ACAD FAMILIES
More Information
ACAD Families helps families in need of support to better understand and avoid problems through prevention and early intervention services on a residential or outreach basis.
Families are fully involved in the programme from day one, and are invited to say what they want from the service, and supported by staff, become a ‘team around the child’. To start with, work involves careful observation and assessment of what happens within a family to identify what is working well and what is going not so well.
The next step is to use this assessment to focus on the issues presenting the greatest risk and provide support and education to help the family move forward with things that will make most difference. This can include very practical elements like teaching basic childcare, goal setting and behaviour management, to life story and family history work and therapy sessions.
Finally a comprehensive report is sent to social services and other stakeholders involved with the family. Using the comprehensive assessment tool, this report focuses on strengths and weaknesses, and provides a picture of both the whole family and individual family members. It is backed up by clear evidence, based on observing what actually happened over an extended period.
Programmes are tailored to meet the specific needs and circumstances of individual families and can happen in our specially designed houses in the South of Scotland, and in the family home.. The staff involved have a broad range of qualifications and experiences, including family work, and provide support around the clock.
For parents, carers, children and young people:
We can provide support to you and your family when you need it. This could include:
- Managing children and parent’s behaviour
- Setting up good routines
- Giving parents and children a break from each other
- Helping with children who have additional needs
- Supporting contact with separated families
We are very flexible and work at times and places to suit you, including early morning, evening, weekends and within the family home.
Being an independent organisation we can be very discreet, any work we do is kept very confidential unless we have concerns about child welfare or you are being referred by another organisation.
You can refer yourself or you can ask another agency such as social work, to do it for you. Even if you just want a quick chat...
For Social Workers and Other Agencies
The Parent Assessment Manual is a comprehensive tool for identifying family strengths and weaknesses. The assessment uses simple language and humorous illustrations to promote interactive assessment practice. The Parent Assessment Manual is based on current theory and research, as well as on clinical practice. This assessment tool is valuable across disciplines. It can be used in its complete form, or individual sections can be used, depending on the need. The Parent Assessment Manual uses a variety of means in assessing parenting skills, including; rating scales, questionnaires, checklists, and illustrated exercises.
For more information see www.pillcreekpublishing.com PAMs uses both qualitative and quantitative assessment and looks at parenting in terms of knowledge, skills and frequency of practice, and the impact it has on the child’s functioning, care and development. Along with guidance from the referring social services team, it would be the means by which the specific focus and educational work would be developed.
Specific child assessment areas may include:
Feeding.
Healthcare – General, hygiene and warmth.
Parental Responsiveness.
Stimulation – Visual, motor and language.
Guidance and Control.
Responsibility and Independence.
Specific parent assessment areas may include:
Household Routines.
Time Telling.
Telephone Skills.
Travel Skills.
Budgeting.
Shopping.
Cooking & Washing.
Hygiene – Kitchen/living room, bedroom, bathroom.
General Safety.
Safety – Kitchen/living Room, bedroom, bathroom, outside the house.
Safety from abuse.
Parent Healthcare – mental and physical.
Relationships and Support.
Environment and Community.
Outreach and Home Based Family Support Initiative:
Applied Care & Development’s Outreach Support Initiative is a flexible open-ended programme of care and support to families, children and young people.
The range of programmes of care and development are needs led and have been effective in the areas of crisis management and prevention and keeping families together. Workers can work individually or in pairs, if this is felt to be more appropriate. They can be based within the family home or accompany children and/or parents/carers out in to the community or to an alternative venue such as a community centre or hired room.
The focus of the work depends on the referrer’s requirements, but an ongoing assessment based on the My World Framework, would also inform any planning. Staff use their observation and analytical skills to identify the dynamics within the family, existing patterns of communication and behaviour, assess the positive and negative consequences of these and understand any underlying causes of them. This will identify the foundations of, and presentation of difficulties within a family and what needs to change to remove or reduce them.
Staff will implement strategies based on their ongoing assessment. Some of these will focus on an individual’s impact on a given issue and others will concentrate on more than one person.
Where is the service?
The service is based in Gretna, Dumfries and Galloway. The house is within a mile of the M6, and 1½hrs from Glasgow. There is train station in Gretna and local and national connections for buses.
How many service users can you accommodate at any one time?
ACAD Families provide a care home service for a maximum of 6 adults who may be accompanied by their children. Accommodation is provided in two adjacent houses.
At what stage of pregnancy can you accommodate a family for a pre-birth?
We can accommodate at any stage. But a pre-birth should ideally be done in the second trimester between 20 and 30 weeks of pregnancy. We could work with a pre-birth assessment followed through with support through birth and a short post-natal period.
How would you keep a family at the unit if they were accommodated on a voluntary basis?
Ultimately, we could not keep a family on a voluntary basis.
However we are guided by evidence 1 that parents like to retain some independence and control over what happens during any intervention and be supported with practical advice in which the parents and the carers work together to build a ‘team around the child’.
The families live semi independently in a supported but self contained unit. We involve the parents in assessment and care planning, which leads on to practical education sessions targeted at the most immediate needs. We can help parents with everything from nappy changing to structured play and cooking for kids.
Evidence also suggests families value time and space to express and explore their relationships and the team have within them staff with experience and professional training to support this more personally oriented work.
Ref 1 ‘Supporting Parents. Messages from Research’. David Quinton. Jessica Kingsley Press
What assessment would you offer?
We can offer a number of assessment tools. The primary tool is a models called PAMs or Parent Assessment Manual Software, developed by Dr Sue McGaw. This has been successfully used for over 10 years. PAMs offers a practical and systemic approach to assessment of families. It encompasses a range of tools to help assessors and families construct detailed profiles of individuals and the family as a whole.
Specific and direct work with PAMs would be underpinned by the principles of the Common Assessment Framework the ‘My World’ Assessment Triangle and the Department of Health ‘Framework of Assessment of Children in Need and their Families’.
What model is the assessment based on?
‘Parenting Skills Model’ (McGaw and Sturmey, 1994), the ‘Knowledge/Skills/Practice Contingency Model’ (McGaw, 1998), the ‘Research Literature On The Topic Of Parenting And Child Development’ (Marfo, 1998), the ‘Measurement Of Parenting And Risk Assessment Instruments’ (Fashel, Finch, Grundy, 1994; Seaberg, 1998, Quinton, 1996) and the ‘DOH Assessment Framework’.
