Family Support Services are for families and individuals who need help. Family life is not always easy. Life events like birth, death, depression, redundancy, separation, illness, abuse or financial problems all put stress and strain on family life and relationships.
Family Support Services can help. Simply having someone to talk to about your problem can be the easiest way to begin to deal with your problem. There are many support groups for adults, teenagers, children and carers that give people the chance to tell their own stories and give support to each other. Specilist services provide support for domestic violence or child abuse.
Your concerns are dealt with in confidence by trained personnel who will give the appropriate support, advice and help.
In cases where a child’s/person's safety is in danger, social services or the Gardai may need to be informed, but this will be discussed first. If a child is at risk they may may move into foster care or residential care.
Whatever your circumstances the HSE provide a range of services that offer advice and support to families. This includes social workers, youth workers, family support workers, family centres, support groups, and counselling services. These types of services help families work through difficult issues, ensure children have a stable environment to live in, and provide support for parents who are finding it hard to cope.
Types of family support
Therapeutic work
Parent education programmes
Home-based parent and family support programmes
Child development and education interventions
Youth work
Community development
Therapeutic work
Therapeutic work aims to help people overcome life problems by helping them to make positive changes in themselves and their relationships. One of its main activities is emotionally supportive listening and counselling. Children, adolescents, parents, couples and families can avail of therapeutic work. One of the most valued aspects of family support as seen by clients is the improvement which it brings to personal and family well-being. Thus family support is fundamentally therapeutic in orientation.
Parent education programmes
Parent education programmes aim to improve the knowledge and skills of parents for the purpose of improving the development of their children. These programmes usually take the form of group-based courses outside the home. Programmes which are delivered inside the home, notwithstanding their educational content, are more usefully classified as parent support programmes because of the important element of support which they entail.
Home-based parent and family support programmes
These are delivered to all families such as home visits by public health nurses, and some are targeted at vulnerable families. As with other family support measures, home-based interventions also vary according to the professional status of the service provider, the methods of working, the duration of the programme, etc.
Child development and education interventions
Interventions to promote the development and education of children from disadvantaged backgrounds comprise a wide range of measures such as crèches, nurseries, play groups, preschools, homework clubs, after-school clubs, home-school liaison services, alternative school projects, etc. The specific focus of these interventions is the child but parents, schools and the community may also be involved. These interventions normally exclude education in the formal schooling system although schools are potentially - and sometimes actually - a rich source of support to vulnerable children and their families. As such there is considerable scope for developing partnerships between family support services and schools which can add to the effectiveness of both for the benefit of children.
Youth work
Youth work, leisure, education and personal development. Its broad aim is the personal and social development of young people and the preparation for a successful transition to adult life. In Ireland, about half of all young people are involved in youth activities compared to over 60% in Britain.
Community development is about building communities - especially communities in disadvantaged areas – through working with groups and organisations to develop collective strategies on common issues such as housing, environment and local services. From the perspective of family support, community development addresses the contextual factors which impinge on, and often exacerbate, the problems of vulnerable families. As such, its focus of action is strengths and weaknesses within the community rather than within the family.
back to top
Last updated on: 04 / 08 / 2011