Contact with Family and Friends

Introduction
Contact with family and friends is an important part of all our lives – support staff and service users alike – and it is therefore Prestwoods policy to encourage and help service users to maintain regular and appropriate contact.

However, it is important to remember that contact with family and friends only takes place if the service user wants and agrees to it.

Home Visits
Service users are accompanied by their support staff on home visits to their family if necessary.

Home visits are always carefully planned with days and times being agreed beforehand.
It is also important to establish which members of the family will be present since service users can sometimes react badly to the presence of some members of their family.

Visits to Service Users Home
Guidelines for visits from family and friends to the service users home regarding dates, times and persons present are subject to the same guidelines as for home visits (see above).

Contact by Telephone
Times and days for telephone contact between service users and their friends and family should be formally agreed since this gives both service users and friends and family some certainty which:-

• Avoids disturbance of the service users therapeutic programme

• Avoids family and friends becoming frustrated by being unable to get hold of service users, e.g. if the service user was out for the day/evening.

Contact by Letter
Support staff will help service users to write letters to their family and friends where this is necessary.

Support staff will also help service users read any letters which have been written to them where this is necessary.

N.B. All service users written correspondence is PRIVATE and if help is not needed or requested by the service user then support staff must respect this.

Contact by Email.
Contact by email is possible either through service users own computer or a Prestwood Company computer when and where available.