to not understand what the purpose of health visitors is?

[RevoltingPeasant]

Okay, this is not intended to be another one of those HV threads. This is a serious question. I did not grow up in this country and this is a really weird concept to me.

So, are they:

a. nurses who effectively act as social workers, and are basically checking up on people's parenting?
b. nurses whose job is to make sure new parents are supported?
c. ?? something else?

Because I always assumed it was b, which seemed fair enough, but since joining MN the general consensus seems to be that it's much closer to a. On another thread today someone was joking that 'luckily' her HV didn't notice what a slattern she was in wearing dirty clothes. I've seen other people comment that their HVs ask them questions about their sex life or comment on their housekeeping.

If this is right, is this really a great idea? Can one refuse this or is it a mandatory thing?

[Sparklingbrook]

In my experience it was 'b'. She was lovely.

[Flisspaps]

You can refuse HV involvement if you want, it's not mandatory.

The majority of them seem to be helpful particularly to first time parents who want some reassurance. Some are OK, others are just crap. The same as in any role really.

So b - in the main. But some seem to come under a, and others seem to come under c - a complete waste of time and who cause unnecessary worry for parents by giving out outdated advice or just being plain wrong or overstepping the mark.

It depends entirely upon the HV.

[catgirl1976]

mine seems to be a lovely, ditzy, hippy-type

she seems lovely - i have no need of her and she only visited twice and wont visit again but it was no problem to haver her pop round and give me some leaflets and have a chat etc. she measured and weighed ds on both visits but amsits which was nice.

i dont know if they do more visits if you want / need them - she did offer to come back if i wanted advice when i wean ds which was kind. i am sure she would be helpful to anyone who needed some advice or help

[keepingupwiththejoneses]

Like the others have said, B. I fact the HV's near here do much more, they run free courses on baby massage, weaning and a baby cafe. I have never had a bad one and over 3 dc I have had about 6-7 different ones. They can also do referrals to specialists without having to go to the GP.

[redwineformethanks]

I'd say their training is B but think they are on the look out for parents who are not coping and might refer them for help if necessary, which is OK by me

[catgirl1976]

I did think with mine that if I did have an issue or didn't have much support she would be great to talk to

[attheendoftheday]

My hv's a b too. She's lovely :) When my dd needed prescription eyedrops she got a gp to presribe them, took the prescription to the chemist, then brought them round. She did a lot of bf support when I was struggling. She runs a baby group too, and helps local mums get in contact with each other.

I'm glad we have hv, they help through a major life transition. Mine is nothing like the one's I've had described on mn.

[bradbourne]

My HV only ever visited once and I never saw her again. She told me that, if I had any concerns, I could call her - or go to the GP.

[Molehillmountain]

I've had one brilliant one and one rubbish. They had totally different styles. The good one looked at my child, listened to me, gave advice if asked but unless there was an obvious problem kept out. The not so good one seems to be happiest when dealing with crises. So if you have one, she's brilliant. But if not, she'll pounce on tiny things and make you panic. See thread in weaning today! She is also the type that wants to nose around your house - that was never going to happen. We don't see eye to eye, but the worst thing is that Im pretty confident in many ways but a visit with her will make me feel like a crap mother.

[Birdsgottafly]

It is b mainly, but they are part of Childrens services so sometimes (if needed to be) a, but they are not checking up on parenting, just checking everything is as it should be.
I think the service depends on how well resourced your Childrens services are generally. They signpost families to development workers etc, if there is a local Childrens Centre.

The one's that i work with are lovely and knowledgable. My own knew nothing about delayed development and tried to give me completely wrong advice.

[methodsandmaterials]

I saw mine once when DC was 10 days old. She warned me against drinking tea while feeding because "if the tea spilled on the baby's head, it would be dangerous".
And then she left.

[RevoltingPeasant]

Okay, this is a bit more reassuring. Sometimes the HV threads on here just seem so OTT!

So their job is supposed officially to be b but if they seem someone struggling - just like a GP or any other HCP - then they can refer?

I grew up in the US and the idea that someone who works for the government would come to check on your children - well, let's just say it wouldn't work due to gun laws

But this seems better.... This was just sparked off by talking to a HV (socially) about how she was involved in taking a child away from their parents, and it sounded really unethical and totally horrific. They did it in a public place and the mother apparently has no right of appeal

[keepingupwiththejoneses]

I would say that is an extreme example. I would also say that if they had to it in public there must have been a good reason for it. Part of a HV job is to look out for the welfare of the child, yes, but there has to be other issues for the child to be removed from the parents, it would never be done just on the HV say so.

[booberella]

I had one who was lovely but ever so slightly pointless and one who was crap. She visited when DD was 1 day old and told me not to let her sleep in the day as she wouldn't sleep at night!

