My week as a Family Support Worker starts in the previous week. Towards the end of the week on a Thursday or Friday I will check my diary and see which appointments are booked in for the following week. I will send a text to the families I have booked in and just check that everything is still going ahead as planned for my visit. This gives them the opportunity to let me know if any changes have happened and if they need to change any details with me for the visit.
This week I have had a variety of appointments as it is the second week that the schools have been back since the summer holiday break, I have been trying to catch up with the families I support over the course of the week.
On Monday I had a trip to Great Ormond Street Hospital booked in for a family. I took the mother and child to a day surgery appointment and provided transport to and from the hospital. I picked them up at their house and we completed the journey and while they attended their appointment, I waited for them. When they were finished, I took them back to their home and we talked on the way about how the appointment had gone and what will happen next.
On Tuesday I attended an appointment with a family that needed a play session for their daughter while they were on a Teams call. We played in the garden with bubbles and her new special shiny ball which is her favourite thing at the moment. When her mum was finished, she said that this had been very helpful as she was able to fully concentrate on the call without worrying about her little girl.
I had a new family assessment booked in for Wednesday. I arrived at the house and during the assessment I learnt about the family and what type/s of support they need at this time. I informed them of the services that we provide and gave them one of our information packs for new families. I took all their details when they said they would like our support and before I left, I also checked for any dates they have coming up when they might need my help. When I arrived home, I added their information on to our data base and then did some other admin jobs that needed to be completed.
Thursday, I had an online meeting with a group called The Loop which is small team made up of employees that work for different teams for Rainbow Trust. Rainbow Trust is a very supportive organisation with a ‘one team’ approach, to ensure that the work we do in all areas, helps to provide the best quality support for families. This was my first meeting with the team and it was very informative. I am looking forward to the next meeting. After this, I left my house to offer some parental support to one of the families I am working with and helped the mum to fill in some forms which she was struggling with. After that I collected some medication for a different family from their local pharmacy and dropped it to their house.
We have a weekly team meeting at our local office on a Friday and we use this to catch up as a team and talk about our week and support each other with other things, for example if we need help with some information for a family, if we need ideas of things to do with the children on days out etc. We also speak about how our families are. When I got home I checked my calendar for the following week and made sure to check in with the families that I am seeing next week and that the appointments are still going ahead as planned.
