Make An Impact Podcast
Make An Impact Podcast
Healing Together: How Play Therapy Changes Lives
Discover how Beacon Family Services is transforming children's mental health care in the latest episode of the Make an Impact podcast. Join me as I speak with Charlotte, the founder of this remarkable organisation dedicated to providing therapeutic family support in the West Midlands. With around 70% of children not receiving adequate mental health services, Charlotte shares her journey of establishing an innovative approach to therapy that centres on play, connection, and community.
In this episode, we delve into the crucial work being done to support families through play therapy while also highlighting the urgent need for accessible resources, especially during and after the pandemic. Charlotte explains how her organisation employs both traditional methods and digital tools, including the highly praised Lumin&us app, which serves as a vital resource for families to aid early mental health concerns.
The conversation emphasises the significance of measuring the impact of therapeutic work on families and discusses innovative ways to gather meaningful feedback. We explore how parents can feel empowered by engaging actively in their children's emotional development through play, fostering a sense of safety and trust within families.
Charlotte shares the importance of community partnerships and how collaborative efforts can address mental health crises more effectively. Charlotte's dedication to improving mental health care in children and families resonates throughout our discussion, igniting hope and a call to action for better support systems in our communities.
Tune in for a deep dive into these pressing issues, and be inspired to join the movement for better mental health services for our children and families.
Don’t forget to check out the Lumin&us app for a valuable tool in navigating parenting challenges. You can access the app via https://luminusfamilywellbeing.com/
And the discount codes mentioned in this episode for Lumin&us are: Families F42WKS and Professionals P42WKS.
To find out more about Beacon Family Services go to: https://www.beaconservices.org.uk/
Hi, I'm Heidi Fisher, the host of the Make an Impact Podcast. I'm an impact measurement expert, passionate about helping you make a bigger impact in the world by maximising the impact your services have.
I can help you to measure, manage and communicate the impact you have better to funders, investors, commissioners and other stakeholders, and to systemise your data collection and analysis so that it frees up time and doesn't become an additional burden.
I love helping you to measure social and economic impacts, including Social Return on Investment or value for money assessments, as part of understanding the change you make to peoples' lives.
You can get in touch via LinkedIn or the website makeanimpactcic.co.uk if you'd like to find out more about working with me.
Welcome to today's episode of the Make an Impact podcast, and I'm joined by Charlotte today. So, charlotte, do you want to tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do, please? Yeah?
Charlotte:so thanks for having me on, heidi it's lovely to be here and I founded an organisation called Beacon Family Services, which is based in Sutton Coldfield in the West Midlands and was set up to provide therapeutic family support. So there were, when I founded in 2016, around 70% of children in the Midlands the West Midlands who were referred to CAMHS weren't getting seen and of those that were seen for an assessment, they actually didn't get any follow-up around. About two-thirds of them didn't get any follow-up. So I founded Beacon Family Services to start offering yeah play therapies and it really developed and families found it very helpful.
Charlotte:My specialism originally was working with adopted and fostering and kinship families, but the work I was doing with them really resonated with so many more families that were having difficult times and challenges that were really impacting how safe, strong, secure family relationships felt and actually they really felt that's what they needed spaces to explore relationships over diagnosis, because diagnosis wasn't actually helping.
Charlotte:So, yeah, I founded that since we began, there's always been more demand for our services than either funding or staff. So it's been a long process of finding new and innovative ways to be able to support more families. So we initially began a group model of provision for children and parents. That was really successful and we worked alongside children's centres to do that and we were able to support more families. And then we started developing resources self-serve resources for families as well, and that's developed into us launching an app which is now one of the highest rated apps for children's mental health in the UK and has it's in the early and preventative space, so it's for parents with early worries, because, yeah, my work is very much about that part of helping families sooner, not leaving them on waiting lists amazing.
