Supporting vulnerable children in hospital settings
Latest research and direct professional experience across numerous local authorities and NHS Trusts in England shows a worrying increase in the number of children who self-harm and who experience a range of significant mental health-related difficulties requiring hospitalisation. Furthermore, some experts suggest that this situation represents the ‘tip of the iceberg’ of the detrimental consequences of Covid lockdowns. Because of the lockdown-induced impairment to their normal social and emotional development processes, including lack of access to in-class education and physical contact with their family members and friends, it is the children who seem to have paid the highest price.
Over the past two years our organisation has experienced a sharp rise in the number of referrals concerning inpatients who are young people at risk. As a nation-wide UK company, with a proven record of intensive family support service delivery, coupled with our specialism in working with young people who self-harm, we have the necessary experience and availability to cater for the different needs of the young people we engage with in those kinds of settings. It is also true that whilst self-harming behaviour may be the cause of hospital admission only in some inpatient cases, our Family Support Workers (FSWs) utilise their skills and experience when with children/young people who present with a wide range of other needs (poor physical health, injuries, mental health difficulties and so on). Our FSWs’ robust training and professional support they receive from our management team have consistently contributed to positive outcomes for the children involved. In response to a hospital-based referral, and regardless of the job location, we can identify and allocate it to a small team of FSWs in a matter of hours. The quick response time and general capacity to take on a referral is possible because AGFS has existing teams of FSWs in various parts of the country, and particularly in East Anglia and the Southeast, where it can be relatively easy for our managers to divert resources from other FSW and child contact commitments, to cover hospital-based work.
In our experience, when attending to inpatient hospital referrals, we are often asked to cover them on a 24/7 basis, including waking nights. However, we have also catered for referrals which required our FSWs to spend only several hours per day with the young person. We are versatile and flexible in our approach, which is always child-centred, routed in evidence-based practice and supported by principles of good social work practice and ethics. We are highly communicative and responsive. Our ‘double quality assurance process’ guarantees that all written reports (where such are requested) meet our own high standards and are always fit for purpose.
Our work with young inpatients includes relationship building between the FSW and the child, emotional support, positive activities, supporting hospital staff with monitoring the young person’s mood and compliance with treatment plans, identifying and mitigating against early signs of mood downturns and unwanted behaviour, helping to keep young people safe during self-harming episodes etc.
Our staff training and support schedules and their content have been created by our company’s Directors, Arthur and Emily Gajewski. Arthur has over 25 years’ post-qualifying experience in social work, including within private practice as an Independent Social Work Consultant, principally in the areas of child protection and care proceedings.
Emily is a psychotherapist and national trainer with over 25 years’ experience. She is an expert on topics such as ‘Understanding and Working with Self-Harm’, ‘Preventing Burnout in Professional Settings’, ’Therapeutic Parenting Training Workshops’ and more. She delivers bespoke in-person and online training sessions to professionals and parents/carers, nationally.
Our organisation has an after-hours Duty Manager system, which helps ensure that our FSWs and professionals alike, have access to support and advice when needed. All our FSWs are our direct employees, and we never use agency staff. This is because it is important to the organisation that we know each and every member of our staff well, have taken them through robust recruitment and selection processes, have trained them well and professionally support and supervise their work on all AGFS cases.
Should you have any questions about this inpatient support service, please do not hesitate to let us know. Please may I also invite you to peruse our website at www.agfamilysupport.com which offers comprehensive information about our company. Referrals/enquiries can be made online via our website
Author: Arthur Gajewski August 2022
