Working for changes

CHERYL EDWARDS: Retiring from Family Works Whanganui after 19 years. PICTURE / PAUL BROOKS

Family Works Whanganui is managed by the soon to retire Cheryl Edwards who has been with the organisation for 19 years.
So what does Family Works do?
"We're a general counselling and education service," says Cheryl. "We run parenting programmes, counselling for couples, individuals, families and children. Our oldest client I think has been in their 80s. The most significant part of the work we do now is with complex families and a lot of family violence work. We work with children who have been exposed to family violence and with the people who are survivors of the violence."
Cheryl has worked in social services in Whanganui since 1977. She was a social worker for Dept of Social Welfare for 15 years then retrained as a counsellor and worked for Barnardos and Relationship Services before moving to Family Works.
"I wanted to work at a counselling level because I saw people who were more motivated to change. Very often with Child, Youth and Family (CYF) you have clients who aren't particularly happy to have you in their life, whereas with counselling people are choosing to change and it's much more positive. "When I first came I wrote the children's programme for children who have experienced family violence," she says.
Family Works began 31 years ago as Wanganui Family Counselling Service. "It started as a grass roots organisation in a marriage between Trinity Methodist and St Paul's Presbyterian church," says Cheryl. Non-religious in character, it comes under Presbyterian Support Central which is the social service arm of the Presbyterian church.
"The Methodists still support the work that's done here but it's managed by Presbyterian Support Central, one of seven regions of Presbyterian Support NZ."
People come to Family Works by various means, says Cheryl. "They can self-refer, we get referrals through GPs, through social workers in schools, through other agencies, we get CYF referrals and through the courts."
Self-referrals are generally for concerns about children's behaviour, children not coping with parents' separation and family violence. Most family violence referrals come through CYF or the Family Violence Integrated Services' weekly meeting which looks at all the police call-outs in that time. "A member of our staff goes to that meeting and if there's a referral that suits what we do we will follow that up to see if we can get the client to engage."
Cheryl says Whanganui's family violence statistics are terrible. "The trend seems to be that referrals have gone up, but that doesn't need to be seen in a negative light. I think the 'It's Not OK' campaign has accelerated people's understanding, so a lot more neighbours and family will call police. The police are saying the call-outs are for not so severe physical abuse, but the statistics are still not good."
Cheryl also praises the work of Clare Fearnley, the Violence Intervention Network co-ordinator. "She has done a great job running seminars about how to access to help and that it's ok to ask for help. There is still a lot of secrecy around family violence but the campaign has made everybody more aware. There's still a long way to go."
She acknowledges that family violence is prevalent across the socio-economic spectrum, but wealthier people have ways of keeping it secret, "dealing" with it. They're also more inclined toward psychological and financial abuse and "controlling" behaviour.
Family violence can be generational, and those brought up in such an environment see it as the norm and perpetuate it. They are the people who need help to change. Children are the common casualties.
"Children who have been exposed to family violence we work with in a group setting. Then they see that it's not only their family. They're given permission to talk openly about how they felt and what they experienced.
"How many more children have to die, how many more have to be permanently damaged psychologically because of what they're living with before men stand up and say, 'Hey guys, we need to change this'?
"We know from the research the damage that is done to a child's brain in the first three years of their life and how difficult it is to change that once those neural pathways have been developed. We get them when they're 10 or 13, when those patterns are firmly established. If we could intervene much earlier and get parents to understand the impact of their behaviour on their children, that's what we really want.
"They need to be held accountable for their behaviour but they also need some understanding and care to help them to resolve the issues they're carrying from their past."
Family Works runs with 12 staff, some part-time. There are social workers, group facilitators, councillors, and an administrator.
"We host the Violence Intervention Network co-ordinator. We could always do with more people skilled in working with trauma in children.
"Other agencies in town are working with different pieces of the puzzle."
People want good connections and good relationships, says Cheryl, but they often don't know how to make that happen. Family Works' couples counselling works toward that.
"We can do family work, individuals, couples, and a lot of our services are fully funded because we have a Government contract to do certain things. We've just got two new parenting co-ordinators and they are fantastic ... the whole demographic of our client group has changed. We're now dealing with complex, multiple issues and our parenting programme has attracted parents with more challenges in their lives."
A lot of that comes through CYF and is a requirement before some families can resume "normal" life.
"But we don't want to be just a tick box. We take a holistic look and ask what else can we offer?"
People are often resistant to counselling, but Cheryl and her team usually win them round.
"We do see changes and that's what keeps us going ... but we still have a long way to go."