Donna: Working to get her baby back.

Donna has had previous involvement with the justice system due to substance misuse issues. She has had a traumatic background and has recently given birth. The baby is currently under social work supervision and living with a foster family

I was allocated to work with Donna following the transition to Upside from the previous throughcare service. I attended a social work meeting, intending to introduce myself to Donna and the other agencies involved with her case. Donna had called to say that she wasn’t aware of the meeting and did not attend. At the meeting, her lack of engagement with other services was highlighted as a major concern for social work.

Following the meeting, the previous worker and I arranged to try and meet with Donna, noting that she frequently cancelled arranged visits and engagement was generally sporadic.

The meeting did go ahead though, and we discussed the support that l would be providing as her allocated worker. We arranged to meet up the following week and get to know each other a bit better.

Donna attended the meeting with me, and we had a really good chat about what she wanted from the service and the various ways l could support her. Her main goal was to get her baby back into her care so that she could be a Mum to her son.

Donna started to engage with social work and addictions on a regular basis, with the result that contact with her son was increased to five days per week. She has been engaging well with social work and doing her parenting assessment with them.

Donna has continued to engage with me on a regular basis, and we have built up a good relationship over the past seven weeks. She said that she feels comfortable to talk to me as her worker and we are in regular contact.

This week l met Donna at her contact meeting with social work. They told us they have no concerns over her parenting skills and are preparing a referral to a residential support centre to support her with her addictions. The centre is a family unit and when she is assessed as stable, her baby will be placed into her care within the unit for up to six months. The baby has now been taken off the child protection register.

Donna is just at the start of her journey but since engaging with Upside and other services she’s starting to make progress.