Heidi:That stat about the amount of children that were waiting and not getting any follow-up is really scary. I think it would motivate me to do something. So it's brilliant to hear what you're doing and I love the fact that you've got the play and you've got the app, so you've got two mechanisms to do it. How did that come about in terms of that split between the two? Was this a pandemic activity there?
Charlotte:was definitely a pandemic element to it. Yeah, we're children and parents together. Traditionally, play therapy is often thought of as you take your child to see a therapist who will play and through the play they'll be able to express emotions that need to be need to be processed. But actually we always work with the parent and child together because actually a lot of play is about creating connection, and when there's connection in a relationship, there's a sense of trust. There's a sense of trust, there's a sense of safety, there's a sense of I'm okay, I'm capable. So actually, when families hit times when they're struggling, that's a thing that often falls off the playfulness in relationships. And so we find that where we can reconnect that playfulness, you really strengthen the relationship and that sense of connection. And it sounds super simple when I say that, but actually, as a parent, when you're in a place where things are feeling tricky with your child, it can be really difficult to actually feel joyfully connected and feel the ways you can do it differently. So having someone alongside you to help you can really lessen the load for parents and help them relax into that and say, yeah, actually me and my child are doing great, I do get my child Like I am doing.
Charlotte:Okay, when the pandemic hit, that's the bit that changed. As therapists, we couldn't be in the room anymore. As therapists, we couldn't be in the room anymore. So we started developing some resources for the parents that we were working with, and we developed our lighthouse model, which is the idea that we all want to feel safe and be in the lighthouse or near the lighthouse, but the reality is that we're not all feeling safe all the time.
Charlotte:We all move into states where we're a bit more mobilised. It might just be that we've got really hungry, it might be that there's some really difficult stuff happening in our life that we're very worried about. So we move into a state that we think of as struggling, and that's being on the rocks that the lighthouse are on. You might be sliding into the water and worrying what's going to get you, and hopefully there's someone that reaches out a hand and pulls you back up, but there isn't always, and sometimes then you can slip down and feel very much like you're drowning, and the challenge then is you can't just go from drowning straight back up to the lighthouse.
Charlotte:Actually, you need to find your way back up over the rocks and reconnect, and the play activities we use help in that process by providing either just the right amount of structure for a child who needs the safety and security of adult limits and and expectations, or increasing the safety and security of adult limits and expectations, or increasing the engagement and those moments of shared joy and just being lost in the here and now together.
Charlotte:Or maybe a child needs some really healthy challenge and to be supported to really feel confident at the developmental level that they're at to really secure their self-esteem. Or maybe they need some quiet, nurturing play that's just soothing and calming, and we realised that knowing what kind of play and linking it to the state either you're in as a parent or your child is in is the crucial bit of understanding that makes the difference. So, yeah, we developed the resources. We were really they were really popular with our families and so they told people who started asking for them and we released them, as many people do did during the pandemic. But for download, people loved them but didn't like how much ink it took in their printer to print them, and so the suggestion was made to us that we develop an app, and we were really lucky to partner with clarion housing through their community fund to develop that app, which has become a resource in and of itself now for families.
Heidi:That sounds brilliant. It sounds like an amazing journey and it's fascinating. I love the lighthouse analogy. It's interesting to to think of it like that, in terms of the steps and where you are around the lighthouse it's, and it's a really simple way to explain what you do as well yes, yeah, these are really complex ideas that therapists understand.
Charlotte:Actually, I'm talking about the nervous system and the polyvagal system and all of this. But actually, as a parent, when you're in a place where you're like, actually everything is feeling too much, I don't know what to do next and I need things to be different now. Actually, you don't need a load of theory, do you?
Heidi:you know, definitely not. It's a bit like from my accountancy days where people would come and they want their accounts and they want a tax return done. They don't want to know what the the regulations and rules and laws are around accounts and tax, because it's like they don't care, they just want it done. They want something sorted out, don't they? Yeah?
