Policy & Practice: Judgment call

A family support worker helping a mother with depression discovers thefamily has a host of other problems.

The support worker explains how she helped the family to address thedomestic violence they had suffered.

I work for a family support project. About two years ago a woman wasreferred to me. She was a single mother and had fled from another citywhere she had problems with a boyfriend. She had three children and wasliving in a homeless hostel.

I started to work with her on the basis that she had depression. Therewas lots of chaos in the home and difficult behaviour to manage from thechildren.

I have done a lot of work with people dealing with depression and I knowit affects your confidence but there was something different about theway the children interacted with each other and the way she could nothold eye contact or accept any positive feedback.