Helping children who might otherwise have dropped out of school early stay in the education system and assisting disadvantaged parents are the aim of a range of innovative services provided by the Western Health Board. The services challenge traditional ways of working with families.
Since the first Neighbourhood Youth Project (NYP) was set up in the Westside area of Galway city in 1991, the health board has developed 17 Family Support Service initiatives, including 11 Neighbourhood Youth Projects (NYPs) throughout the region from Ballybane and Ballinfoyle in the city to towns such as Ballinasloe, Clifden and Boyle - more than any other Health Board region in the country. They all have the ultimate aim of preventing children from going into care.
Co-ordinator of the NYPs, Pat Dolan, said of the projects: "We provide community-based local services where service users are treated like shareholders, as opposed to the traditional option of taking children into care. The idea is that adults and children who need support get it in their own communities in a low-key, non-stigmatising way."
Mr Dolan was project leader with the first NYP in the Westside. He has a unique insight into the challenges facing family support services, and his readiness to embrace innovative approaches has made him the driving force behind the development of services in the west.
He is co-author of the recently published study, Family Support - Direction from Diversion, with John Canavan and John Pinkerton.
A young person can drop into any of the NYP centres for a game of pool and a chat, take part in organised activities such as canoeing or hiking, or go away on day and weekend trips.
Parents can call in to talk to a member of the multidisciplinary team of psychologists, social workers and childcare workers about their concerns over adolescents and drug use or for advice on parenting.
A young person who has difficulty at school can be referred to an NYP for support, or simply for extra help with homework.
"The traditional option of taking a child with a problem away from a family, fixing the problem and putting the child back into the family is not the right option," says Mr Dolan. "Because these problems don't occur in isolation, they can't be solved in isolation.
"Young people and parents with problems have a very good insight into their own problems, and it is important to sit down with them and work out the best solution to their problems. The professionals have to learn from the family rather than the other way round."
As part of the NYP's partnership approach, young people form part of the project management committees. In fact, the chair of the Boyle NYP is a 15-year-old who, with the health board's support, has authority over a team of service-providers.
Community mentoring has been found to be one of the most effective tools in family support, and the Western Health Board is in the process of implementing mentoring programmes this year. The idea is that rather than relying on professionals, parents receive support and advice from other parents in the community who have already reared children and adolescents.
Relying on such "natural helpers" is seen as less likely to create a stigma than calling on a professional for help. It is also cheaper, and help is usually available outside office hours, at times when a lone parent at breaking point with a troublesome teenager often has nobody to call but a garda.
Mentors would also share skills ranging from pitch-and-putt and fishing to astronomy. Mr Dolan says such a scheme would have to be made safe for both youths and adults, but there were ways to do this.
"A huge amount of evidence in the UK shows that young people who had difficulties and survived, when asked what got them through, would recognise a football coach or a teacher or the local groundsman at a football club. It could be anybody.
"The mentor programmes usually work best when the young person identifies the person they feel could mentor them, somebody they feel they could talk to, and a NYP staff member would then approach that person."
The health board then steps in by providing additional support, be it a pair of football boots or a fishing rod, whatever they feel will help keep a young person happily occupied, out of trouble and away from the care system.
