This evaluation looks at the role of Family Support Workers (FSWs) in Scotland in tackling health inequalities in prisoners' families. It uses interviews with FSWs, Female Service Users and analysis over 6 months of the FSW database.
The most common reason for a family to seek help from FSWs was poor mental and emotional wellbeing. Findings from FSWs note there is little strategic infrastructure in place for support around children of prisoners and that inter agency work (including with the NHS) was conducted on a case by case basis. Findings from the Service Users interviewed noted the stress of kinship care. The report concludes that the FSW 'one stop shop' role is vital in improving health (mental and emotional wellbeing) outcomes for these families and that they can be linked to statutory health services.
See A Tool to Tackle Health Inequalities below:
