- Katy Smith has joined as Family Ambassador for Blake Day Service, working 2.5 days per week.
- Cat Merrick has joined as Family Ambassador for both Bere Clinic and Spring Tide Day Service, working 3 days per week.
- Emma Newnham has joined as Family Ambassador supporting families of children/young people who have been sent out of area, working 3 days per week.
Family Ambassadors play a key role in helping to build relationships between families and inpatient and day services and have developed many resources to help families feel more empowered and less alone through their journeys.
The Family Ambassador role was initially set up as a pilot in 2022 to support families of children and young people admitted to Tier 4 inpatient services. The Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Sussex, Kent and Medway Provider Collaborative then approved funding for the role along with additional funding to expand the Family Ambassador offer into day services and out of area placements.
Lucy Morley, the Family Ambassador lead for the Hampshire & Isle of Wight, Sussex, Kent & Medway Provider Collaborative, explains more about how the service works and the support it provides:
"The Family Ambassador day service role has been extremely well received by staff teams at both Blake and Spring Tide Eating Disorder day hospitals in Hampshire and Sussex. They have embraced the lived experience and peer support that can now be offered to families.
"Katy and Cat have had really positive inductions at both services and are looking forward to being able to shape and develop the role further as they are now working with families in their respective services.
"We also believe that the out of area support that Emma will be able to bring is much needed - families have told us it can be extremely challenging, isolating and distressing to have to navigate the inpatient system when their child or young person has been sent far away from home.
"In particular, the emotional strain it can put on the whole family alongside the financial and logistical challenges of visiting and supporting their young person can push some families to breaking point.
"We hope that by having dedicated Family Ambassador support for these families it will ensure that they feel empowered to continue to be a partner in their child or young person's treatment (despite the distance from home).
"Emma will also be able to link in with our local Family Ambassadors when children and young people are repatriated, and signpost families to the national network of Family Ambassadors as appropriate, offering a much more joined up approach to our support and provision of local resources and helpful information."
Sarah Cole, Clinical Lead for Blake Eating Disorder Day Service, said: "Blake Day Service has been pleased to welcome Katy as our first Family Ambassador. Katy joined us on the first day of a new cohort, welcoming six families into the day service. Katy's warm approach was well-received, and she was able to introduce the role and hit the ground running by offering one-to-one time. She has also set up a peer support group for the families to attend. We look forward to seeing how the role develops in this new system."
A parent/carer of a young person who is being supported by an eating disorder day service, said: "Things have been very overwhelming. I really appreciate the information you shared and the support you’re offering. It’s incredibly reassuring to know there’s someone with lived experience available to talk to."
