Health VisitorsHealth visitors often get a lot of bad press and can be unpopular with new mums and dads. Babyworld invited a brave representative, Ann Girling, to defend their corner.All in a day's work …BW: So what exactly does a health visitor do? AG: A health visitor is a trained nurse who has had a year's further training to degree level to understand the physical, emotional and social development of babies and children. This enables us to work with families to help them identify their health needs and introduce appropriate care where necessary. We give advice and information to enable parents to make informed choices on issues such as infant feeding or immunisations. Health visitors don't visit families to merely focus on children: they work with the entire family. We want to listen to the experiences of new parents, to hear about the birth experience and to support them in the transition to parenthood. The early relationship between parents and their baby is enormously important for the baby and how he develops. However, the bottom line for a health visitor is safeguarding children and we have to act if we consider a child to be at risk. This need not be viewed negatively: health visitors and their colleagues in social services work to keep children with their families. Here to helpBW: What help can a health visitor give me? AG: Off-limitsBW: Pretty impressive. Is there anything you can't help us with?! AG: This is difficult to answer. If we cannot help families we will often be able to point them in the right direction. For example, we sometimes can't diagnose or treat complicated childhood illnesses but increasingly we can help with more minor conditions, such as some skin complaints or nappy rash. Personality clash?BW: Great. But what (with the best will in the world) if you don't get on with your health visitor? AG: Ask for another one! A health visitor has no right of entry to your house. It is your house and you can refuse the service but there may be another way. Health visitors are increasingly working in teams and therefore share the workload. There may be other team members, eg nursery nurses and community staff nurses, who will be asked to do specific work with families. Summing up …BW: And finally … anything you'd like to say about health visitors? AG: Health visitors can get a bad name - we all tend to talk more about our bad experiences but there are some excellent health visitors out there!! More about Ann Girling Where to next?
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Ann
Girling has been a health visitor for many years. In that time she has
seen the work change from a rather authoritarian role to one in which
health visitors now work in partnership with families. She now works independently
doing training and consultancy work but maintains strong links with health
visiting and is particularly interested in the emotional well-being of
mothers and babies. She is currently training in the assessment of the
behaviour of newborn babies.
