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Best Family Mental Health Charity: using lived experience to support parents and carers

Every day, we provide parent support to parents and carers whose children are facing struggles in life.

Their struggles may relate to social or educational needs at school, for example bullying or attendance. They may face mental health illnesses such as anxiety or OCD, neurodevelopmental disorders such ADHD or Autism, or complex co-occurring conditions. Some children may face physical illness or disability, sometimes in combination with mental health or neurodevelopmental conditions. For some children they may be struggling with recent change, like family separation or blended family life, or bereavement.

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While there are numerous reasons parents and carers reach out to us, there are some common themes we hear during our parent support sessions.

When seeking support for their child’s mental and emotional needs, parents and carers often report feeling:

  • Dismissed by local health services
  • Unheard
  • Lost
  • Alone
  • Frustrated
  • Unsure what to do to support their child’s mental and emotional health needs.

Despite 1 in 8 children and young people suffering from anxiety, and parents identifying anxiety as the biggest factor affecting their child’s emotional and mental health, only half of parents feel satisfied with the support1 their child is receiving.

We believe that no parent should struggle alone when caring for a child and that the voice of the parent is paramount.

Parents who feel heard and supported gain confidence in providing the care that their child needs, using their own parenting skills and valuable coping strategies. With increased confidence comes higher resilience, and this emphasis also demonstrates to parents the value of investing in their own mental wellbeing, just as much as their child’s.

When the parent voice is heard, the child’s needs are met.

1 The-National-Parent-Survey-UK-2023.pdf

Our lived experience Parent Peer Support Workers provide 1-2-1 sessions to share tailored insights on:

  • How to find information
  • School systems
  • CAMHS
  • Other services and charities that provide specialist help

Sometimes, our team are simply a shoulder to lean on or an ear to listen for parent support.

We also host group sessions, workshops, and events at our Parent Hub, connecting parents and carers to share and listen in an informal and open space.

Most of our parent support takes place at our Hub in Eastbourne, just off the high street on Hyde Gardens. Parents and carers can simply pop in for a chat and cuppa, or attend scheduled face to face sessions to access parent support in groups or 1-2-1.

We also work with local schools where we host coffee mornings for parents and carers and deliver assemblies to children.

You can also find us out and about in the community at fundraising events, like gift wrapping or awareness drives in the local Tesco. If you see our stall, please do come and say hello!

As a small, local charity we rely on donations and volunteers to keep our parent support services running.

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How you can help

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SET UP A MONTHLY DONATION
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MAKE A ONE-OFF DONATION
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SIGN UP TO VOLUNTEER
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Access our parent support

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Begin your journey with us
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Upcoming events
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Upcoming workshops
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Join our private Facebook group for parents and carers
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