When a parent or guardian needs support and resources for everyday life, the family centre can help. All you need to do is contact a professional who will listen and provide the right support quickly.
Parents can face challenging situations in their daily lives. The baby may not be sleeping well. The parent or guardian may break their leg and wonder how to make everyday life run smoothly.
For these and many other everyday problems, help is close at hand at City of Helsinki family centres – all you need to do is contact them and tell them you need support. Social services designed for parents or guardians and families with children are available throughout the city.
"The most important thing is to tell the workers about your situation and that you cannot cope alone. We have many available ways to help," says Emilia Hokkanen. She is the Manager of Home Services and Social Guidance for Families with Children.
The support for the parent or guardian of a family with children can come in the form of, e.g. a sleep guidance programme, temporary help at home during a doctor's visit or agreeing on common rules for the family, as assessed by a specialist at the family centre. There is no fixed duration for this assistance, but it can be a few weeks or months, depending on the situation.
You can easily contact a family centre through the Maisa service or by calling social counselling for families with children. A request for contact may also be made by a child health clinic, daycare centre or school at the request of the family.
The social counselling service will then establish a client relationship and contact the parent or guardian. Hokkanen stresses that it is up to the parent or guardian whether they want to remain a client of the family centre after the first meeting.
Working with a family centre specialist always starts with the needs of the client.
"We will not tell you what the problem is; instead, we let the parent or guardian define it and consider what service or services would help them best. We support the parent or guardian in their educational role and help them to become more empowered."
The specialist always acts in a very transparent way. They will tell the parent or guardian everything that is going to happen and how things will be recorded in Maisa.
Family centre specialists also take different cultures into account in their work. It is important to understand what is meaningful in the lives and backgrounds of families from different cultures.
Of course, Finnish everyday life and culture are reflected in the services, so that parents and guardians are encouraged to parent equally.
Family centres offer all kinds of assistance. According to Hokkanen, one of the most typical reasons for contact is sleep problems in families with young children. If the baby does not get enough sleep over time and the parents or guardians are very stressed, the family may visit the centre for sleep guidance.
In sleep guidance, social instructors give parents or guardians information and tools to help them overcome sleep problems. Together, they discuss what affects a child's sleep, what to expect from a child of a certain age and how the family can practicse new sleep habits.
"No one can get a child to sleep by pressing a button; it takes practice. When the family has suffered from sleep deprivation for a long time, home services can also come to the rescue so that the parent or guardian can take a nap," Hokkanen says.
Another common reason to contact the family centre is an unexpected situation that challenges the family’s daily life, such as an illness or divorce. A parent or guardian may have a broken leg and be unable to take the baby with them to collect their passport, for example, because just getting around on their own is challenging enough. A home services specialist can look after the baby during this time.
Parents and guardians can also seek help from the family centre on how to parent when they are troubled by their child's behaviour, emotional life or relationships. For example, the child may be restless, defy their parent or guardian, or skip school.
Discussion support and group activities are available for the parents or guardians of the family. This allows the parent or guardian to reflect on how to help their child and how to cope better with their own feelings, such as disappointment and inadequacy.
"Our keyword is support for parenting. We do not fix children; we help parents or guardians to find what works for their child," Hokkanen encourages.
Family centres are about the health and wellbeing of families with children. Helsinki has four physical and three networked family centres, which provide regional health and social services. In a physical family centre, services are provided under one roof, while in a networked family centre, services are provided from different locations in the local area. The centres employ people such as social instructors, social workers, psychologists, public health nurses and practical nurses.
Text and image: Katja Alaja
