BABY BONDIN
A mother-and-baby
rehab can prove a
positive experience
for clients and
staff alike, explains
Hannah Shead
12 |
drinkanddrugsnews
| April 2012
Treatment |
Family rehab
www.drinkanddrugsnews.com
A
s anyone who has been resident in a rehab, or worked in one, or
reviewed a client in one will know, life in residential treatment is hard.
Rewarding? Yes. Life changing? Absolutely. But still hard work. I’ve
heard some clients say that prison was easier – you still got fed and
watered but could avoid the therapy.
So a rehab with children… well, that presents an interesting challenge. The
clients still need to do their personal work around addiction, but they also need
to do intensive work around their parenting, and on top of that they have their
children to look after.
I’d like to share a day in the life of a mother and baby residential, so if you have
any female clients who are thinking about taking this step you can prepare them for
the road ahead. Trevi House is one of four mother and child placements in the UK.
Located in Plymouth, it’s home to a 13-bed residential with an onsite nursery and
baby room. A typical stay is usually around six months, and although this may
sound like a long time, residents frequently tell us that the time has flown.
So, what’s a typical day? Like most rehabs, it’s up bright and early for jobs,
and then at 9.15am the women drop the children off at nursery and head to the
group. The therapeutic programme aims to address both the addiction and the
parenting in equal measure, as the relationship between the two is symbiotic
and work on one element impacts upon the understanding of the other.
The parenting programme has a wide remit, with topics ranging from
attachment through to hazards in the home, and for many women the sessions
around attachment can be the most challenging. ‘I suddenly realised that I had
never made an attachment with my mum,’ said one client. ‘It was hard to think
about how to bond with my child when I was thinking about the bond that I
never had.’ The group is co-facilitated by nursery and key workers who try to
keep the mums focused on the future, as this is an opportunity for many women
to break a cycle of intergenerational abuse and neglect.
Groups take a break for lunch, with mums and children eating together –
something as simple as sharing a meal can strengthen attachments and it also
offers staff an opportunity to support mums with feeding their children.
After lunch, it’s time for ‘baby and me’, a free-flow play session similar to the
drop-in sessions new mums might attend in the community. The intention here is
to promote play, the importance of which is valued highly at Trevi. As key worker
Clare reminds us, ‘just 10 minutes of child-led play a day can make a huge
difference for both mother and child bonding’. For nursery staff, the balance is
between modelling play for the women and stepping back to allow mum to
engage in child-led play.
For some women, however, playing is something that she’s never done, and
before she can play confidently with her child we try to support her in
experiencing the fun of seeing things through a child’s eyes. ‘When we spread
cabbage on the floor, or spaghetti, mums will look horrified at the mess, but we
encourage mum to get involved, feel the textures and enjoy the sensations,’ says
the nursery deputy manager of ‘food play’.
‘Baby and me’ ends with a group sing-along, as staff and residents alike are
encouraged to share new or original songs. A room full of giggling babies being
swung into the air to Zoom Zoom Zoom can be a great encouragement for women
to incorporate singing into their own daily routine with their baby.
In the afternoon, it’s back to group – or key – work. The programme is tightly
packed, as each valuable minute that the children are in nursery needs to be
filled. Most of the work around addiction falls within the recovery training
component of the programme, which covers addiction awareness and relapse