We are an inclusive group and open to anyone who is a parent or carer, there is no exclusions on who can attend based on location or age, as long as people can get to East Family Hub (or ADC Centre in Yaxley), they can attend, we also have parents who attend for support whose children are over the age of 18 but need that additional support.
We have 3 facilitators, I am a parent with lived experience and experience of running mental health groups, Alison Graham who is a trustee of YPCS, a retired GP and a parent with lived experience and Leonie McCarthy who is a therapist as well as a parent. There is a lot of expertise in the room between us facilitators and the other parents who attend, so we are welcoming group who ‘just get it’.
We are aware that often when a young person is going through a challenging time, it also impacts their parents, the family and everyone around them. The group is a safe space to come along and talk about what is going on for them, hear other peoples stories so that they don’t feel so alone, and get tips and tricks that they might not have tried or thought about. We are open to having people come and talk to us about particular topics if there was something that came up for the group.
The group is very informal, we don’t put anyone on the spot to have to talk and don’t have set structure, we very much go with the needs of the group and anything anyone has to bring to the group. Sometimes this results in full group discussions, sometime the group naturally breaks into small groups. We make sure that everyone gets an opportunity to talk if they want to.
Each group is followed up by an email outlining discussion and sending round any helpful resources. If someone can’t attend every session, they are still included in the emails to be kept in the loop. We also have a closed Facebook group for members to join so that they can keep connected and share things between sessions.
We know that stepping foot through the door can be really hard for people, so if there is anything that we can do to help, for example meeting someone outside first then we are really open to this.
The posters have mine and Leonie’s email address on already but happy for our email addresses to be shared with anyone for any questions.
I hope that gives a good overview of the group for you to share with parents and families.
Best wishes,
Jen Anker
Parent Peer Lead, Young People’s Counselling Service
