Kinship Care Work

We  believe  that  Resilience  is  a  key  factor  in  protecting  and  promoting  good  mental  health.  It  is  the  quality  of  being  able  to  deal  with  the  ups  and  downs  of  life  and  is  based  on  self  esteem.    

Research  shows  that  interventions  that  focus  on  improving  the  confidence,  self-­‐esteem,  resilience  &  protective  factors  amongst    people  subsequently  leads  to  either  a  reduction  of  substance  misuse  or  

the  likelihood  that  someone  will  become  involved  in  substance  misuse  behaviours.  The  move  towards  more  of  a  resilience  approach  using  alcohol  and  drugs  as  a  vehicle  for    

demonstrating  resilience  has  grown  naturally  from  work  undertaken  by  GCA  Prevention  and    Education,  with  a  range  of  target  groups.    Resilience  and  Protective  Factors  have  always  been  a  key  

consideration  our  in  prevention  and  education  approaches  towards  alcohol  and  drugs.    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘A day out away from all the stresses’

GROUP:  KINSHIP  CARE    

LOCATION:  North  East  Glasgow  

PROGRAMME:  RESILIENCE    

DURATION:  planned  for  4  weeks  but  ran  from  January  to  April                                                2014      

PROGRAMME:  RESILIENCE  PILOT  

DURATION:  6  WEEKS    

BACKGROUND  We  approached  FASS  (Family  Addiction  Support  Services)  to  enquire  whether  there  was  any  interest  from  associated  family  support  groups  or  kinship  care  groups  for  an  alcohol  and  drugs  awareness  programme  with  a  resilience  focus.    FASS  advertised  the  programme  and  interest  was  noted  by  Easterhouse  Family  Support  group.    We  developed  a  four  week  women-­‐only  resilience  programme  to  focus  on  creating  a  baseline  of  knowledge  and  understanding  of  alcohol  and  drugs  to  increase  the  women’s  confidence  on  how  to  communicate  with  young  people  about  alcohol  and  drugs,  thus  increasing  resilience.  The  group  had  already  been  established  for  some  time  and  a  safe  trusting  environment  was  present  and  therefore  the  women  could  feel  comfortable  and  able  to  discuss  their  experience  of  being  a  kinship  carer  and  importantly  to  make  the  programme  enjoyable  and  stress  free  while  facilitating  learning  on  understanding  around  the  reasons  why  young  people  use  alcohol  and/or  drugs.    

OVERALL AIM • To  use  alcohol  and  drug  Prevention  and  Education  interventions  as  a  vehicle  to  demonstrate  

the  impact  of  resilience  on  children  and  families.  OBJECTIVES

• To  raise  awareness  of  the  concept  of  resilience.    • To  increase  understanding  of  protective  and  risk  factors  and  how  these  can  influence  

positive  and  negative  attitudes  and  behaviours  • Increase  in  knowledge  around  current  drug  trends  and  language  to  ensure  that  the  carers  

could  communicate  more  confidently  and  easily  around  these  subjects  with  the  young  people  in  their  care.      

• Exploration  of  the  challenges  and  demands  of  being  a  Kinship  Carer  

•  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

METHODS

Alcohol,  drugs,  kinship  care,  resilience  and  self-­‐esteem  are  potentially  complex  and  sensitive  issues  and  therefore  the  need  to  ensure  the  wellbeing  of  participants  remained  a  priority  at  all  times.  The  programme  required  some  thought  in  terms  of  what  can  be  realistically  achieved  within  the  sessions  while  allowing  for  fun  activities  and  ice  breakers  each  week,  to  help  ensure  the  group  feel  comfortable  with  each  other,  and  with  the  facilitator,  before  discussing  resilience.  Also,  the  programme  needed  to  be  tailored  to  the  groups  needs  so  an  overarching  outline  with  the  flexibility  to  develop/adapt  once  we  had  met  the  group  was  developed.  There  was  also  a  celebration  lunch  at  the  Millennium  Hotel  at  the  end  of  the  programme.  

