An award winning training DVD...
| THIS PIONEERING training film explores the support needs of children growing up in families where parents have a mental illness. It has received widespread acclaim after winning a string of accolades at national awards.Through the eyes of a child, ‘The Lost Child’ tells the story of a family and a young girl whose father is experiencing mental health problems.The safety and support needs of children who grow up in families where a parent has a mental health problem are sometimes seen by professionals as secondary to the needs of adult service users. Yet statistics show that addressing these needs may keep children from harm and prevent them from developing mental illness themselves in later life. The DVD is a creative solution that can highlight the problem, and get professionals thinking about the needs of all family members in situations where a parent has a mental health problem. The film gives the audience a unique opportunity to explore for themselves how those experiences can be affected by the ways in which agencies are involved or how they choose to intervene, and explores the possible consequences and alternatives for the family, social workers, health professionals and others. The story challenges professionals on both an emotional and intellectual level. The aim of the DVD is to enable staff to feel empowered to protect children whilst meeting the needs of adults who have mental health problems. The Lost Child has been recognised at a number of national training awards, including the National Training Awards hosted by UK Skills on behalf of the Department for Education and Skills. The film was also named winner of the Most Innovative Multi-disciplinary Training category at the Skills for Care Accolades. The Accolades recognise and reward outstanding achievement in workforce development across of the social care sector. The project was also shortlisted for the 2005 Community Care Awards. The Lost Child DVD is now being used by mental health teams and partner agencies across the UK and in Australia. Read what COMMUNITY CARE MAGAZINE SAID ABOUT THE LOST CHILD:
Star Rating: 4/5 I hope this DVD is an indicator of just how far on-a-shoestring, role play-reliant social care training has come. The fact that this is a DVD for one blows the cobwebs off the technophobe perception of top-loading VCRs, writes Graham Hopkins. Back in the early 1990s, I remember having to use a video of Monty Python's parrot sketch on my courses on social care complaints just to have a visual break. But it is the top-notch quality of this professional production that stands out. Happily, it is a quality that training resources - often themselves the neglected child of social care organisations - are increasingly now providing. Bravely commissioned by Lancashire social services to explore child protection and parental mental illness, the 30-minute film for the most part convincingly traces the relationship between Alison (Anita Parry) a make-the-best-of-it mum and Nick (Mike Berenger) a mentally-ill study in smouldering tension. It is seen in flashback through the eyes of their 16-year-old daughter, Tina (Frankie Waller), the acting star of the piece - despite her accent occasionally wandering up and down the M1. Her line, "I'm not a child - don't think I've ever been a child," is the film's sound central message. | |||
