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Children with additional needs are more than four times as likely to develop a diagnosable psychiatric disorder than those who do not have additional needs. Many parent carers who come to Unique Ways worry about their child’s emotional wellbeing, and whether they can provide the support they need.

Our Parenting for Health and Emotional Wellbeing (PHEW) course for parents and carers of 11 to 18-year-olds with additional needs focuses on building a parenting relationship with teens that supports their mental health needs.

We encourage parents to see the PHEW course as just one step in their journey as parents of teens with additional needs. We don’t have all the answers about what’s best for your child – after all, you’re the one who knows them best.

One of the most important things the course encourages is realism. We want to be realistic about what we are able to be as parents. It’s not about being your child’s therapist, or gaining a professional qualification as a practitioner.

Instead, the aim of the course is to share tools, ideas and insight that will help you to recognise and improve the mental health and wellbeing of your teen.

It is then up to you how to best use this information to support your child, and if you believe that your teenager needs further professional support then we’ll be able to point you in the right direction.

Lunch Provided

More details and course content is available here

Please note this course is split over two days on consecutive weeks beginning 2nd March 2017

To book on please contact the office on 01422 343090 or email us
Who is the course for?

If your child has additional needs or a disability, and you are requesting an EHC assessment or are unsure if you need one, then the Planning for Your Child’s Future course can help.

It is also very useful for parent carers that already have a Special Educational Needs (SEN) statement in place for their child, and need to transfer it to an EHC plan.

More broadly, the course provides support for parent carers who are struggling to help people understand their child, or to get them the help they need at school.
Course goals

The Planning for Your Child’s Future course is person-centred, which means ensuring that someone with a disability is at the centre of decisions which impact their life. The course aims to provide parent carers with an understanding of:

Person-centred thinking and approaches

The importance of resilience, community and family support

The important of ensuring that a child is at the centre of thinking and planning, and that they should have choice and control over their future

Aspirational planning, processes, potential services (both specialist and mainstream) and community

The EHC process, and if and when their child needs an EHC

The benefits of planning for the future and working towards achieving outcomes, even if their child is not eligible for an EHC

Personal budgets

The wealth of opportunities within local communities, leading to cost-effective ways of meeting outcomes

Impact

We’ve found that parent carers who have been on the course have been able to navigate the EHC process with a lot more confidence, working with their child to achieve the best possible outcomes.

It also helps parents who are at an earlier point in their journey of caring for a child with additional needs see their children in a different way, seeing the positives and focusing on what they can do, rather than what they struggle with.

Here’s what parent carers have to say about the Planning for Your Child’s Future course:

“The Course was not what I expected. It was fantastic, and left me engaged in terms of how my child is going to be supported at school going forward, with changes to the support he is given. But more importantly, it has helped me learn how to support him in his everyday life, and incorporate his needs within societal boundaries.”

“Beforehand, we didn’t know if the course would be of any use to us, as our son isn’t on a statement but does have a diagnosis. But the tools we learned have helped us to feel a lot more confident as to how to plan for our son’s future.

It also helped to meet other parents. The fact that the instructors were also parents themselves gave them an advantage as to how to pitch the course. All the sessions were useful, and we are now implementing the skills we learned.”
Details

For more information, contact Amanda Rorrison on 01422 343090, or email [email protected].