Health Visiting

Health Visitors are qualified nurses with special training and experience in many key areas, including child health, health promotion and education. They offer practical support and advice on a wide range of issues as they strive to promote the health of the whole community.

All GP surgeries are linked with a Health Visiting Team, in fact you've probably come across one or two of them in your doctor's surgery, at a local health centre or child health clinic.

Every family with a pre-school aged child has a named Health Visitor who can advise on:

• Everyday difficulties such as teething, sleeping and feeding
• Immunisation to prevent diseases such as diphtheria, polio, whooping cough, tetanus, measles, mumps, German measles and meningitis
• Parenting classes, sleep clinics and managing difficult behaviour
• Any special needs your child may have

Health Visitors can support the whole family by:

• Advising on benefit entitlements
• Supporting fathers-to-be and reassuring new fathers about their role
• Giving information on local support networks, including leisure activities, antenatal classes, mother and toddler groups, childminders, playgroups and nurseries.

Health Visitors can point the way to specialist help in the following areas:

• Unemployment
• Bereavement
• A serious illness in the family
• An unhappy or violent relationship
• Recent arrivals to this country who may be having problems with the language and cultural changes
• Conflicts within the family
• A disability

Health Visitors also promote healthy lifestyles by:

• Providing sensible, practical, and professional advice on how to stay healthy
• Running health promotion groups such as smoking cessation, keep fit classes, parenting and baby massage groups and stress management sessions

They can also offer advice on:

HIV/Aids, alcohol and drug misuse, contraception, depression, disability, housing and homelessness, isolation, menopause, pregnancy, poverty and screening.