Charlotte:absolutely, and that's what so many families need and teachers and other professionals that that work with with children, because I think the statistic is something like one in five children's got a probable mental health need and the number of children that aren't able to attend school because of anxiety now, and actually we know that the NHS is at capacity and isn't going to be able to to see and support all those families. So how do we do something to help parents have some of the knowledge that will give them the confidence that that actually they can provide what their child needs emotionally and socially?
Heidi:Yeah, it's fantastic. So, from what you said so far, my brain in terms of impact measurement is going like crazy. I'm like, wow, there's so much happening here in terms of impacts for the children, for the parents, for their schools, for their life, life, how they socialize everything I can like my. I would be like, oh my god, this is just. It's getting bigger and bigger. The ripples just keep going and going. With that in mind that there are so many different impacts that your work has, how do you actually measure it? This is a golden question. Yeah, the golden question.
Charlotte:So I suppose when we started we counted things like the number of people that we saw. But actually one of the things that we have always done is use some outcome measures so we find different ways to ask parents and children when we first see them how things are, and then we take a measure of how things are at a later date and that's given us really good information that actually we 100% of parents that have engaged with us have experienced change and difference. We haven't had families for whom things get worse, and it's also because we've used psychological measures, given us really helpful information about how things shift and change. So one of the things we've learned in our work is that what often happens is parents feel an increase in closeness with their child as a result of our support and a decrease in conflict in the relationship. So that's one of our measures, and we recently finished running a trial of subscription packs where we had 200 families who received a pack of our resources every month for six months through the post. So something lovely arrived.
Heidi:Amazing. Yeah, what a great idea.
Charlotte:It was exciting and they got an email explaining some of the thinking and the theory behind it during the month as well. And of those families, we had 82% who had an increase in closeness and 71 percent of them had had a decrease in in conflict. And then we had about there was about 16 percent of families for whom things stayed more or less the the same so, yeah, that's amazing that even just with posting something out to somebody, it's still making a difference and you actually.
Heidi:It shows that it doesn't have to be that in-person mechanism at all. You can just by showing and and sharing something with someone, you can actually make a huge difference. Yes, what this needs to be in every, everywhere.
Charlotte:Every parent needs this, yeah, yeah absolutely and every parent can, can download our app, lumin&us, and I will make sure that there's code for people to to download and have a go with it. Um, but your question about measuring impact there's, there's that part, but actually you're you're picking up on. The really hard bit is that we're talking about relational change and sometimes that's really hard to measure in a precise way. So we've actually got a new project going on currently that we've got a resident artist with us for a year. So he's funded by Eastside Projects down in Digworth and Marley Starsky.
Charlotte:Butler has a background as a social worker and a creative artist. So he is present in and around the business, the staff, the families, just observing for a year what goes on and we'll produce a piece of art and we'll have an exhibition. So we haven't commissioned him to do something in particular. We haven't said make sure you take lots of lovely photos of everyone having fun. We've just said be with us and see what you see and tell the story. So that's another way that we're trying to measure our impact.
Heidi:That's lovely. I love those kinds of things like the live scribing and that kind of activity, the photography, anything like that. I think they're brilliant ways for people to be a little bit more creative with their impact and how they communicate and share it. Definitely, and you see it um visual in that it's just. It's not a boring 100 page report, absolutely.
Charlotte:Where we do and it's really difficult because we can't always share images of what happens in our sessions, but we do have a number that we do share and it is really that's how you understand the impact is when you see a parent and child lost together in a moment of play and fun, and sometimes how tricky life has been for them in the run-up to that. That's the real, yeah, that's the real win yeah, definitely.
Heidi:I think that's a really really useful idea for other organizations to use as well when they're thinking about how they share their impact. I'm always saying it doesn't have to be a report, but it's good to hear that you're actually, um, doing something practical about that. I hope we don't have to wait a whole year to see something now. I'd be like I want to see something now. I'd be too impatient.
Charlotte:I know I'm having to be really good, as as Marley's, about introducing him to everyone and letting him get involved and not say I've got anything yet.
