Family Services has a wide range of support available, from helping find suitable crèches, nurseries and education centres, to helping find respite for young carers and offering family mediation. They can also offer support in the form of nutrition and diet help, as well as with housing and money worries. Support is often offered to families with complex and/or difficult issues that affect them negatively on a regular basis. These can include but are not limited to:
- Financial problems
- Mental health and wellbeing
- Disability
- Domestic abuse
- Substance misuse and/or alcohol problems
Family Services also have links to other agencies, helping you get in contact with people and services that can provide specialized help and involvement. The help offered can be short term or long term, helping families with what they need until they feel comfortable moving forward by themselves.
Families need not rely on these tools alone however, as there are many services that allow for additional support under special circumstances. These can include:
- Maternity/allowance pay and leave
- Adoption pay and leave
- Unpaid parental leave
- Child benefits
- Disability living allowance
- Childcare grant
- Free school meals
- Guardian’s allowance
- Parent’s learning allowance
While Family Services are available to all members of a family in need, the effects are felt most with children. Certain circumstances within families can lead to a much higher rate of mental illness within children of those families. Within children aged 2-16 years old, rates of mental disorders are higher dependent upon these circumstances. Some of the most common are:
- 54% in families that struggle to function well
- 68% in families with a parent with a mental disorder
- 48% in families that receive welfare benefits
- 40% in families with parents that have no qualifications
Marital status of the parents can also have major effect on the rate of mental disorders. Within the same group of children, rates of mental disorders are 20% within families with married parents, 26% within families that live together but are not married, 44% with a single parent, and 37% with a previously married single parent.
In addition to these issues, family services offer help to families who experience domestic abuse. In 2020, 5.5% of 16–74-year-olds in England and Wales have experienced domestic abuse. This amounts to 2.3 million people, 1.6 million of which were women and 757,000 men. Specialized help can be offered alleviate this somewhat, including help with local nurseries, child minders, playgroups and short breaks from children with special needs. They can also help with