For  the  programme,  we  used  our  toolkit  of  resilience  interventions  and  tools  with  the  group.  This  included  some  of  our  activities  that  have  been  facilitated  and  evaluated  and  we  know  work  well,  alongside  some  new  activities  to  explore  resilience.    

TOOLKIT OF ACTIVITIES

ACTIVITY:  ALCOHOL  THROUGH  THE  AGES    • Exploration  of  the  changing  social  norms  in  relation  to  alcohol.    Much  time  was  

spent  on  the  sharing  of  alcohol  and  drug  messages  that  the  Kinship  Carers  had  received  when  they  were  growing  up  and  how  they  differ  to  current  day.      

ACTIVITY:  DRUG  TIMELINE    • The  origins  of  drug  use,  including  previous  legalities  and  views.  

ACTIVITY:  NEW  PSYCHOATIVE  SUBSTANCES    •  Exploration  of  NPS  and  recent  NPS  incidents.  

ACTIVITY:  WHY  YOUNG  PEOPLE  TAKE  ALCOHOL/DRUGS    • Alcohol  Myths  and  Facts  • Discussion  around  the  reasons  

ACTIVITY:  COMMUNICATION  STRATEGY  • Exploration  of  the  various  ways  for  the  Kinship  Carers  to  engage  with  young  

people  in  their  care  around  sensitive  health  and  social  issues,  including  alcohol  and/or  drug  use.  

ACTIVITY-­‐  CHALLENGES  OF  KINSHIP  CARE  • Group  exercise  to  share  the  challenges  and  demands  of  being  a  Kinship  Carer  

and  how  these  can  impact  on  inter  personal  relationships  within  the  family.  

ACTIVITY:  PHOTOGRAPHY  • Photobook  produced  to  evidence  the  work  of  this  programme  and  to  give  as  a  

gift  to  the  women.    

EVALUATION

Due  to  the  nature  of  the  intervention  it  was  essential  to  be  flexible  in  approach  to  evaluation.    We  used  a  range  of  evaluation  techniques  and  tools  which  are  tailored  to  the  nature  of  the  group.  We  evaluated  through  activities  such  as  challenges  of  Kinship  Care  and  the  photobook.  

COMMENTS  FROM  THE  GROUP  

 

 

 

 

 

COMMENTS  FORM  PREVENTION  AND  EDUCATION  WORKERS  

‘It  was  a  privilege  to  meet  and  work  with  the  women  and  we  personally  gained  so  much  insight  into  what  Kinship  really  means.    Thank  you  all  for  sharing  this  with  us.’  

 

 

 

 

EXAMPLE OF GOOD PRACTICE The  programme  was  originally  planned  for  a  four  week  period,  however  some  of  the  women  could  not  make  some  of  the  sessions  so  we  extended  the  programme  and  it  ran  from  January  to  April  2014.  This  shows  the  importance  of  being  flexible  to  the  needs  of  the  group.  

QUALITATIVE EXAMPLE ‘One  of  the  women  was  chatting  to  a  staff  member  about  how  she  always  wanted  to  go  to  the  Millennium  Hotel  in  Glasgow,  she  always  liked  passing  by  and  seeing  people  have  lunch  in  the  window  but  always  thought  that  was  for  ‘other  people’.  For  the  last  session  the  group  went  to  the  Millennium  Hotel  for  lunch,  the  woman  said  that  she  felt  great,  like  one  of  they  ‘other  people’  away  from  all  of  the  stresses  and  she  hoped  someone  she  knew  passed  by  and  recognised  her’  

 

WHAT  WE  DID  IN  PICTURES  

   

Activity     Activity    

   

Resilience  Activity     Activity    

   

Day  out   Day  out  

   

Day  out    

   

   

Pulled  in  different  directions   Groupwork    

   

POSTER