Health Visiting
There are nine integrated health visiting and school nursing teams who work across the Trust in community settings. The team is made up of health visitors and school nurses who are registered nurses with an additional qualification in child health / development and family health, and specially trained public health nurses and child health assistants.
Health visitors deliver the universal Healthy Child Healthy Future Programme for pre-school children by assessing and identifying health needs in partnership with families and communities and helping people to improve their health. Health visitors work in partnership with other professionals, for example, GPs, midwives, teachers, social workers and speech and language therapists. The team can give you information about other services such as parenting programmes or support groups.
We offer a confidential service and will not discuss your personal information with anyone else without your permission unless to protect you or someone else from serious harm.
Health visitors will offer a family centred service from pregnancy until the child goes to school. They offer advice and support on matters such as:
- Parenting & behaviour management
- Nutrition – breastfeeding, bottle feeding, weaning and healthy diets
- Immunisations
- Play, stimulation and child development
- Keeping your child safe
Healthy Child Healthy Future Programme
Health Visitors deliver the universal Healthy Child Healthy Future Programme for children aged 0-4 by assessing and identifying health needs in partnership with families and communities and helping people to improve their health.
Your health visitor will share lots of information for example:
- Infant feeding and nutrition – breastfeeding, bottle feeding, introducing solids
- Child development, play, language development, sleep, toilet training
- Emotional health and wellbeing
- Healthy lifestyles
- Immunisations
- Keeping your child safe
Services provided by Health Visiting
Star Babies
Star Babies is an enhanced universal health visiting service for all first-time parents in the Northern Health and Social Care Trust. It offers home visiting in the first year of life, which supports the transition to parenthood, parent-infant relationships, and social and emotional development. The aim is to involve health visitors when they are needed the most, providing consistent, regular support from the antenatal period until a baby is twelve months old. Contact your local health visiting team for more information.
Baby and Me
Baby and Me parent groups are weekly health visiting groups for mothers and fathers of babies up to 12 months. Groups aim to increase knowledge and understanding of healthy baby growth and development and support confidence and enjoyment during transition to parenthood. Groups offer peer support as well as regular contact and advice from health visitors. Contact your local health visiting team for more information.
Henry
The HENRY programme is a research based licensed programme delivered by trained facilitators to parents of children aged 0-5. For more information contact 07584884678.
