Taat should HV funding be cut.

[ICanSeeTheSun]

In real life and on MN it's a very rare thing to have a good HV.

Should the funding be cut and used in areas that mothers and children need help.

Don't know how to determind if a mother and child needs help, but I know nobody has to sign up to have a HV

maybe funding should be increased to help improve their training and cut the amount of families/children that they are supposed to deal with. They tend to have a huge caseload each which must make it hard to give proper input to those who need their help

Increased funding would also allow them to spend more time on cpd. It's hard not to give old-fashioned advice if you are too busy to update yourself.

Trouble with your proposal is is that there will be parents and children is all areas that need help and support (whether they actually get this from their HV is another matter entirely).

Money and education are obviously helpful, but the better off/naicer families are not immune to things like PND/family breakdown/child health problems/yadda just as many many many people living in poorer circs. are perfectly decent non-crack smoking parents.

I doubt this thread will be really noticed as I post a lot, but I do think it a matter that needs to be addressed.

I do think HV do have a large area to cover, many of my friends and family do not need a HV. Then very few have needed help but has had to jump through many hoops to get to it.

I hated my HV at first, but thank god because she knew Ds needed a referral

My HV is a star. She is a sensible woman who dies her job diligently, and her first priority is one of kindness.

Just the same as some bus drivers/astronauts/hairdressers are arses, so are some HVs.

I agree - absolute waste of money. But then I also think someone deciding they are the wrong sex and wanting to have their bits cut off is a waste of money, especially when most people are not happy with the results afterwards and also people eating themselves into morbid obesity so that they are too fat to work and have to claim incapacity benefit.

Anyway..

I can't see the benefit of someone sitting in my living room for 2 hours (for each of my three children) having a chat about tax credits that we don't qualify for.
If there is a major worry about someone's competency as a mother - the community midwife could refer to social services or the GP.

No but it needs completely overhauling.

I agree it needs something doing to the service.

I am not saying all HV are bad, but it shocking to hear so many negative stories.

I was planning on sending HVs packing with DD2 but as DH died two months before she was born they are all over us I don't want to attract further attention by not co-operating. She (the HV) goes on and on at me about how I am feeling - like she is remotely able to deal with extreme grief. She also keeps pushing Anti D's like some kind of dealer. Thank fuck I have a middle class home and some organic cotton toys - hopefully she'll bugger off soon!!!! Silly cow also tried to give BF advice - I fed DD1 for 2.5 years, I don't need her waffling on about standard checklists. .

karoilean

..anyway, I agree that if anything, funding needs to be increased. Hv's can be an absolute life line to families. They are seriously under valued as a profession :(

I think I would support an increase if HV did the job they are paid to do.

Questioning a parents sex life, not believing a parent has PND and in my case telling me Ds needs to East his 5 a day where at 2 year old I couldn't even get him to eat any solid at all was not helpful.

When DD was born she had a ton of health problems, I spent nearly two months not knowing if she would make it and was given some very inaccurate info from the hospital who discharged her after 10 days

I struggled to bond with her and the guilt and worry pushed me into severe PND. It was horrific. My HV was my lifeline, she came to see me every week for months, sat & listened, made it clear she thought I was doing a great job and that none of it was my fault. Kind caring & non-judgemental, I don't know how I would have coped without her.

HV take a lot of bashing, but a good one is worth their weight in gold. If anything they need more money to make sure they are all trained to this standard.

The community midwife could refer to social services or the GP

Midwives only see a baby for the first ten days before handing over to the HV until aged five. Who's going to cover that gap?

And if you cut funding, what's the proposed solution then?

I had useless and one brilliant HV and I also have friends who are HV, there are a lot of older ones who give out old and outdated advice, that needs to change. Unfortunately HV are so busy I'm not sure how.

If I hadn't seen the community midwife at all and gone straight to my HV I would have been happier. We have an unusual home (both parents have disabilities), she was never judgemental and her advice was spot on. Community midwife was brusque, unhelpful and patronising.

Just depends on the person, but I guess the recruitment system could be improved.

They need more money/training/staff not less.

I have been let down by the HV service. Thankfully the support (family and NHS) from others has helped but where the HV service should have stepped in it didn't.

But is that really the fault of the HV or is that the fault of a very over stretched system whereby decisions have to be made as to where the support can be offered and for now long?

Totally disagree. We need more, not fewer and they need more time for training etc. They also needito be trusted to make independent choices instead of following standard procedure. Have been v impressed with ours, lots of 'we're here if you need us' kind of thing, follow up phonecalls to see if things are working out. Of course you'll always get some not so good but to say this should be scrapped is madness - especially if the 'alternative' is midwives or GPs who are already stretched to breaking point and are less suitably qualified to deal with the kind of day to day coping issues that hvs deal with.

When someone experiences good service, they might tell one person. When they have bad service, they'll probably tell ten people about it. What you read on MN is anecdotal rather than objective empirical evidence on which funding policies should be decided.

My HVs were all pretty good, except the first one who couldn't work out how to knock on the door. She's the one I've told most people about

I have to say my HV was amazing, so kind and really listened to me. She encouraged me and visited me every week when I had PND. I don't think I would have got through it without her.

I've never heard any of my friends or family having bad experiences although I do accept that there are pockets of poor practice.

I think the main problem is a tick box culture (like so much of public health) The more positive experiences I hear are from those with an additional issue. I've had to go through them to start the process of dealing with a speech delay this week, and I'm happy with the way they've got the ball rolling quickly, and they managed to get someone to visit promptly. She was also very pleasant, and clear about the next steps.
I've had my smile and nod moments over routine baby stuff.

I think that alot of hv advice could just be given in book form, I had read about all the issues my hv wanted to discuss with me and I'm really not a big reader.

My hv aactually stopped me seeking help for my anxiety issues, ds had been very ill at around a month old, he'd been in hospital for a week, it was all very scary and my hormones were still a bit haywire. At about 6 weeks when ee were just out of hospital the hv did the questionnaire that supposedly can indicate pnd or not, Isobbed through the entire questionnaire but apparently because I was very bonded with ds and loved him intensely my emotions were normal given that ds had been so ill. I said to her that my levels of anxiety were really high but because I was still taking ds to baby groups and meeting people they were not high enough for her to offer any help. She said to me do you want me to organise for someone to come and help you look after ds ( which was absolutely not what I wanted I didn't even let dp take him out for a walk alone or leave ds in another room with dp or my mum so I could have a bath) she just kept saying there was nothing wrong ofcourse I'm upset and anxious. My anxieties carried on for nearly a year until I asked for help, I had a few sessions of counseling and although I do still get anxious it is much better, I wish my hv had encouraged me to access that help from the beginning, it seemed all she cared about was ds safety and he was very safe as I was so anxious about everything but it wasn't nice for me.

I had brilliant HVs.

The good ones go unsung. We only hear about the bad ones. It's disproportionate.

I would like more funding for HVs. No think it was assumed that as I'd only had a baby 20 months previously and was in the stereotypical 'good' situation (fairly supportive partner, no dog shit on the carpet) that I wouldn't need any help. I think I got one visit when I really needed more support. (My PND/stress may have been recognised earlier.). As with all professions, some are just form fillers, others genuinely care about the mothers and can use their initiative.

As a side rant, it used to annoy me that the HVs I saw at Sure Start used to suck on their teeth and shake their head if I ever mentioned I was following GF routines with DC1. I hadn't realised at that time that she was controversial. Not one of them asked me how it was working out for me and my baby - they just knew that Gina Ford Is Bad and weren't interested in positive stories. I suspect they were the tick boxers.