News Release
'Little Angels' TV family catch up with Dr Tanya Byron
A family supported by Home-Start Guildford were given the chance to meet up once again with Dr Tanya Byron, host of the TV hit 'Little Angels' series when she gave a keynote speech at Home-Start Guildford's Annual Review.
Mandie and her husband, Matt, had applied to 'Little Angels' for help with their five children, three- year old triplets and two older boys. Mandie said, "With so many young children, you can imagine that we were struggling a bit and with Tanya's help and with my Home-Start volunteer, we felt that we could get through those early difficult years."
Since the triplets started school Mandie has become a Home-Start volunteer herself, so that she could pass on her own experiences to other families who are struggling to cope with their children.
Dr Tanya Byron gave her speech at Home-Start Guildford's 12th annual general meeting and said, "Home-Start is so important because the volunteers 'unprofessionalise' what parenting is. Home-Start's strengths are in volunteers being flexible and sensible, with no agenda, and driven by people who want to be there and give their time."
Also attending the AGM were
MP Anne Milton (Shadow Minster for Health) - who spoke about the value for money
a team of Home-Start volunteers offers when working preventatively with families -
and Lynne Richards,Home-Start's director of England, who spoke about the value of
volunteers when supporting hard to reach families.
To find our more about Home-Start Guildford, please visit www.home-startguildford.org.uk
-Ends-
National contact:
Jo
McLeish, Press and PR Officer t: 0870 220 6713
Local contact:
Home-Start Guildford t: 01483 511181; e: office@hsguildford.co.uk
Web: www.home-startguildford.org.uk
Notes to Editors:
High resolution photographs are available from the above contacts.
Home-Start
Home-Start is the UK's leading family support charity. We recruit and train volunteers to support parents with at least one child under the age of five. Our home visiting work is unique in the UK. The charity was set up in 1973 and now supports nearly 35,000 families and over 71,000 children each year. Almost 16,000 volunteers visit families in their own homes - parents supporting other parents in a variety of situations including isolation, bereavement, multiple births, illness or disability.
Dr Tanya Byron
Tanya did her first degree in psychology at York, her clinical psychology Masters training at UCL and her doctorate (on the treatment of cocaine, amphetamine and ecstasy misusers) between University College Hospital and Surrey. She has worked in the NHS for 18 years working in Drug Dependency, HIV/AIDS and sexual health, adult mental health and eating disorders services. She was the Consultant of an in patient unit for 12 -16 year olds with severe mental health problems and child protection issues. Tanya now works one clinical day a week as a Consultant in child and adolescent mental health.
