Your FYI is a monthly round up of all things family support and early
intervention prevention across the Western trust and beyond.
If you would like to contribute upcoming consultations, training, articles, or
events that practitioners from the community, voluntary or statutory sectors
within the Western Trust will find useful please contact: –
Dr Priscilla Magee Mobile 07880723076 priscilla.magee@westerntrust.hscni.net
Paul Sweeney Mobile 07387259117 paul.sweeney@westerntrust.hscni.net
Reducing salt in our diets is a quick and effective way to reduce our blood pressure and improve our health. We often don’t realise just how much salt we are eating because most of the salt we eat is already in the food we buy.
Find out more in our short video: https://youtu.be/JC9ZoGD6T0w?si=Ws9Mtsb5x4s0FBnd
March 2025 saw the end of the Western Health and Social Care Trust (in colloboration with CYPSP) Autism Support Cafés for the financial year. Coordinated by the Health Improvement, Equality and Involvement Department in partnership with local councils and Community organisations, the cafes bring together statutory and community and voluntary sector services. These services offer support to adults, parents, carers and their families who have an Autism diagnosis, are awaiting assessment or are displaying early indicators that they may be Neurodivergent.
Our last café took place in Castlepark Leisure Centre, Lisnaskea to coincide with the beginning of Autism Acceptance week 2025. With over 20 services regularly attending the different cafes over the last year to provide information, support and signposting, the cafes have proven to be popular with some service users commenting;
“Services is great. Loads of information and staff was lovely” and “Great event, lots of variety of support available for families”
We want the cafes to be a place where adults, parents and carers can come and speak with different services which are all in one place in an informal way.
Image with text – picture of 2 people holding cup and saucer and write up about autism cafes which took place in 2024/25.
Images with text showcasing some highlights of the 2025 Autism Cafes
The April edition of the Family Support Hub Newsletter is now available https://cypsp.hscni.net/download/391/family-support-hubs/45810/fsh-newsletter-april2025.pdf
(Please Note: Newsletter will download directly to your device. Look out for the pop-up box and click on open file when it appears).
Hello and welcome to another edition of the Family Support Hub newsletter. What gorgeous weather we’ve been having. Fingers crossed it stays for the Easter break!!
I’ve got to be out and about at a range of events and there’s a lot going on, not least the recent Hub Coordinators Day in Dungannon, CiNI launch of the School Anxiety and Distress best practice guide and Bolster Communities celebration and awards event in the Canal Court, more information on these events is included in the body of the newsletter. It’s been so uplifting to witness the showcasing of organisations, families and individuals who are working so hard towards improving outcomes for the wider community.
If you have an event, celebration or launch you’re planning in the coming weeks please get in touch and we’ll be happy to include your good news in future newsletters.
Whilst out and about and chatting about the CYPSP resources and information streams I’ve spoken to a range of people who were surprised to hear about the range of information streams and free to use resources on the CYPSP website. I would ask that you take a few minutes to think about other colleagues, friends or organisations that might benefit from this information. If you do, please take a minute to forward it on to them. If anyone wants to be added to the mailing list for the Newsletter please email cypsp@hscni.net and we’ll get you added. Also, please take the time to explore the CYPSP website and the fabulous resources on offer such as the Youth Wellness Web.
It is also packed full of information for parents/carers, early years, children & young people with a disability, mental health and wellbeing advice, Helplines and much more – make sure you download your copy now!
Previous editions of the newsletter are available at http://www.cypsp.hscni.net/family-support-hubs under Family Support Newsletter section.
On Tuesday 8th April an event took place bringing Hub Coordinators from across the region to chat and learn from each other and we were joined by number of speakers who really enriched the discussions and brought extra value to the day. We were delighted to welcome Jacinta Linden, CE of Bolster Community in Newry and Deirdre Mahon, former director of Children’s Services in Western Trust who are the co-chairs of the Family Support Workstream of the Children’s Services Reform Board and Catherine Cooke, the reform Coordinator working on that workstream. The workstream (Workstream 9) was established as part of the Children’s Services Reform Process to reform Children’s Services.
We kicked off the day with the theme of “different but the same” and completed an exercise to further examine the differences in how Hubs work in their areas. This was a great conversation starter and allowed us to consider possible draw backs and benefits of these different approaches. It also provided Jacinta, Deirdre and Catherine with an overview of the wider Hub Network. Jacinta and Deirdre then provided an update on the work they’re leading on and what that might mean going forward. We appreciate them taking the time out of very busy schedules to come and listen to and get an understanding of the Family Support Hub Network and how that fits in our current early family support system. As one of the Coordinators so eloquently summarised, we are working in different ways with the same principles and towards the same goals.
Following the exercise, we had a presentation from Nora and Sarah from Co-operation Ireland’s Our Generation Project. They spoke about their role, an overview of the project, current partners and the potential opportunities for families and organisation in the Hub Networks to avail of their support.
We then had a presentation from Margaret, the Partnership Manager from Money
and Pension Service. Given the rise in the number of families who report financial difficulties coming to hubs this was a very timely presentation. Financial pressures are not just faced by our families and the information was useful to all of us in the room too. She explored the link between financial difficulties and poor outcomes for families as well as the importance of those working with families to have the confidence and knowledge to best support these families. Improving the skills and confidence of the Hubs in providing the best information to families will be something we will be exploring going forward.
After a well-earned break for lunch we finished up the day with the fabulous Ed Sipler. We have shared many of Ed’s resources in previous editions of the FSH Newsletter and so I was delighted he was able to join us in person to help round up the day. Ed’s passion for his work around self-care and self-compassion was so evident in his presentation. We got a really accessible overview what self-care and compassion are, the science and impact it has on our bodies but Ed also kindly took us through some simple techniques to help ourselves. I will certainly be making the effort to introduce some of these techniques in to my daily routine. As always, Ed walked us through some of the resources available to support ourselves and to share with colleagues and families as well as what training he will be offering in the coming months.
It was a busy and educative day. I would like to once again thank all of the Hub Coordinator staff, old and new who came to join us, the speakers Nora, Sarah, Margaret and Ed, the Workstream 9 leadership of Jacinta, Deirdre and Catherine, the staff at The Junction and a final huge thank you to Louise and Yvonne from the Children’s Planning Team who made the day possible.
A day spent with our Hub teams is always a day well spent!
Bronwyn
