Meitheal
About this good practice
Meitheal is an innovative and integrated model of early intervention under the Prevention, Partnership, and Family Support department, Tusla The Child and Family Agency. The model supports families who do not meet the threshold for child protection interventions but where the family would benefit from additional support. It aims to ensure that there is a continuum of support available for families.
A family or a professional working with the family can initiate the Meitheal process with the support of Tusla. The Meitheal framework ensures the strengths and needs of children and their families are effectively identified, understood, and responded to so that families get the help and support needed to improve outcomes. Meitheal can only be undertaken with consent of a parent and may require multi-agency intervention.
The Meitheal starts by completing a strengths and needs assessment. The practitioner hears the voice of the child and parent to understand what the needs are and how best to respond. This informs the next stage of the process where tailored and cooperative wrap-around interventions are developed. The ultimate goal is to enable parents and practitioners to work together to achieve better outcomes. Oversight of the process is facilitated by Tusla and recorded on an internal database.
A toolkit was developed to provide guidance to families and services involved on every stage of the process.
Resources needed
• Family Support Worker/Practitioner hours/time
• Agency/Stakeholder time and commitment.
• Family time and commitment
• Tusla Meitheal Toolkit
• Meitheal Data base to track progress
• Meitheal Guide Leaflets including online resources
• Community of Practice to support practitioners
Evidence of success
The Key findings from the interim report (2017) that provide evidence of success for the process are as follows:
•Participants are positive about their experience in the process and reported improvements in family well being and outcomes.
•The relationship with the lead practitioner, the multi agency approach and less duplication of services supports families in reaching their outcomes.
•The process provides greater scope for a continuum of support for families with unmet needs.
Potential for learning or transfer
The collaborative nature of Meitheal in bringing all supports for the child to the table to ensure all parties are linked, able to share information and on the same page regarding he child.
Dialogue is possible through collaboration between all stakeholders, this includes 1) A family needs to tell their story once 2) All parties are brought to the table at the one point, 3) ensures no mixed messages, 4) one central point of contact for the family 5) clarity of agreed actions and identifying key actors to deliver on these actions, and 6) improved accountability.
Also, focusing the support on the child and not on the parent can reduce pressure on a parent or carer, but also aid the family as a whole. When a child is receiving the help and support necessary, this can often remove worry and stress for the parent, benefitting the whole family.
Meitheal is an innovative and effective way of supporting families that have unmet needs that don’t meet the child protection threshold.
Further information
Changing Futures Meitheal
Documents
Website
Good practice owner
You can contact the good practice owner below for more detailed information.