We first met Laura when she moved into the area she was being seen by social workers and needed follow on support.
Laura is a single mother with two children, aged five and one. She was a known drug addict who said that she had stopped and was now clean. She did not have the support of her family as they had given up on her. She was having constant problems with her elder son and he was being extremely violent towards her and was also displaying this behaviour at school.
When we first met she was at the end of her tether and did not know what to do. She said that other professionals did not believe how bad the behaviour in the home had become and the effect it had on the rest of the family.
Laura also had issues with her new neighbours regarding her shouting, her language and the constant flow of rowdy people in and out of the property. It was obvious that Laura was still using drugs. During a home visit we discussed this and she became very defensive and said that she did not need any support. I gradually won her trust and continued working with her.
We referred her to local mental health charity for her own wellbeing which helped her to deal with her situation. With YMCA support she worked with her GP and drug counselling course to stop her drug use.
I contacted her housing association who supplied her with a support worker to help her reconcile with her neighbours. She attended a Parenting Puzzle course and About Boys course to enable her to use strategies to set effective boundaries for behaviour with her children.
We liaised with the school and spoke to other professionals when we thought that they were asking too much from Laura and to let her do things at her own pace.
YMCA staff put Laura in touch with Christians Against Poverty to help with her debts and to help her abstain from drugs. She now attends the church every week with her children. She has met another worshipper at the church who is very supportive and she is getting baptised before their planned marriage next year.
