Keeping families together

As the year began, the impact of the pandemic made home and doorstep visits to families difficult due to the level of risk assessment which was required on a daily basis.

Staff also found that issues such as school refusal, anxiety and disharmony within the home were particularly prominent in 2021-22 due to the pressures of lockdown on families and less availability of support services.

Our teams nevertheless continued to offer face-toface engagement wherever possible and overall Extern’s response was fast and responsive to ensure support remained in place for vulnerable service users.

In consultation with funders Tusla, our Intensive Home Support Service (IHSS) projects sought to alter how we deliver our service. This included working more closely with parents and guardians to support them in learning new methods of boundary setting. This opened the opportunity for greater speed of change within families and for working with more cases during the year.

Based in Dublin City North, the Youth Support programme offers services to young people aged 8–12. While some of its work was restricted during the summer, team members continued to engage with young people via phone and video calls. The team found that many young people also remained on the programme for longer than usual. This was due to them having missed out on core parts of the group activity elements during the Covid lockdowns.

For our Janus teams located across the country, this was also a busy year as they developed new ways of connecting with young people and families.

In North Dublin, our Janus team began piloting a new approach to their referral to review process, which incorporates our Outcomes Stars assessment process with regular focus on young person’s objectives and action plans.

Cavan Janus took an innovative approach to engaging with young people by developing a recipe booklet for use in our overnight respite facilities. Cooking is an area many young people enjoy being involved with when on respite and is also an opportunity to teach basic living skills.

Our Kildare Janus teams established a parents group, which was well-attended and allowed families to highlight issues of particular concern.

The East Coast Bray project also worked with parents groups using the Non-Violent Resistance (NVR) approach for child to parent violence which has proven to be very effective with those involved.

And our Galway/Roscommon Janus continued to work in partnership with Tusla and Petersburg Outdoor Education Training Centre (OETC) to provide respite to young people on our projects. This has proven to be very successful to date and is expected to feature significantly for future summer programmes.

My family and I were referred to Extern because we had some issues with our day-to-day lives – things like establishing a good family routine, budgeting our money and getting the children to school on a regular basis.

The team supported us hugely through weekly sessions and activities with the kids. They helped me to become more organised and to work on my parenting skills. They have been a great support emotionally too. My coping skills are much better, and I no longer feel in a dark place. I’m happier and I get out of the house more often. I always make sure my children don’t miss appointments and that they have everything they need.

With the help of Extern I have put so much time into improving my home and worked very hard in all aspects of my life. I can now make a phone call confidently and manage my own responsibilities whereas before I would have let other people do those things for me.

I am so proud of how far we have all come. We wouldn’t be where we are without Extern – they have been the best thing that has ever happened to my family.

Parent, Intensive Home Support Service, Dublin