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.

I'd prefer to see a well-trained health visitor rather than the bloody nursery nurse that I saw yesterday at my sons developmental review.

I'm aware that in many circumstances, nursery nurses and HV aren't really for me - I'm fine, my child is fine and the problems we have are typical for anyone with a baby (sleep, teething etc). I can find out up to date information about these things myself, but I'm sure that if I did need help with the basics, or my baby had a real problem, then they could be very helpful. However, I'm trying to work out what nursery nurses are really doing? They seem to have minimal training and offer advice that I think is outdated. Happily, this one was willing to listen and discuss with me, but I felt like it was a wasted opportunity for me to learn something.

ikea that sounds awful. How ^anybody* could listen to a woman sobbing, saying she had high levels of anxiety and yet think all was OK is beyond me.

Health visitor funding won't be cut. The government have recruited 4000 more, or are in the process of doing it. The problem is that there is a massive shortage of health visitors so they're overworked.

I've done a short placement with health visitors which I really enjoyed and made me seriously consider it as a career. I was shocked at the amount of them who were off ill with stress though and they had a huge number of visits to get through in one morning. The vast majority of their workload is taken up with child protection issues, leaving little time for "normal" mums and they had to spent loads of time sat at a computer ticking boxes and typing up all of their visits which took up a large chunk of the afternoon. I guess that's the reality of the 21st Century, absolutely everything has to be documented but their computer system didn't seem the most intuitive to use.

Having said all that, I thought the health visitors I worked with were lovely, hard working and absolutely fab and they really took the time to teach me and help me get the most out of my placement which considering I'm not their student they could easily not have bothered.

In my area now health visitors are going to see women from 16-20 weeks pregnant so they can build up a relationship with mums and pick up any potential issues a good while before the baby is born. I think it's a good idea but that must be a huge increase to their workload.

I think it would be much better to increase HV funding so that they can make sure they all get good CPD and employ more (giving HV's a more manageable workload).

One of the major problems with a suggestion to axe HV's is, it would make it harder for parents who need and want help / support to find it. As pointed out upthread, midwives sign you off their books after about 10 days. GP surgeries are often busy and hard to get appointments at. HV's do have a useful role. Just because some of them are rubbish is no reason to want rid of the whole service. It'd be better to give the rubbish ones the training they need instead.

And I agree that we hear more about the bad ones than the good ones. My HV was great when I was having problems with DS2's breastfeeding. Gave me info for local breastfeeding support groups, got the sure start breastfeeding support worker to see me, and got us a quick same day GP appointment for him when he displayed some worrying (but not A&E worthy) symptoms at a baby clinic. All of her advice has been sensible and so far as I can tell, in line with up to date health advice.

My HVs ranged from too busy to function - to the extent that I felt sorry for her and used to make cups of tea and want to tuck her up - to actually ill informed and destructive. I am unsure why we would hire more based on my experiences. I think their role should be changed.

My last HV suggested that the reason why I hadn't had my child immunised was because I was depressed....

You will never hear of the stories where HV have stepped in and saved children from abuse and neglect. Unfortunately whilst I was on placements as a Student Nurse there were quite a few instances where the HV team had to step in and sort out huge child protection issues.
The child that most sticks in my mind was rehomed with a distant relative, and the out come for that baby was a very positive one.
But no one would hear that story in the press, they will only hear about the missed cases.
There were so many in depth cases on the caseload that other mums and babies who were doing ok were probably just seen in flying visits.
The fact is the caseloads are huge and there are not enough HV to give everyone the same level of attention.
I would like to see more health visitors (giving them time to care) and better training for them.

I had one amazing HV as a new mum, she was so supportive and helpful and always fort my corner. She made me seriously consider being a HV.
My second HV was not as good, we saw her once, and she seemed more interested in our new carpet, and what the kids had got for Christmas than how I was coping with breastfeeding DS etc. So I do know that not all HV are good, and I do know some could do with better training.
I could not support a cut in funding when I have seen first hand how babies can be saved from neglect and abuse by good HV.