Project Description
What support can we offer to parents?
Centre 33 is a young people’s organisation, and while we recognise that it is very hard to be anxious about your young person’s well-being, we do not offer any direct support to parents or concerned family and friends except in the case of young carers – see here.
Here are some other organisations that could be helpful.
Family Action is a 24/7 crisis line for adult family members via telephone, text, email and web chat.
Young Minds provides free support and guidance for parents. They have lots of information on their website, as well as a helpline accessible via phone, email or webchat.
Family Lives offers a confidential and free helpline service for emotional support, information, advice and guidance on any aspect of parenting and family life, and also provides support around bullying.
Pinpoint provides support for Cambridgeshire parents/carers with children and young people with SEND age 0-25 years.
National Bullying Helpline provides advice & support for parents/carers of people being bullied.
Al-Anon Families provides support for families, friends or colleagues of people dealing with alcoholism.
Families & Friends of Lesbians & Gays (FFLAG) offers support to parents & families during the coming out process.
Counselling
All our counselling sessions are held one-to-one. However, in some circumstances, the young person can be joined for the first few minutes of their first session by a parent or friend to make the first step into counselling easier for them. Note: this would not be the case in a school setting.
All our services are private and confidential and unless the young person has given their permission, we would not talk with parents, or anybody else about the content of counselling sessions.
However parents can be rest assured that if we have concerns about a young person’s health or wellbeing we would encourage the young person to speak to parents or friends.
If you do have any questions regarding our service in general you can email us on hello@centre33.org.uk
In some cases we might feel it appropriate to pass on information to the young person’s GP or other relevant professionals but would always inform the young person first.
Centre 33 has a well-established counselling service, which has been running for over 30 years and has a very good reputation in the area. All our staff and volunteers are trained, experienced, and DBS checked. Centre 33 is a member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) and we have committed to following the BACP ethical framework.
Parents and family members
If you are concerned about a young carer in your family and think they could benefit from some support you can organise a referral for an assessment via the form below.
To make a referral
You can make a referral by:
- Speaking to the young carers’ champions or contact at your school – click here to see which schools we support
- By calling or contacting Centre 33
- By completing our online referral form, there is a link below.
- By speaking to a professional you are already working with, e.g. family worker, social worker, so they can refer you into the service
To make a referral please fill out this form and we will get back in touch with you as soon as we can.
Referrals must be made with the consent of the young person (and the parent/guardian if they are under 13).
What happens next?
We will send an acknowledgement email or letter to the young carer and referrer within 2 weeks of receiving the referral. Contact will then be made with the young carer in the next 4 weeks to arrange a convenient time and date for an assessment to be completed (due to Covid-19 this is currently over the phone but can be postponed until face to face can be resumed).
“Mum had been drinking whilst I was out, when I got home she lost it and threw me out, I called Kate who knows what’s going on, I trust her as we’ve spent lots of time working out plans for this kind of situation, it helped a lot.” Fiona 16
Some more resources that might be useful regarding young carers:
The Centre 33 Young Carers Project is part of an ‘all age carers contract’ that supports all carers in the county.
If there are any adult carers in the family who need support you can contact Caring Together
For adult carers with a mental health condition contact Making Space
Other organisations who might be able to help:
National Youth Advocacy Service