Home-Start Runnymede and Woking

There for parents when they need us most...
Because childhood can't wait

We were referred to Home-Start when our daughter was 3 years old because of her complex health needs which meant she was only just starting to walk and required 24 hour care. When we were referred we were very isolated as neither my wife nor I drive. We were living in a 2nd floor flat which meant we had to carry our daughter up and down stairs whenever we left home. Because of this, my wife never left the house during the day and I would always have to take time off work to attend hospital appointments with my wife and daughter.

Our Home-Start volunteer has been so wonderful. My wife was initially unsure about having someone come into the home but she really values the support and friendship she gets from our volunteer. She has helped us in so many ways, including:

• Helping our daughter with her speech and learning, through reading, games,
  
• imaginative play, singing and dancing
  
• Helping my wife feel less isolated
  
• Giving our daughter stimulation even when she is too ill for nursery
  
• Giving my wife a break from 24 hour care
  
• Helping with trips to the park and appointments
  
• Helping us with setting boundaries for our daughter
  
• Helping get our daughter ready for starting school

We were referred to Home-Start by our Health Visitor when our son was two and a half years old and our daughter was 6 months old. Our son wore hearing aids as he was unable to hear and this made it difficult for him to understand us. Because of this his behaviour had become very hard to manage and he needed to be watched constantly. He also had lots of hospital appointments to attend. I was working long hours and my wife was waiting for abdominal surgery. This meant she found it difficult to walk very far and was not able to take both children out on her own. It was a very hard time.

A volunteer started coming to visit us every week and we looked forward to Wednesdays when she came. She took my wife and the children out to the park and came along with us to some appointments. She took us to the Children’s Centre so the children were not only able to go out but also play with other children and she drove us to White Lodge so that we could go to a 6 week speech therapy course for children who can’t speak.

The children were completely different when the volunteer visited. She showed us how to play and we were able to see how to manage their behaviour which had been very hard before. However, we were still finding it difficult and our son would often try to run off as he had no sense of danger. Home-Start suggested an assessment by Children’s services, after which we worked with the Family Support Programme. We then had a large team of people working with us which helped and the volunteer was able to guide us on where to go for various types of support and advice.

We have two boys who were 4½ and 1 year when my husband, their father, had a cardiac arrest whilst cycling and a suffered a broken collar bone as he fell. Amazingly he survived, but was in hospital for a while. The hospital was not close to home, and to make it a worthwhile visit, resulted in a minimum 5 hour trip. I ended up cooking different food for everyone as they all had different needs – weaning a baby and taking food to my husband who wouldn’t eat hospital food.

He recovered and came home but had to go back two days later with a collapsed lung. He ended up in our local hospital but at this point his morale was very low. He finally recovered and came home but was unable to look after the children or drive.  Shortly after his return our 1 year old son got chicken pox and subsequently sepsis. He and I were in hospital in isolation for a week.

We have no family who can help out and I found it difficult asking friends repeatedly to look after the boys. There were further complications but the result of all of this was that I wasn’t sleeping and was incredibly stressed, worried about the health of both husband and child, and feeling that everyone needed me equally.

Our 4 year old, James has learning difficulties due to a chromosome disorder. He has very little speech and some challenging behaviour. We also have an 18 month old toddler. We were offered a Home-Start volunteer when my second child was a newborn.

I had not heard of Home-Start before and was nervous if I would get on with our volunteer – I had no need to be concerned, we could not have been matched with a more wonderful volunteer.

She comes each week for 2 hours, sometimes we go to the park or the shops together (going out with both boys on my own is not easy due to James’ behaviour). Sometimes we play at home or in the garden, and she has also accompanied me to medical appointments with James.