Community members joining health visitors
Simon Vevers
Wednesday, January 7, 2004
A health project in Glasgow has recruited lay support workers from the community to work alongside health visitors to help give vulnerable children from deprived areas a better start in life. The groundbreaking work of the Starting Well Health Demonstration Project is currently being discussed at the British Psychological Society's Division of Educational and Child Psychology conference in Paris. The 3m project, which offers intensive support for families in the home and gives them access to facilities in the community, has already helped 1,800 families in two of the Scottish city's poorest areas. It is now entering its second phase after being funded initially for three years when it was established in 2000.
The groundbreaking work of the Starting Well Health Demonstration Project is currently being discussed at the British Psychological Society's Division of Educational and Child Psychology conference in Paris. The 3m project, which offers intensive support for families in the home and gives them access to facilities in the community, has already helped 1,800 families in two of the Scottish city's poorest areas. It is now entering its second phase after being funded initially for three years when it was established in 2000.
Dr Linda de Caestecker, a consultant in public health medicine, and Dr Michael Ross, a consultant clinical psychologist with Greater Glasgow NHS Board, are presenting evidence to the conference that multidisciplinary team working is having a profound impact on children in the disadvantaged areas of Greater Easterhouse, the Gorbals, Govanhill and North Toryglen. A key element in the project's success has been its ability to blend the skills and expertise of primary care health professionals and the local knowledge of the lay support workers.
Dr de Caestecker said the support workers 'have quite unique skills in terms of understanding the needs of families and the community - something that is not always understood by professionals'. She added, 'The development of resilience in infants and young children is a definite part of the programme, and the promotion of emotional well-being and prevention of psychological problems are the project's objectives.'
The lay workers are given a six-week 'knowledge-based' course, involving some training in child development and community development as well as issues such as feeding.
The project, which is led by Glasgow Healthy City Partnerships, has involved the development of a range of initiatives. These include a family health plan to encourage breastfeeding, agree improvements to safety in the home, and tackle nutrition issues and oral health; the implementation of Bookstart, a national scheme to encourage all parents and carers to share books with their children from an early age; toy libraries in the Govanhill and North Toryglen parts of Glasgow; a Dad's Breakfast, where single fathers and those who are not in contact with their children can meet; and the play@home scheme, a programme to increase parents' confidence in handling their babies and to develop skills to help children learn through creative play.
