16 September 2020

Our first evaluation of our Family Crisis Support Service has shown a significant improvement in families’ mental health and well-being.

The service officially started after hundreds of supporters chipped in to raise money so we could help triplet dad Paul Mason who sadly lost his wife shortly after the babies were born.

After reaching out to Norland College, which is at the forefront of childcare training in the UK,  and helping Paul, we decided there must be other families out there with twins, triplets or more, who find themselves in desperate need due to a number of different circumstances.

Now an evaluation of the service shows how successful it has been in allowing families to address their challenges and make significant improvements to family life.

Using the HADS scale (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale) , parents moved from feeling severely depressed to moderate, and from moderately anxious to normal on the scale.

During the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, there was a 159% increase in use of the service, which was adapted to help families virtually either through video calls or over the phone.

However, before Covid, which this report is based on, a trained childcare support practitioner from Twins Trust or a volunteer qualified nanny from Norland, would visit a family in their home offering practical and psychological support.

Following intervention from the Family Crisis Support team the improvement in daily family living activities such as sleep, routine, getting out and about and feeding is significant, and the evaluation showed that stress levels improved significantly.

Helen Regan from Twins Trust said:

We knew we were helping families thanks to anecdotal evidence, but this evaluation report has shown the statistically significant levels of how our interventions are helping.

“In using the HADS measure, which quantifies levels of anxiety and depression, we moved parents on the scale from feeling severely depressed to moderate and from moderately anxious to normal. This can alert us to specific early intervention focus of support, resources and signposting to other agencies.

“There is much to celebrate in this first evaluation, the support for parents of multiples and the contribution to child health and wellbeing, is invaluable.

Without funding and volunteers, these families would be left in despair with nowhere to turn.

As we all know, families of twins, triplets or more often face more challenges than singleton families, multiple pregnancies and birth are medically complex and can be of greater risk to child and parent health.

Twins and triplets are often born prematurely, which can lead to higher mortality, for mums there can be an increased risk of pre-eclampsia and worse mental health outcomes.

After birth, social isolation, emotional anxiety, sleep deprivation and worries about finances can be a common occurrence.

Dr Janet Rose, Principal of Norland, said: “Our revaluation evidences a service that successfully offers practical support to parents of multiples in crisis.

“Since partnering with the Twins Trust to set up the award-winning service in 2014, our nannies have volunteered over 3,000 hours of specialist support to families in severe need.

“We are so proud of our nannies who continue to volunteer their time to this vital service and, in so doing, are making a real difference to the lives of children and families living in unbelievably challenging circumstances across the UK.”

If you need help, please visit our family crisis support page.