Heidi:The artist's muse. It hasn't come through yet. Yeah, definitely, we talked about some of the ways you are measuring your impact. Have you found that there are any challenges or around measuring impact or things that you would like to measure that you haven't quite figured out how to do it?
Charlotte:yeah, I think the part that that we are really keen to develop is an understanding of we know we have an immediate impact for families, but also for organisations like the NHS and like our local authorities who are involved in funding us. Actually, they really want to understand the longer term value and, I think, really developing longer term measurement of families that we can start seeing what's the impact now but go back to at a later date because I think ultimately and this is the sort of thing I'll ask you for help with ideas it's then thinking about what's the cost savings that's one of my geeky things as well as trying to get people to be more creative.
Heidi:I'm like obsessed with trying to put financial values in front of the cost savings. But yeah, it's interesting because a lot of organizations do have that challenge where they they're potentially commissioned by the NHS or some other public sector agency or body and you really want them to share their data on the children and families you're working with, and very often you you don't get access to that, but that's a huge part of the impact in terms of how frequently are they going to mental health services, how frequently they're going to the GPs, and whilst you can ask a family for that information, whether it's 100% accurate or not, it's not always. You're not always certain of that. I'm always trying to encourage that two-way flow of data and it doesn't always work.
Charlotte:But yeah, definitely, the more you can get that information, the more you can start to talk about those numbers, which then will get you more work commissioned, hopefully we've um recently begun a we're part of an nhs innovation accelerant program being run by a number of gp surgeries and we're in partnership with frum down in the southwest who are trialing a couple of apps one to support adults with well-being and our app, lumin&us to, to support families. So over the next two years, all families who go to their gp in in in Frome and want to talk about their child will be given an opportunity and all residents of of Frome will have an opportunity to use the, the app, and we'll. We've started data gathering through the app to understand that that impact and we're really hopeful that we can develop really good data from that about what we're seeing and what all those practitioners that work out of primary care are seeing as the presenting issues, because we know that the overburden for frontline staff in the NHS, in in schools, in social care, is huge. Yeah.
Heidi:Definitely the talk nowadays about teachers happen to be mental health practitioners, don't they? Because they're like the frontline seeing it as well nowadays. So it's very I think it's a very scary problem when you think about the scale of it Absolutely.
Charlotte:Absolutely, I think. If you think one in five children, that's around six children in every class who's struggling, so that's a lot for each teacher in every school?
Heidi:Yeah, and that number is probably underestimated. They don't want to scare us more.
Charlotte:Less. Yeah, part of the pressure of that for for schools is that we know that the sooner we respond the better, and that most lifelong mental health challenges are established by the age of 14.
Heidi:so actually this is properly a national crisis that we need to be finding new ways to support sooner and my brain is like, oh, there's lots of cost savers there on the flip side if we get get this intervention in early enough.
Charlotte:I'm just we're not just talking about the, the gps and those kind of appointments, but like it's forever I've got the number that nationally the wider cost of poor mental health to families, businesses in the government is around about 300 billion a year which is about right. Just imagine that we could redirect that money to reduce poverty levels for families.
Heidi:That would be yeah yeah, amazing that would be, and then we wouldn't get there. We we need to cut costs, we need to cut back services. You know, I think we. Where we're seeing all that the reduction in the youth services is is again it's impacting children just a little bit further on in their journey. They're not in the primary school, they're in high school and there's no, no support for either, which is really sad.
Charlotte:I had a trip to the States and Canada at the end of last year to meet professionals and academics out there working to support children's mental health, and we went to visit because actually the UK is one that got just about the lowest rate for children's mental health.
Charlotte:We're really struggling. So we wanted to visit a country where things were a bit better, but actually there's still worries. But there were some really key themes that came out from Everon, which was that we really need to invest in supporting parents to be at home and care for their children in those first few years. That's really crucial. Be at home and care for their children in those first few years, that's really crucial. And then we really need to invest in good quality child care so that actually parents have the support for their child that they need and to have the opportunities that that they might want to work. But that also we need to really think about how much free play we're allowing children as well at a younger age and really widen out those amounts of opportunities. And it's also obvious when when it's said, but has somehow been lost.
