Who are Barnardo’s?
Barnardo’s is the UK’s largest charity serving children, young people, families and communities. For over 150 years we have been doing everything we can to enable young people to thrive. Promoting mental health and wellbeing has always been at the heart of our work and is now explicitly a core priority in our new Ten Year Strategy, as we continue to measure our impact, learn, influence and innovate. Since launching our first specialist bereavement counselling services nearly two decades ago, we are now commissioned to provide mental health and wellbeing services for thousands of children, young people and their families throughout the UK, operating right across the spectrum of prevention, early intervention, targeted and specialist support in a variety of disciplines and settings. Provision includes universal wellbeing and resilience, counselling, therapeutic adoption and fostering provision, specialist services for highly vulnerable groups, trauma recovery and informed practice and integrated CAMHS services. At Barnardo’s we believe children and young people should grow up feeling happy, resilient and confident to take on life’s challenges. No child or young person should have to experience a mental health crisis because they didn’t have the help and support they needed earlier.
How has Barnardo’s improved people’s mental health in the UK?
Building resilience
Barnardo’s was one of the first to pioneer Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP) for young people in the UK, a 10-week peer support programme which aims to build resilience and promote self-care among young people. It supports young people to develop their understanding of what they are like when they are well and what they can do to keep themselves well. Young people produce a wellness toolbox, and their own plan to cope with difficult times and challenging feelings. In 2017-18, across Bradford, more than 25 WRAP groups were delivered to 220 young people.
‘Pre and post’ evaluation surveys showed:
· 73% improved self-esteem
· 70% improved mental health
· 67% improved resilience
· 50% improved social skills
· 40% improved communication
Providing specialist support
Our ‘Child-directed, System-focused, Strengths-based, Outcome-informed’ (C.S.S.O) approach to counselling focuses on what works for an individual young person, in their specific context. The approach draws on a range of methodologies such as person-centred counselling, CBT, play therapy, narrative therapy, and solution-focused brief therapy, enabling counsellors to tailor the intervention to an individual child’s preference.Across Northern Ireland and the West of England, the C.S.S.O Framework is embedded within Barnardo’s Mental Health and Wellbeing counselling service delivery. The impact on more than 600 children and young people has been substantial, with considerable improvements in clinical distress scores.
Supporting people around the child
Our Mandala service in South West England has been providing creative therapies for traumatised or abused children and their families for over ten years. It was evaluated by the Institute of Public Care through both qualitative and quantitative research which found Mandala provided children with a calm, safe, and nurturing space. Children are listened to and believed, and some disclose abuse, indicating a high level of trust with therapists. Outcomes recorded for the children included:· Ability to express their emotions (and acceptance that it’s good to express yourself)· Improved behaviour control (where this was an issue at the start)· Improved self-confidence and self-esteem (less guilt and frustration)· Increased ‘day-to-day resilience’· Improved ability to understand complex overwhelming emotions.
Influence
In addition to our direct support work, we inform, influence and campaign on mental health and wellbeing and related issues locally, regionally and nationally.
What has been your greatest achievement to date? And were there any measurable outcomes that accompanied this achievement?
Systems change - Solar Emotional Wellbeing Service
In partnership with Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust and Autism West Midlands, we provide the Solar service which delivers emotional wellbeing and mental health services for children and young people aged 0-19 in Solihull.Solar was set up to provide timely access to appropriate support in line with children and young people’s needs, rather than being bound by thresholds or tiers. Solar aimed to create a comprehensive system, designed around the needs of children and young people, to keep them healthy as well as treating those who are ill. Solar prioritises resilience, partnership, and co-production.Results from Solar show:· Over 1,500 children and young people were supported with their emotional wellbeing and mental health· All children and young people showed improvements on their outcome measures· The service played a significant role influencing the NHS on CAMHS delivery· Waiting times upwards of 12 months for most interventions were reduced to less than three months for most interventions.
How many organisations/clients currently utilise the service/solution across the UK?
In 2017/18 we supported 32,200 people in our mental health and wellbeing services across the UK.
What do you feel are the key points delegates need to digest when considering a partnership with Barnardo’s?
Barnardo’s can prevent the high cost that poor mental health has on the individual, their families and wider society, by working with commissioners and partners to transform services and lives – meeting today’s challenges and preventing tomorrow’s through delivering universal, targeted and specialist services from pre-birth onwards and delivering better outcomes for more children, young people and their families. As a trusted national provider with over 150 years’ experience, strong track record in delivering services and a unique insight into the needs of the most vulnerable young people in our communities, Barnardo’s can offer a strong infrastructure to support high quality service provision with highly robust systems in relation to child protection, clinical governance, auditing and information management.
If you would like to learn more about Barnardo's please visit https://www.barnardos.org.uk/
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