Dear all,

I work in Plymouth, and I have colleagues who are managing the community services that carry responsibilities towards the children and families in the community that use the independent nursery Little Teds. Naturally the parents whose children use or have used Little Teds are distressed and angry: so they should be. I think people on this list will be pleased to know that the principles underpinning the response to this incident would be shared by most community psychologists, and that people employed in the relevant posts do draw on community psychology ideas, both explicitly and implicitly . My understanding is that support and information as well as opportunities for mutual support to process their responses and emotional reactions are being provided and enabled for and with parents , workers at the nursery and local schools and local people by local grass roots community workers and members, not by external experts. External input and support , including social work and psychology, is being put at the service of the front line workers in the short and long term as required, but neither psychologists nor student volunteers are being wheeled in as "experts" to try to directly remediate or interfere with the situation. A huge amount of thoughtful, dedicated work and co-ordination is going on to try to ensure that the situation is locally and addressed by empowering the local community to take charge of its own affairs while not undermining the naturally occurring sources of social support and social power from which the community draws its own resilience and healing. The point is not to medicalise or pathologise the families but rather to respond to what the community needs. There have been 2 community meetings so far for parents and anyone else concerned. This is a process that will take time. Whether these good intentions are working or not is for the families and local community members to judge, both now and in the longer term.. and perhaps Rachel knows more on this from parents' perspectives.


Good wishes,

Annie Mitchell

________________________________________
From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Deborah Chinn [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 13 June 2009 19:38
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] plymouth

Hi Rachel

You have made a really good point about what community psychology could contribute here. But who are the people employed in the relevant posts? What about you? I was very struck by Serdar Degirmencioglu's presentation at the BPS day on 'promoting mental health and wellbeing in communities' that the BPS organised a couple of years ago. He talked about involving university students in a community psychology response to the Turkish earthquake. It made very good sense to me to work with students who are usually energetic and even idealistic (even these days!).

This brings me back to a question that I think about quite a lot - it seems unlikely that psychologists are going to get proper posts to do 'community psychology' however much we would like to, plus there are lots of other people doing community activism and development who are getting on pretty well without psychologists. So how do we 'get in there'? What about organising a meeting yourself? You dont necessarily have to be the 'expert'. It sounds like your own experiences are not that different to the other parents who are pictured on the TV looking very angry and upset.

Maybe there are some other folk in Plymouth or nearby who are prepared to act with you on this one. Frankly I would mind getting involved myself, though I'm quite far away in London. There is a great benefit in tackling a live issue. These parents have got a right to be angry - pre-school care is a crucial issue, and I wonder whether the state is happy to use mothers' cheaper labour without bothering to invest in environments which are safe and nurturing for very small children.

come on folks, this really is community psychology!

Deborah

----- Original Message -----
From: Clarke, Rachel<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, June 13, 2009 11:18 AM
Subject: plymouth

As someone who lives in Plymouth and whose children went to Little Teds and to the other nursery this woman worked in, it strikes me that this would be a prime opportunity for those employed in relevant posts to think about some community psychology. These parents have all of these feelings they need to be able to express. They need guidance on how to support and talk to their children. They all live near to each other, many of them have to go to the site every day to take children to the school. They are spending their time in the playground expressing their worries. Setting up some sort of self-help or advice drop-in in the school might be a way of trying to begin the process of healing, of holding some of that emotion and fear. This is an area where many people are struggling to hold families together with worsening economic difficulties and all that goes along with it - this betrayal of trust just leaves people feeling hopeless. If we could find some way of shinning some light of hope - that their families and their community is not devastated - I think it would make for something very real.

Rachel
___________________________________ COMMUNITYPSYCHUK - The discussion list for community psychology in the UK. To unsubscribe or to change your details visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK For any problems or queries, contact the list moderator: Grant Jeffrey ([log in to unmask])
___________________________________ COMMUNITYPSYCHUK - The discussion list for community psychology in the UK. To unsubscribe or to change your details visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK For any problems or queries, contact the list moderator: Grant Jeffrey ([log in to unmask])

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COMMUNITYPSYCHUK - The discussion list for community psychology in the UK.
To unsubscribe or to change your details visit the website:
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