Heidi:I think our policy and and yeah, yeah, it's a focus which comes on academic results, and you lose that sense of fun and play, don't you? And yes, families are focusing on getting enough money to live on, so they're also not playing with their children? Yeah, because they've got to be at work.
Charlotte:So yeah, our children getting the good quality care during that that time that their parents would have been able to yeah, it's still very sad now about the state of things for children and young people.
Heidi:It's not a good situation, but you are going to save them all.
Charlotte:Yes, definitely, that's the impact we would like to have, heidi, is to make a huge difference to children's mental health and their parents. Crucially because I think perhaps that's what's different about us to other other offers is that we we really see that we've got to start with the parent, that we can't just think about childhood. Child and a parent's mental health is so interlinked yeah, definitely you do one way, that the other.
Heidi:It just goes back to where it was before, doesn't it? Because, yeah, last couple of questions for you, then. So what would you say has been the most significant moment for you so far since you started your organization?
Charlotte:I think the most significant moment is some of the children and parents who are still with us and their joy when they share how much it's meant to them to connect and have fun with us. I was with a child this week who really wanted to play in our hammock something they did when they were much, much younger and watching them just enjoy being in the hammock and their parents be so relaxed with them was just. Those are the kind of moments that really make me feel grounded in what we're doing.
Heidi:Amazing, so you still get time to actually see the children and parents. I find that quite shocking. You're managing all this. You've got all these, all this amazing stuff going on and you're still getting time to get in there.
Charlotte:Yeah it's long-term relational work that we offer at beacon family services. So, yeah, some of the the families that I was began as therapist with six, five, six years ago, yeah, I will still be available to them. Families don't always that doesn't mean that a family's having therapy for six years, but actually, when you've made a relationship with someone who's understood and helped you, when you reach another transition point with within your family where actually you might need to revisit some of the conversations, it's really helpful to be able to come back to someone who knew you and get it straight away.
Heidi:Yeah, sounds like a good way to do it, in that you've got that trust established and it's just there, isn't it as an ongoing thing? What do you want to focus on doing next?
Charlotte:want to focus on doing next. So what I want to focus on is really getting our app to as many parents as we can, to as many professionals as we can, to really make them feel supported in using play and building relationships. And, yeah, talking about how it feels to be struggling or drowning and what helps get you back to feeling, feeling safer again amazing yeah, you need a whole set of ambassadors across the country promoting your app.
Heidi:We do, yeah just to add to your to-do list yeah, I'm the the bod over this part of the country now. Um so is there anything else that you would like to share with anyone that's watching or listening?
Charlotte:shall I share some details of where to find us you can do if you're interested. So if you're local to the west midlands, then our website, beacon family services so it's beaconservicesorguk has loads of information. You can get on as a professional, as a family or asa funder to learn about us and what we do and what we've got on offer. And if you're interested in our app, then you need to head to luminusfamilywellbeingcom let me find that one, luminusfamilywellbeingcom and you can find out all about the app, which you can download straight from google play or app store. And we're a social enterprise, so there is a completely free version of the app that is always available, because we strongly believe that any family that's in need shouldn't have to put their credit card details in to get some support but to sustain an app that is, yeah, really going to be as supportive as it needs to be. We also have a subscription model, but you can sign up for a free trial with our code, which I'll give you fabulous.
Heidi:Thank you so much. It's been so good talking to you and I love what you do. I've known you for a number of years now and it's nice to see that that journey and also just to hear you sharing about it. We don't often talk about it, it's just you're just naturally doing what you're doing, so it's really good to talk to you and and find out how much you're actually doing, which you're not sharing with me every week. Yeah, definitely so. Thank you so much for joining me today. Thank you, heidi, it's been great to be here.