5.3  Working with families, parents and professionals

Working with families

Parenting children with complex medical needs is challenging. They may be feeling a range of emotions about their child’s needs and they may still be coming to terms with the impact that their child’s needs are having on their family.

One of the areas that families of children with complex needs find challenging is that they encounter numerous professionals who are involved in their child’s care.

The National Managed Clinical Network (2016) publishes information for parents and summarises some of the feelings that parents may experience:

In Week 4 we learned that one way of supporting children in the transition to nursery is to arrange a home visit. However, for parents of a child with complex medical needs, you may be yet another professional that they need to allow into their home. Therefore, careful consideration needs to be given to how you approach the family to request a home visit.

Figure 5.4  ELC practitioner, parent and children bonding

Working with other professionals

A child with complex needs is likely to have additional support from different professionals, which may include a health visitor, speech and language therapist, physiotherapist, dietitian, and/or social worker. In order to help you, the child’s family and all professionals to work together efficiently, it is important for the care to be coordinated. In Scotland, the Supporting Children’s Learning guidance (2017) requires that a ‘Child’s Plan’ is prepared to help coordinate the additional support that is required.