[marriedinwhite]

I eventually got a definition of their role out of the chairman of the local health trust having made a complaint. Neither my hv nor her boss knew what the definintion was. It was something like being there to provide support and advice to families with under 5s and the elderly in relation to living healthy lives in accordance with guidelines from the department of health. It is not a mandatory service and no parent has to accept it - they just don't tell people that.

In my opinion the health visiting service is actually a job creating scheme for nurses who prefer paper work to getting their hands dirty and doing any actual nursing or providing anything that might be helpful or described as a service but I am biased because my hv was so unhelpful and incompetent. 17 years ago and it's still raw.

[Sirzy]

A health visitor? whats one of them? I vaguely remember seeing one 2 years ago when DS was about 6 weeks old.

[Chubfuddler]

It was news to me to find out that hvs are actually trained nurses. None of the hvs I have encountered seemed to have any medical knowledge or bedside manner whatsoever.

[Birdsgottafly]

HV's can sometimes be the lifeline for women living in DV situations, which increase during pregnancy.

Hv's do attend the CP reviews and for families that need them, they are available,usually daily. That is why if you don't need one,you won't get a visit. This isn't to 'police', the HV that i work closely with, go out and bath, feed etc the children.

[RevoltingPeasant]

keeping yes there were other circs, won't post them here - but what really got me was her attitude of, 'Well, you know, someone has to check up on people, who knows what's going on in their houses'. The way it was presented was definitely an inspection.

I think the woman who had her DS taken away probably deserved it but there was no evidence that anything had really been tried to support her, she didn't know it was coming and it just sounded awful.

Honestly I just didn't want to talk to HV anymore after that and it made me think I'd rather not have someone who thought like her around me and my baby if I have one......

[Ambi]

I saw mine when DD was 3 weeks old. I found him rather useless. He forgot the scales so she couldn't be weighed, was late for appt. Normally I try to be open minded about male nurses etc, but I felt a little uncomfortable when he asked if I needed help bfing and asked if I needed my stitches looking at. I felt a bit vunerable so early post birth, I declined both offers. I'm sure he was being professional but it did make me feel uncomfortable.

[Busyoldfool]

They are b I think - at least I thought that was the idea . Mine was brilliant and really helped when DS had development problems. Do they also help with older people or very ill patients with home visits or is that the district nurse?

[NigellaLawless]

RevoltingPeasant I can understand that coming from the US the role is a mystery to you. I know some US social workers and the systems are so very different to what we have over here.

In the UK HVs are often the first people to flag up concerns about the care of children who are under school age. Without them Children's Services would have no idea about many cases of neglect and physical abuse.

As for the story the HV told you, I suspect that either she has exaggerated or misrepresented the facts. Parents have the ability to challenge the local authority's decision to remove a child right up until the child is legally adopted by adoptive parents and frequently more than a year elapses between a child being removed from birth parents and being legally adopted.

On very few occasions children who will not be getting adopted (perhaps because they are too old, or perhaps because their early experiences have been so abusive that their behaviours mean that no one wants to adopt them) have a special legal order in place to prevent the parents from applying to court to have them returned to their care. But the case has to be pretty extreme for such an order to be granted by the courts - and when i say pretty extreme that is relative to teh fact that in order to have a court agree to the permentant removal of a child from a parent the case already has to be far beyond the realms of acceptable parenting.

I can't comment on how the child was removed from the parent in this particular case, but sometimes these things do happen in 'public' places such as hospitals or schools/nurserys as it is imperative that for the child's protection that they are removed as soon as possible.

As for the health visitor's involvement in such matters: in every case there is a team of professionals which includes representatives form SW, health and education who work together to support familys to stay together wherever possible. But ultimatley it is the SW team who decide whether a child is living in such a dangerous situation that they actually need to be removed from their parents. And it is the SW (and sometimes the police) who do the (frankly harrowing) job of removing the children.

Sorry for the long post (and no doubt many typos) but there is so much scaremongering about child protection and social workers in general that I think its important that such stories are put into context

[Sirzy]

But if they don't keep in contact how do they know who needs their help? As a single mother of a 2 year old who has had 8 hospital stays, each of which the health visitor has been informed of by the hospital surely that should warrant at least a "How are things going?" type phone call from the HV? How do they know how well I am coping with everything without ever getting in touch?

[ReallyTired]

A health visitors role is to look after the health of the family. This is includes the mother, children and even the father. I get the feeling that thier job description is almost anything from baby police, audiologist, ezcema nurse, diagnosing depression, healthy eating, child development etc.

Some health visitors are very good, but others are complete nut cases. Nowadays you can go to any clinic you like, which means you can avoid a health visitor you don't like.

My health visitor is lovely although I not had any contact her for quite a long time. Both myself and my dd are doing fine. I feel very sad that its unlikely that I will ever get to see her again, unless I get pregnant. lol