How our health visiting programme helped Lancashire’s most vulnerable families

Supporting families

MECSH is a home visiting programme that supports families in the transition to parenthood. It runs for a period of two years, with weekly sessions for the first six weeks post-birth, followed by fortnightly meetings, then moving to monthly visits. There are 25 contacts with a health visitor.

The criteria for MECSH is quite varied but generally supports parents with young children who are isolated, mothers with issues such as low mood and anxiety, mothers with a history of substance misuse or alcohol addiction, or families where there is a history of domestic violence.

Our health visitors started their training in October 2021, with our final cohort completing in June 2022. The same health visitor visits the family each time, to allow for continuity and to build strong relationships.

A first-time mother, who is almost a year into the MECSH programme, says the supportive relationship she has built with her health visitor has given her a huge amount of confidence.

She says: “I was a first-time mum and the youngest sibling in my family, so didn’t have a lot of knowledge about babies. I felt very anxious and nervous and found things hard-going. I questioned myself a lot around feeding and changing my baby and whether I was doing things right.”

Her baby is now 11 months old and she is feeling much more positive about her parenting journey.

“My health visitor has been very helpful, given lots of advice and has given me my confidence back,” she added. “She explained the programme and is always there when I’ve needed to contact her.”

A supportive experience

Another mum, who had a lot of issues after having her first baby, said MECSH has revolutionised her second experience of having a child.

The unmarried mum of two children said she really struggled to bond with her first child, who is now three-and-a-half. Her ex-partner was a heavy drinker and drug-user and at the time the baby was born she said she wanted to spend time going out with friends and relied on family to look after her baby. In the end, her baby was given to a family member to raise and now has contact with the baby every week.

Amy Leyland, who led the implementation of the programme, says: “The mum really struggled with mental health issues and attempted suicide by jumping from a bridge, resulting in her being sectioned. She had support from the mental health team and a health visitor, but she struggled with both those relationships.

“Her experience of having a second child has been completely different, thanks to her health visitor recommending her for the MECSH programme. She feels she has a fantastic relationship with the health visitor for her second child and can speak to her about anything. The mum is happy in a new relationship with her second baby’s dad and he is very supportive. She has had suicidal thoughts again, but says she knows she can contact her mental health worker and her health visitor for support. She says she feels like her health visitor really cares about her.

“The mum says she would give MECSH five stars as it makes her feel she is able to cope and when she needs support, she can phone her health visitor any time. She said she was reluctant to ask for help as she thought this would reflect negatively on her, but her new health visitor offered the support to her without having to ask. She feels the support has been invaluable and allowed her to bond with and keep her baby.”

Tailored to the needs of each baby

Over 100 families have experienced the transformative power of MESCH so far.

Support is given to each family tailored to their needs. This support might come after a mum flags an issue with themself or their babies. For instance, if the mother has a history of anxiety or depression they can sit with their health visitor and go through those signs and symptoms and where to access help.

There is also a real benefit to households where there may be a history of domestic violence. Statistics show it takes a lot of asking for a mum or a dad to feel confident enough to say that it is happening. “I think they have to be asked 27 times on average until they can speak up,” Amy says. “Questions about domestic violence are asked antenatally at the midwifery appointments, and then we continue asking at the 25 contacts we have on top of that. So, we are much more likely to get a disclosure that we can help a family with.”

The MECSH programme is voluntary, but once a family has chosen to sign up, they have access to contacts who can support things like infant feeding, baby brain development and sleep.

Baby massage to aid with bonding, will be added to the programme soon.

Amy says: “It’s early days, some families may have only had one contact so far as part of MECSH, but families are already telling us that they’re learning things that they wouldn’t have otherwise known about and say they feel well-supported.

“The ultimate aims of the programme are to provide extra support for the families that need it most and to ensure their children are developing as they should be. At the end of the two years, we want these families to be able to cope on their own and feel well-informed. It’s a steady process to get MECSH embedded, but we can see that it is working and we’re doing what we set out to do.”