“Our mahi is essential to families in Aotoeroa”:  On our helpline, we’ve seen that the anxiety levels of both parents and young people have gone through the roof in the last years. It shows us that our mahi is essential to families in Aotearoa, as having good whānau and family relationships is fundamental to protecting youth from mental illness.
We are often the “ambulance at the top of the cliff” – a critical early intervention service. Helping families address issues in a timely way, preventing escalation and helping them find a way forward.  We are challenged every day by complex and difficult situations faced by families throughout New Zealand. These are often beyond the family’s control and leave little hope for a change in the future. That is where our services make a real difference.
We offer a wrap-around, integrated service. Helpline calls are followed by a referral to counselling, family therapy or parent education programmes. We are dedicated to ensuring that Helpline clients receive locally based support. We have been developing relationships with organisations, both governmental and non-governmental that share our Kaupapa to know that we can refer clients with confidence.
These core services have been operating for 30 years, beginning in Wellington in 1989. We started with a goal to support parents to lessen the number of child abuse cases in Aotearoa as a child abuse prevention service and a part of the CAPS network. This aspect of our work remains integral to our support of families today. We have also grown our service since then, and now provide parents with a safe, non-judgmental place for parents to turn to in times of difficulty.
We can proudly say that these services have passed the test 2020 has brough on us. For Parent Help it was the year of challenges and new opportunities.
Our flagship service – the national parenting Helpline – is telephone and web-based and was able to continue uninterrupted. Counsellors went onto Zoom or the telephone straight away, maintaining their appointments and accepting new clients.  Even the participants on a parenting course at the time of lockdown moved from group sessions to zooming in from home. We also started a “parenting coaching” service to fill some of the gaps.
As we approach the new year, our efforts go towards bringing more collaboration with agencies and growing our helpline and counselling service for the parents who need us.