthy brain development and positive relationships. It is particularly suitable for use with children with ASD and speech and language delay. We also incorporated resources from Oakwood and Middletown Autism support services.

 

The programme was delivered remotely. Parents received a weekly video and top tips newsletter as well as ideas for simple, fun and easy activities to support children’s language, behaviour, attention, sensory needs and social and emotional development at home. They also received  a weekly phone call to provide individual, tailored support and check in on wellbeing.

The course is now being rolled out for the fourth time in South and East Belfast and a total of 43 parents have participated.

 

Parent feedback

“We have got a better insight into how our child’s brain develops and this has enabled us to make the appropriate actions and reactions, as well as giving us a better understanding behind our child’s actions and behaviours”

“The course has given us more ideas for play that will help to encourage our child’s holistic development. We have also gained insight into ways to help promote communication and language development”

“I learned about ‘emotion coaching’ to help name my child’s emotions to hopefully help them to understand their own emotions and help me understand how they are feeling”

“The strategies have really helped me, starting from interaction to taking note of detailed changes in him and a more positive response from me”

Family Mediation NI

 

Family Mediation NI are under contract with the HSCB to deliver an early intervention approach to family breakdown, to assist parents to communicate around achieving the best outcomes for their children going forward.

The service is available in all five Trust area and delivers a child focused, facilitative model that aims to empower separated parents to negotiate, compromise and draft their own bespoke co-parenting agreement.

FMNI have a robust screening and assessment process to ensure they work with those who are mediation ready.  Mediation is not counselling and those parents for whom the timing is not just right will be referred out to counselling services for end of relationship support.

For those mediation ready, engaging with this practical process is transformational for the whole family.  Using a professional family mediator can enable parents to move to a different level of communication that leads to agreement on child contact, residency and the minutia of family life as separated parents.  Ultimately avoiding a protracted court case is in the best interests of children.  Parents will be engaged for on average four sessions after attending their individual  pre-mediation assessment appointments.

 

Tel: 028 90243265
email: enquiry@familymediationni.org.uk
web:  www.familymediationni.org.uk