Author Archives: Valerie

SPACE – Annual Report 2015

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SPACE (Supporting People and Communities Everyday)

Space_annualreport

SPACE is a charity registered with HMRC, (formally known as South Down Family Health Initiative). SPACE supports individuals and families through challenging times in their lives. The SPACE vision is to have a healthy and active population in which every person has access to services and opportunities enabling them to reach their full potential. The SPACE mission statement establishes that they want to work with and connect individuals, families and the community to support and enable people to improve their health and wellbeing. Over the last 11 years SPACE has developed a range of services to help people realise their full potential, these services have grown to provide training, support and resources to individuals and families as well as contributing substantively to the local economy by creating over 25 full and part-time jobs as well as numerous independent contractor and volunteer opportunities. There are three overarching areas of their work:

– SPACE 1—Supporting Parents and Children
– SPACE 2—Supporting People and Communities
– SPACE 3—Supporting Potential and Community Enterprise.

Throughout this report you will find detail on the work undertaken in 2015 by staff, management board and volunteers. Please take the time to read about our progress and if you wish to learn more or talk to SPACE about a project or service, lift the phone.

 Click here to Download

Views sought on autism and mental health services for children and young people

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The Health and Social Care Board (HSCB) and Public Health Agency (PHA) want to hear about your experiences to help shape how care is delivered in Northern Ireland.

10,000 Voices is a PHA initiative which gives people an opportunity to provide feedback on their experiences of accessing Health and Social Care services by asking for members of the public to ‘tell us their story’.

Mary Hinds, Director of Nursing and Allied Health Professions at the PHA, said:

“10,000 Voices aims to involve the public in shaping future healthcare services across Northern Ireland. The initiative acknowledges that patient and client contribution is fundamental to ensuring that services are commissioned to deliver better outcomes for patients, their families and carers.

“We want people to tell us about their experiences of health and social care and to highlight the things that were important to them. The information we receive will help us to direct how health and social care is shaped and delivered in Northern Ireland.”

If you or someone you care for has had experience with either or both of the following services in the past twelve months:

  • Autism (children and young people up to age 18)
  • Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS)

10,000 Voices would like to hear your story

You can tell your story by completing a survey before 30 June 2016 at

www.10000voices.info or you can complete it by downloading the app:

  1. Go to the app store and download SenseMaker
  2. Enter the Activity Code: 10KVoicesAutismandCAMHS

Paper versions of the survey are also available on request at any CAMHS or Autism Clinic.

Tony Rodgers, Assistant Director of Social Care and Children with the Health and Social Care Board, said:

“This project creates a very important opportunity for children, young people and their families to share their experiences of CAMHS and paediatric autism services. By capturing their stories, we will have a very rich source of meaningful information from across the region giving an accurate picture of what works well, but also where changes and improvements may be needed. The results of the survey will provide a very solid basis for influencing the shape and development of these services both in the short and longer term.”

The survey has been live since January 2016 and while responses have been steady across both CAMHS and Autism it is still quite slow.  We would encourage as many people as possible to tell their stories – it does make a difference!

For further information on 10,000 Voices please contact Christine Armstrong (Regional Lead for 10,000 Voices) christine.armstrong@setrust.hscni.net

ENDS

For further information, contact PHA Corporate and Public Affairs on 0300 555 0117.

If you have an urgent media enquiry outside normal working hours, please call our dedicated out-of-hours service on 0300 555 0118.

Follow the PHA on Twitter (www.twitter.com/publichealthni) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/publichealthagency).

Delivering Social Change Stakeholder Update – March 2016

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Keep up to date with all the latest developments happening within the Delivering Social Change Stakeholder Update.  The latest update includes information on:-

  • Appointment of a new Comissioner for Older People
  • Our Population: What Matters Most
  • EITP – Getting Ready to Learn Project
  • EITP – Building Better Futures Project
  • EITP – Supporting a Social Enterprise for Care Leavers and Homeless Young People
  • Development of the next Children and Young People’s Strategy
  • Together: Building a United Community Strategy
  • Consultation on draft annual indicators for the monitoring and evaluation
    of the ‘Active Ageing Strategy 2016 – 2021’
  • The UN Committee on the Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)
  • The Executive publishes Child Poverty Strategy
  • Childcare Strategy

If you would like to contact the Delivering Social Change Communications Team

Write to:

Delivering Social Change Communications Team

Finance, Strategic Planning and Social Change Directorate

Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister

Room E4.15, Block E

Castle Buildings, Stormont Estate

Belfast, BT4 3SR

dsccomms@ofmdfmni.gov.uk

028 9052 2640

Read more….

Fathers and Families Programme – May 2016

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Parenting NI are delighted to announce the upcoming Fathers and Families programme which will be delivered in Belfast, beginning Wednesday 11th May 2016.

This 6 week programme is beneficial to all fathers, and will be delivered each Wednesday evening from 6.00pm – 8.00pm, beginning 11th May 2016 and finishing on 15th June 2016.

If you know of any fathers who may be interested or who you think may benefit from this programme, please invite them to contact Parenting NI’s freephone Helpline on 0808 8010 722 to register for a place.

For further information click on the link below

Fathers and Families Poster

Family Support NI Website – Finding Information

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The Family Support NI website is a valuable resource for Families, Young People, Children and Practitioners in Northern Ireland to find local services to meet their needs.

The site provides details of a wide range of services provided by statutory, voluntary and community organisations to support families. You will also find details of ALL REGISTERED childcare providers in N.Ireland.  For an overview on the different ways to find information on www.familysupportni.gov.uk please click on the link below:

Family Support NI Flyer