Child welfare social counselling
Social counselling is a key form of social welfare work. This is provided to families with children in various different family centre services, also in child welfare. A family centre is a set of services where your family can find services that promote well-being, health, growth and development as well as early support, care and rehabilitation services and special services for children, young people and families.
Social counselling for families with children is based on helping the family by means of goal-oriented work. The aim of the work is to strengthen the child's, young person's and parent's own resources and ability to act independently in their lives. The aim of social counselling is also to guide and support the family in using and integrating services.
Your family is eligible for social counselling from various services if you need support in bringing up or caring for your children, changing your life situation or managing everyday life. Examples of such situations include the baby's sleep problems and challenges in breastfeeding them, the young person's unauthorised absences from school and the parents being fatigued. The service is planned together with you and its content is tailored to meet your family's needs as well as possible.
If your family needs the support of services as per the Child Welfare Act, and the child's growth conditions or the child's actions jeopardise their own health or development, a customer relationship with child welfare will be initiated. In such a case, a social worker will be appointed to the customer of child welfare to take care of the child's affairs. In comparison with other social counselling for families with children, the social counselling provided in child welfare services is more strongly goal-oriented. The change objectives are determined through cooperation between the child, their family and the social worker.
Child welfare social counselling can be provided by means of a partner of the social worker as well as in various services. Support measures of open care placement, such as intensive family work or family rehabilitation, are examples of services where employees providing social counselling work at. Child welfare social counselling is also provided in foster care services, such as during emergency placement or upon assessing a child's return home after foster care.
Social counselling is always free of charge for your family.