Platform for Life

We’re community based and work where our clients are so there’s no transport issues to address or children to pull out of school. We work with families who can’t afford to pay for private therapy when NHS services aren’t available, too difficult to access or take too long. There’s no cost to clients from accessing our service but they do need to live in Blacon or Lache, be on a low income/benefits and part of a family. Our approach recognises the role that relationships play in a client’s mental health, particularly within the family. We don’t work on the basis that there’s something ‘wrong’ with the client, but rather that there’s something ‘wrong’ in their environment, both historical and present day. When helping a client with present day challenges, we’re prepared to work on the relationships around them and this can lead us to work with more than one family member. With child referrals, we sometimes work with the parent(s) as well as the child. And if we’re working with struggling parents, we might also seek to work with the child(ren). We’re able to make these decisions quickly, without referral to a different service and this gives us flexibility. We tailor our service to the needs of each individual client and their family and work in a way that helps them achieve healing rather than just short-term symptom reduction.