Tulsa Launches National Child And Family Support Week In Laois and Offaly
Tusla National Child and Family Support Week will feature special public events across Longford, Westmeath, Laois and Offaly and will be backed up by a national and regional advertising campaign across media platforms.
Clinical Psychologist David Coleman
There are now almost 863,000 families with children in Ireland and some 1.68 million children in families in Ireland, according to Census 2016. Tusla provides extensive support services to assist all parents, children, and young people as part of its PPFS programme. This programme aims to stop problems experienced by families from getting worse, or from developing into a crisis.
Tusla National Child and Family Support Week aims to create widespread public awareness of Tusla’s high-quality PPFS programme, leading to increased engagement with its services by families, parents and children.
Recent studies by the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre at NUI Galway found that, with regard to help-seeking for a parenting or family problem, personal support networks – family and friends – were the main source of support for the public. Members of the public turned to their local GP primarily if they could not manage a parent or family problem, while increasing numbers of people are asking a teacher for assistance in this area. The findings also suggested that both the public and the media do not clearly differentiate the concept of family support from child protection, and children in care. However, there has been a significant increase in knowledge of Tusla services overall, among the public, in recent years.
Across the four counties a series of events will be hosted to promote the prevention partnership and family support work of Tusla and partner organizations. This will include information stands in shopping centres, talks for parents regarding online safety for children and “The Little Things- Our children`s Mental Health”, parenting workshops for parents of younger children and parents of teenagers(Limited places – booking to 0906447111 or e-mail triplep.midlands@hse.ie ),coffee mornings, Resiliencedocumentary and discussion workshop, and some family fun events in a number of different venues across the four counties.
Speaking ahead of Tusla National Child and Family Support Week clinical psychologist David Coleman stated: “I’ve been working in clinical practice with children, teenagers and their families for over 20 years and have consistently seen that preventative help for parents and children is always better than having to respond in a crisis. I’ve been jointly involved with Tusla services with some of my clients over the years, and I’ve seen, first hand, the high level of support that Tusla and the Family Resource Centre network can offer. If it ‘takes a village to raise a child’, then Tusla can help families to connect in with their ‘village’, accessing those vital community and parenting supports.”
Senior PPFS manager for Midlands Area, Eamonn Farrell said: “Tusla is not just a child protection agency that works independently. Tusla has an expanded child and family support role with a spectrum of specialist services that are provided in conjunction with our partner organizations in the midlands area. Tusla is a cornerstone in supporting families within their communities. If a child or family needs support, Tusla is there to help. Our PPFS programme seeks to work with families at an early stage to resolve problems, to prevent harm, and to improve outcomes for children, young people and families. And we work collaboratively with our partner organisations to strengthen families and communities.”
- More than 18,900 children in Ireland received a family support service from Tusla from January to June 2018.
- A total of 802 *Meitheal processes were requested in the same period.
- There are now 103 Child and Family Support Networks in Ireland, with a further 20 planned.
- The number of Family Resource Centres in Ireland is set to grow from 109 to 120 this year.
Members of the public in the midlands wishing to contact Tusla during Tusla National Child and Family Support Week can visit Tusla.ie for more details, email family.support@tusla.ie or follow #childandfamilyweek on Tusla’s Twitter, Facebook and Instagram channels.
About Tusla
Tusla – Child and Family Agency was established on 1st January 2014, and is the dedicated State agency responsible for improving wellbeing and outcomes for children. There is approximately 4,200 staff working in the agency, which has an operational budget of more than €750 million.
About The Prevention, Partnership and Family Support(PPFS) programme
Tusla’s Prevention, Partnership and Family Support(PPFS) programme has a number of comprehensive and accessible low, medium and high prevention services including Meitheal, the Parenting24seven.ie website, Parenting Support Champions/parenting supports, Family Resource Centres, Creative Community Alternatives, and funding for child, youth participation and parental projects. The PPFS programme is an evidence-led approach to prevention and early intervention work. It has been supported by Atlantic Philanthropies funding of €8.3m over four years, and public awareness is a key strand of the programme. It receives research and evaluation support from the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre in NUI Galway.
- See more about the programme here: https://bit.ly/2lV8ASh
- A brief video outlining the PPFS programme can be accessed here: https://bit.ly/2P3EsQP
- A brochure on the PPFS programme can be viewed here: https://bit.ly/2ww6UUa
About Meitheal
In a Meitheal – Tusla’s national early intervention practice model – a lead practitioner will identify a child’s and their family’s needs and strengths and then bring together a ‘team around the child’. The team will deliver support that is properly planned, and is focused on the child’s developmental needs. The child and their family are fully involved and participating in this process at all stages.
