“There comes a point when we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. Some of us need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in.”
It’s a quote attributed to former Archbishop Desmond Tutu, but these words are what Taylah Davis describes as her daily inspiration.
Team Leader of Samaritans Brighter Futures in Newcastle, Taylah says her work in family preservation often requires taking a trek upstream for answers.
“When people keep falling into the river, we need to teach them how to ask for help from others or give them the tools to learn how to swim,” she says.
“We can’t just stand by and watch as people keep falling into the river.”
The analogy, she says, asks much broader questions around what we could be doing as a community, as a society, to support people to either learn how to swim, or have the resources to swim.
Brighter Futures is a Samaritans service focused on ensuring children can live safely in their homes by helping to address specific problems like domestic and family violence, parental mental health issues, and substance misuse.
The earlier the better
“The child is at the centre of everything we do,” Taylah says.
“That includes working with pregnant women.
“We know that brain development is something that begins in utero which is why it’s important to provide support in addressing vulnerabilities because we know the impact that stress has on early brain development.
“Even in those early stages we will work to get the best outcomes for children.”
Brighter Futures is a home visiting service.
Taylah and her team of six work with children up to the age of 17 who may require counselling, behaviour support, early education, assistance with childcare or education support, help accessing safe housing, or support with accessing the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).
“Although all these things are not labelled mental health, they all have an overarching impact on a child’s long-term wellbeing and outcomes,” Taylah explains.
The aim of Brighter Futures, she explains, is to work on vulnerabilities so children can remain safely at home.
This includes working with the whole family unit, as Brighter Futures Practice Lead Sarah McAneney explains.
“Families might have a few vulnerabilities. They might be experiencing mental health, drug and alcohol abuse, domestic and family violence, and they could all be happening at the one time, which can obviously have quite a profound impact on each member's mental health.
“We are unique because we offer specific, family-centred support.”
Capacity Building
“Our program is about meeting people where they are at in their journey and offering them resources and support they might need,” Sarah adds.
“If they need housing, or they need financial emergency relief around food security. It could be help getting the little kids to be going to school.
“We know that all those things impact mental health, and we support through all of those levels to make sure people have what they need to be in a space where they can just focus on being well.”
Filling the gaps
“We see gaps in people being able to access timely mental health support,” Taylah explains.
“We make sure we work hard to fill those gaps and find support for families and children via the most accessible pathway.
“It’s making sure that each family member is being linked to those therapies so they can start to rebuild their life after adverse life experiences and or trauma.”
Basic human needs
A trip upstream often reveals looking holistically at basic human needs, Taylah explains.
“I think what we see and what we know is that if people are not having their basic human rights met - access to early healthcare, early mental health support, food security, housing security – then we're going to have a harder time being able to get them on track to engage in targeted mental health support”.
Visit Samaritans website for more information about Brighter Futures.