"After a referral was made to social , I was referred to different services for support..."
My daughter’s school were really good.
They came to see me at home and talked about what support they could put in place. I found it really helpful.
They used the ‘Pupil Premium Plus’ for a teaching assistant to help collect my daughter and take her to school every morning. She did that for a couple of months until I was feeling better, and then I started doing it alone.
“I was referred to an alcohol recovery service for support with my drinking and my mental health. But unfortunately it wasn’t a great experience…”
When I met my allocated worker and spoke to her about my situation, her boss referred me to social services.
I felt like they shouldn’t have done that. They already knew social services were involved and they did it without my knowledge or consent.
After that I didn’t go to their meetings because I didn’t trust them.
“I was referred to the mental health team but that wasn’t great either…”
When they asked me what I wanted, I said I didn’t know.
I wasn’t sure what to say and needed them to help me understand what they could do to help.
“Looking back I know I became defensive towards services.” I stopped answering the door, I kept giving them excuses for not seeing them and didn’t realise at the time that this wasn’t helping my situation.
“I felt like a rabbit in headlights. I buried my head in the sand hoping it would all go away.”
Obviously, it didn’t help. But you don’t think that when it feels like they are all coming at you from different directions.
“The only person that I felt was helpful was the family support worker…”
She was persistent in turning up at the front door. I wasn’t defensive with her.
“It seemed like she really wanted to help me” when the others didn’t. At least not the way I wanted or needed them to.
“This was all happening during the pandemic. When it got to lockdown, everything was even harder. There was nothing out there.”
I used to take my daughter swimming, but we couldn’t go because of the restrictions, and we could spend hardly any time out of home, even going to the park.
“It was during lockdown that my situation progressed to Family Court Proceedings…”
“Looking back I know I became defensive and didn't realise that it wasn't helping my situation."
