Katie is a single parent with 3 children, 2 in primary school and one in nursery. Katie was struggling with depression, felt she had no control at home, couldn’t take her children out because of their behaviour and couldn’t get them into a bedtime routine so they were all sleep deprived. Katie felt that she would not be able to continue caring for her middle child and hoped his father would take him. Katie said “I felt crazy and my son was failing at school and I couldn’t do anything about it, I couldn’t even go to school for the meetings about his learning without crying and having panic attacks”.
Working with the project Katie was able to get good bedtime routines in place, manage her children’s behaviour better, was able to go to her GP and get appropriate support for her depression and then things started to improve. Katie can now attend the meetings in school about her child’s learning on her own and she now gets her son to do his homework, which she couldn’t before. Katie’s mental health and confidence improved so much that she now has a job that she really enjoys and has discovered she is really good at. Katie felt so much better about herself and her family that she even gave up smoking.
Katie is now taking the children out by herself and even took them on a camping holiday which she is planning to do again as they all had a great time and she coped really well. They went to an art workshop and various other community activities, which was unheard of before working with the project.
Katie said “I have had great support from Red Hen and things have changed for the better and I feel stronger and more independent.”
Katie did not want to share her picture, but she is happy to share her story with others, who might benefit from Red Hen support.
