The Family Help Trust (FHT) services involve intensive interventions with families considered at very high-risk of abusing or maltreating their children.
The FHT has two programmes, New Start and Safer Families, both of which provide a similar service of long-term, seamless home-based support to families from before the birth of their child, right up to the child is 5 years old.
The child is the primary client of FHT and is the focus of services. FHT services are available free to pregnant women and parents with children under 6 months, who also have multiple-risk histories including chronic offending, drug and alcohol use, family violence, unsuitable housing, care and protection issues, and/or gang involvement. Clients are referred to FHT by midwives, other health sector agencies (including the Methadone Service), probation, prison service and community agencies.
The FHT provides a home visit service that helps families deal with the multiple and cross-cutting issues such as housing, adequate food, budgeting and finances, family relationships, violence, parenting, child health issues, and drug and alcohol misuse. Intervention services are provided by trained social workers who aim to develop a mentoring relationship with the family. Social workers:
- work with the primary parent and their partner to help them recognise and develop their strengths
- provide information, advice and support on the care, development, safety and protection of babies and young children and ensure regular access to appropriate medical support
- challenge behaviour that threatens the children's physical and emotional well being, including an unborn child
- help families with decision making and problem solving
- assist with access to other appropriate counselling or community services and courses.
Visits to the home range from daily to once every 3 months, with families receiving weekly social worker visits when they are first enrolled with the service. Case workers usually work with 15-18 families at a time. Programme Goals
The goals of the service are to improve: - child health
- early-childhood education use
- parenting skills
- home management and budgeting skills
- family self-reliance and functioning
And reduce: - child abuse and neglect
- parental offending, violence and substance abuse
- use of emergency and social services (such as Women’s Refuge or Police)
Research and Evaluation
FHT has a continued strong commitment to evidence-informed practice. The programme is informed by findings from the Child Health and Development longitudinal study based in Christchurch overseen by Professor David Fergusson. Professor Fergusson was involved initially in designing and implementing the current service, which for several years (until 2001) ran alongside the Early Start and Family Start programmes in Christchurch. Further evaluation of the services has been undertaken to determine outcomes for families, and has been used to improve practice. External evaluation undertaken by University of Canterbury researchers in 2003 found high levels of satisfaction from both client's families and referral agencies. The evaluation found: - Family violence decreased dramatically and by 12 months, only one out of 13 was still experiencing violent behaviours
- Criminal behaviour declined immediately after intake, although some confounding variables warrant further examination in this area
- There was a noticeable decrease in the number of families living in unsuitable accommodation. Once they were re-housed they made their environments much safer for babies/children
- There was a decline in substance abuse and gang involvement
The evaluation also showed that all but one of the providers making referrals to the service said the referral devices were easy to use. The referrers were happy with the service, would continue making referrals, and most said they had seen change in the families. Several reported that the clients they had referred had achieved better outcomes as a result. A further evaluation undertaken in 2006 by Turner involving 55 client families showed significant improvements in outcomes.
Of the client's parents who were involved in the research: - 55% were placed in care as a child
- 71% had experienced violence
- 78% had some involvement with Child Youth and Family
- 73% had previous mental health problems
- 55% had been convicted of an offence
- 46% had never worked in paid employment
- 64% of mothers reported regular drug use during pregnancy
- 40% of mothers were on the methadone programme
After 12 months of FHT services, the progress interviews with clients showed that there were improvements in: - child rearing practices by the mothers (along with reduced involvement of Child Youth and Family Services)
- health and safety of children (including less violence by mothers towards children)
- social support for the family
- protection from family violence
Funding and Administration
In 2000, FHT estimated the cost of services to a family at an average of $5,000 per annum. The service is funded by Child Youth and Family, Christchurch City Council, New Zealand Lottery board, various philanthropic trusts, and Contact Energy as a principal corporate sponsor. Additional funding is raised by an active fundraising committee which organises various events throughout the year. FHT worked with a local IT company to design their own comprehensive case management database that allows for ongoing information about client progress, internal accountability and monitoring, and the use of aggregated service information for research and evaluation purposes. The database Myrtle, developed with a sophisticated search engine, is a source of pride for the agency. FHT is a member of jigsaw, a national child advocacy network. Along with another jigsaw member agency, FHT has developed good practice guidelines for home visiting support services in Aotearoa New Zealand (see below). Disclaimer: The NZFVC provides programme descriptions in order to make information about family violence initiatives and interventions more accessible, with the aim of contributing to improving practice.
Listing a programme in the Practice Database does not constitute a recommendation or endorsement by the NZFVC. Research and evaluation evidence is supplied by the programme provider. Programmes have not been independently evaluated by the NZFVC.
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