"Listening, guidance and empathy from Child and Family East"

My child came to CAFE with severe anxiety, depression and had attempted suicide, having experienced domestic abuse, and we were lucky to be assigned a specialist DV counsellor as our social worker.

Through expert listening, gentle guidance and empathic support, my child's mental health has now improved greatly. CAFE provided a 'safe space' where my child felt totally comfortable to open up about worries.

The 'Hope' parenting programme was also very helpful in giving me practical guidance for conserving my energy as a parent.

Our social worker's informed and nuanced understanding of domestic abuse was invaluable in helping my child slowly heal from complex trauma. She also greatly helped me to gradually rebuild my life within often very challenging circumstances.

I believe it's very rare to find a mental health worker that really understands domestic abuse issues and I was thrilled to discover this in the CAFE service.

As a campaigner against domestic abuse and someone who has had lived experience, I would very much like to see the client intake at CAFE expanded to allow for more clients with complex domestic abuse challenges like us, as I believe there is a very urgent community need for this.

I think it would be great to have more funding for more specialist DV counsellors, trained in coercive control and other forms of domestic abuse, and ensure they are suitably remunerated for this important work.

I felt the CAFE team provided an exceptional, supportive and inclusive mental health care service and based on my experience I would happily recommend others to this much-needed service.

If you wish me to provide further recommendations from the perspective of an advocate against domestic abuse, I would be very happy to do so.