Family experiences of services

We asked the Families Panels to tell us about their experiences of services, what the barriers to access might be and what an ideal service would look like.

For most groups the experiences of the same or similar services varied greatly. The personal interest and support of individual staff within an organisation was identified as a key factor to a service working well for families and explained the different experiences of similar services. Staff who took a personal interest and provided support were those who were approachable, generous and friendly.

Often the negative experiences of families were also heavily influenced by their experience with staff this included; receiving inconsistent information, lack of respect from staff, lack of trust from staff and unwillingness to understand the needs of the family.

The physical environment of the services was also important; how welcoming the place feels was dependent on basic things like seating (enough and comfort), privacy and access to parents rooms.

A theme with all the groups was the lack of consistent information from agencies. Having to go to too many places to find out information – there was an identified need for a single place to go for all information – most identified the internet as a good resource (urban based groups) but stated that many sites were difficult to navigate.

Common themes for improvement included:

• Accessibility – having services in communities rather than central location and a variety of ways people can access information eg internet, phone, face to face etc.
• Cultural understanding of circumstances of the families
• Integration of services “wrap around” services.
• Need for flexibility as not everyone fits the criteria e.g. Grandparents trying to get respite care.

There was a lot of commonality between groups as to why they don’t access services, the main ones included: pride, fear of judgement – being perceived as a failure, ignorance (not knowing what is available), transport limitations and access limitation e.g. complicated forms, steep steps and inappropriate seating, language or cultural barriers, and bad previous experience. There was also concern by many of the groups about confidentiality and potential (negative) repercussions of seeking help. One group also stated that knowledge of the system stopped them because they did not want to get caught in the system knowing there are long waiting lists for many services.

When asked what an ideal service would look like, all stated they want integrated services that meet the needs of families before they reached crisis point. Having services which provide support and ask what a family or individual needs rather than assuming. Viewing the family needs in the widest context rather dealing with one issue in isolation.

All the groups represent a diverse range of families in New Zealand with different needs, cultural and socioeconomic circumstances as well as gender and age. Whilst services identified were often specific to the needs of the particular families, the expectations (or hope) of those services were common. These included:

• being treated with respect by service providers,
• being given good and appropriate advice,
• having services which linked families with services they needed
• Integrated services
• Cultural sensitivity
• Warm and welcoming environment.