Lisa

Accepting help for the first time makes a big difference – Lisa’s story

Lisa is a mother of 4, with children aged 7, 9, 19 and 21. She has been referred for support before but always declined it. Another service saw an opportunity to connect Lisa and her family with culturally appropriate support and referred her to the local Family Wellbeing Service.

To build trust with Lisa and her family, the Family Wellbeing Service worker visited weekly. Lisa and her children were connected to health and dental clinics and Lisa saw a family counsellor for help with depression and parenting. She has been able to learn how best to parent each child and regularly engages with a psychologist to manage her depression.

Lisa can now check her Centrelink payments are right and budget to make sure the family has what it needs. Attending women’s group brought her out of her comfort zone and she is now more social and has more family and friends visit.

Lisa’s oldest daughter worked with a youth service on TAFE study, counselling and Centrelink payments and the younger children now have health and mental health care plans. The support worker helped the youngest son join after school sports and a weekend soccer program and both younger kids were able to go to another Family Wellbeing Service’s holiday program.