Circle’s very own Family Support Worker, Lyndsay Fraser-Robertson, was selected by the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust to carry out a travelling fellowship in the ‘Early Years Prevention and Intervention’ category.

Lyndsay travelled to Washington and Connecticut State in the Summer of 2017 to explore innovative services for pregnant and parenting women affected by substance use. Lyndsay was looking for services that supported families to stay together in a safe way. She visited hospital based services, residential recovery services, community visiting services and spoke with several academics in the field whilst at Yale University’s Child Study Centre. Lyndsay has made four main recommendations based on the four themes in her findings, with the hope of implementing some of her findings in the UK.

Lyndsay’s findings include: the power of group dynamics and peer mentoring for pregnant and parenting women which acknowledge their role as a parent; the importance of providing safe environments for pregnant and parenting women to practice healthy coping strategies as an alternative to substance use; the benefits of providing women more time to process the traumas they have experienced which led them down a path of substance use. You can read Lyndsay’s report in full below.

Thanks to the team at Winston Churchill Memorial Trust for providing such a wonderful opportunity to explore innovative services for substance-using pregnant and parenting women. Congratulations to Lyndsay on all her hard work!