By the time many struggling parents become involved with social services, family life has already reached crisis point.

However, an innovative programme run by the NSPCC reaches out to parents before problems escalate.

Susan, from West Dunbartonshire, was referred to the service, called Improving Parenting, Improving Practice (IPIP), two years ago. She had suffered with long-term depression and a family bereavement had left her struggling to cope with two young children.

"I started suffering from depression before leaving school at 16 and I've been on anti-depressants pretty much my whole life, except for during my two pregnancies," says Susan, 30.

"Things got much worse in 2008 after I found my long-term partner dead from an overdose in our flat. It was horrific."

Thankfully, the couple's two sons, Matthew, then three, and seven-month-old Adam, were with their granny at the time. "Although his granny was able to help out, things became very hard and I struggled a lot.

"Sometimes it was an effort to even get out of bed, and I found myself sleeping a lot. I also struggled with suicidal feelings, but it was my boys who kept me going. I might not be here today if it wasn't for them."

"As time went on, life continued to be tough and I struggled with the depression and my increasing stress levels. The boys' behaviour and attitudes had worsened and become very challenging to deal with.

"I was shouting at them all the time and felt like I was turning into my own dad, who had a short temper and would often shout at me when I was young."

At this point Susan's social worker brought Sarah Orr, from the NSPCC's IPIP service round to the house to talk about how she could help.

"I trusted what she was saying so I decided to give it a go."

The IPIP programme was launched three years ago in Scotland and is for parents of children aged from two to 12 years. Practitioners visit families every week or two for up to a year.

"During the hour-long sessions I would practice relaxation techniques. It allowed me some quiet time to help get a handle on my stress levels. In time, I formed a good relationship with Sarah and felt I could talk to her about anything. The boys liked her too and together we all came up with a set of Family Rules which reward them for good behaviour.

"One of the parenting skills I learned was the importance of praise. Matthew doesn't have a lot of confidence, so he responded really well to that. He continues to have some problems at school but has recently been referred to CAMHS [Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services] so I'm hoping that will help.

"I definitely feel like the NSPCC helped me. I'm still seeing a mental health social worker, and have signed up for a repeat course of bereavement counselling, but things are starting to show some signs of getting better. It always depends on how the depression is, but with a house move hopefully happening soon and Matthew getting some extra support through CAMHS, I can see some hope for the future now."

Sarah Orr has worked for the programme since it was set up. "It's a way of catching difficulties early and avoiding that crisis intervention," she says.

"Initially we were targeting schools, and they were referring families where parents were saying that they could do with a little bit of help but they didn't meet social work threshold. So it's to avoid the longer term problems in the teenage years when things become outwith parental control and end up with statutory involvement. We also get referrals from health visitors, school nurses and CAMHS teams."

Sarah and her colleagues aim to provide those they work with, with a tool kit of parenting skills.

"We work with them to increase their confidence, but we are focussing on meeting their child's emotional and physical needs and improving their relationship with their child through better communication and ways to manage behaviour.

"It's usually weekly appointments for an hour or an hour and a half, so a longer than a social worker would be going in for. It's more about problem solving and that's why we can get a good relationship. The child's welfare is at the centre. We tend to find that people respond really well because they are so appreciative of getting some help."

* names have been changed.

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