Choice Wellbeing Service

Choice Wellbeing Service was established in 2023 by parent carers who were aware that the services that were available to individuals in similar circumstances in the city was lacking that robust, trauma informed, flexible, and simplistic support that is usually what is required by individuals who care for children with additional needs. Quick support, answers, or guidance whilst having a safe environment to discuss their circumstances seemed to be the answer. Currently, Choice is funded by multiple awarded grants, with all team members either voluntary working or paid expenses. All outside sourced support such as counsellors, printing etc costs are covered by the awarded funds.

The organisation has two fixed pathways, with referrals being fed into the service by the Niall Quinn Centre, Early Help team, Family Hubs, Daisy Chain, Together for children, Washington Mind, Bridge View Medical Group, South Tyneside Hospital, South Tyneside SENDIASS, and self-referral. We work across the Family Hubs in Sunderland currently to deliver this work, and we are busy building a hub within the South Tyneside Hubs to offer the same service across the area.

To access our service the individual most be considered a parent carer. We define a parent carer as someone who has majority care over a child with additional needs, diagnosed or undiagnosed. This would include stepparents, foster, adoption, family members, and supporting individuals, as we are aware that the care of a child with needs can be complex, and a whole host of supportive individuals step in to help manage their care.

The first pathway, the Holistic Therapy, is the first pathway that all individuals access. This pathway is what would be considered ‘triage’. We use this pathway to find out what is happening within the individuals’ circumstances and whether they are accessing the right services. However, unlike a usual ‘triage’, the client is free to come back multiple times accessing the same service and response.

This part of the service is the Solution focused pathway. Within the first session, we explain to the individual who we are and what our capabilities are. We try to manage expectations instantly from this session, ensuring that clients are aware that we are there to support them and their mental health, we cannot change, or challenge decisions made by supporting services, but can offer advice and guidance to where they can access support if required. If we can alleviate pressures quickly by signposting, referring, share physical information, or give them a space to discuss issues in a confidential space, we find that this is helpful to the client. 

The role of the wellbeing practitioner in this relationship is to use active listening skills, identifying where the need might be, i.e. whether the need is that of the parent or the child/children. Often, we experience individuals who are just requiring some support post diagnosis. Individuals are expressing that post diagnosis they are not quite sure what they want (support wise) or who indeed to turn to when they discover they need help. Through our work within these sessions and the Rainbow Guide, we have had great feedback from individuals who have accessed the service, have been handed a Rainbow Guide, or who work within other organisations, having been supported by Choice.

 

All wellbeing practitioners access safeguarding training, skills training, and a formal induction, alongside group supervision with team members weekly and clinical supervision once a month. We look to inspire those parent carers who become wellbeing practitioners and hope to upskill these individuals giving them confidence to move up through the organisation and look to strive to push themselves out of their comfort zone also.

 

The second pathway is our more structured therapy pathway. Some individuals attend their first session requesting counselling sessions instantly, having acknowledged that their mental health could be deteriorating due to their caring role. These clients are often instantly assigned a counsellor who works around their required times. Other individuals come to the counselling pathway after discussions in the holistic sessions, with the wellbeing practitioner approaching the subject gently if they feel that there could be a requirement for more structured support.

Our counselling sessions are worked around the individual’s availability, we have therapist who offer face to face, telephone, or digital sessions via zoom. We have therapists that are available 9 till 5, but also counsellors that can offer late evening sessions up to 9pm. Our sessions are run in the Family Hubs in Sunderland, allowing us to access comfortable spaces, including the sensory room if required, for those individuals who have children with complex needs still being able to attend, regardless of the need to bring along their child.

 

We wanted to be able to offer parent carers a more available opportunity to therapy, with feedback from about services usually around the inability to adjust or cater for the needs of the client. If clients are unable to attend, we ensure we contact clients before reducing or removing the service.  We fully acknowledge that being a carer is a hectic role, that can consume their lives, including their own health deteriorating, feeling incapable to attend, or overstimulating circumstances. We are also aware that their children are also more prone to hospital stays, school absence, school avoidance, and suspension or exclusions.

Feedback given to us from parent carers expressed that accessing other mental health services and agencies had been difficult. Due to the nature of care these individuals are giving to their children, it can mean the individual may be unable to attend a couple of sessions due to the care of the child being the most important in the moment. However, due to their care obligations, parent carers were being removed from the service due to their non-attendance without investigation, leaving them to return to the waiting list. We ensure we have open conversations with clients prior to starting the sessions, allowing the clients themselves to add an option into their contract about what matters should be taken by the therapist upon the non-attendance of sessions.

The Rainbow Guide™ is an easy, simple, go-to guide designed to be given to individuals who care for or parent children with additional needs, help practitioners in the city know what other services available in city are, and offer clarity between services. We acknowledged that there is a knowledge-gap, a lack of awareness around support options and networks for these individuals and felt we could produce something to fulfil this need. The guide can be accessed on our website.