Family mediation Week

23rd to 27th January  is Family Mediation Week and to mark this important awareness raising week, BYHP’s Service Delivery Manager and lead Family Mediator, Deb Parker, talks about the importance of BYHP’s Family Mediation Service as part of the Homeless Prevention work BYHP undertakes.
 
To better understand the issue, here is a video from Centrepoint, an organisation BYHP is a partner of, which deals with leaving home.
 
“Family Mediation plays a vital role in helping young people to stay safely at home.  When relationships with parents and young people begin to suffer, it is often seen as the only solution to tell the younger person who is perceived as the ‘troublemaker’ to leave the family home.  This results in families left with feelings of guilt and unhappiness, affecting everyone in the family including siblings.  Provided the home is a safe place, there is nowhere better for the vast majority of young people than to have the security of home and a parent figure in their lives.
 
Coping with teenagers can often be challenging and for parents who are facing other challenges too such as social isolation, deprivation, unemployment, mental health difficulties, a teenager who is rebelling is just one thing too much to cope with and it seems the easier option for them to go.

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We know as Family Mediators that it is often a perception that the young person is the troubled one and the one to blame but the reality is that the whole family play a part in this, including absent parents who are still important to the young person.  We can work holistically with young people up to the age of 25 to help them find their path whether it be back to education, apprenticeship or employment.
 
Families that turn to us for support often have a breakdown of communication and by working with parents and their children separately to begin with, we can prepare the way for a family mediation session where we all sit around the table and everyone is listened to and listens, safely.  Most families really want to repair their relationships and keep their child safely off the streets where they can be vulnerable, lonely and more likely to turn to alcohol and drugs without a significant person in their life to care for them and give them guidance.  Mental health difficulties arise when someone is homeless, anxiety about where they are going to sleep that night, depression when everything seems hopeless and feelings of isolation, lack of self-worth, all prevail.
 
This week is Family Mediation week, please continue to support us at BYHP in order that we can continue to strengthen family relationships and keep our young people safe.”
 
If you feel you or someone you know could benefit from BYHP’s support, please contact us for more information or to book an appointment with one of our mediators.

01295 259 442
2 Chandos Close, Banbury, Oxfordshire, OX16 4TL
 
Deb Parker
Service Delivery Manager
Registered Member MBACP (Accred)

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