Privileged to work in the community

"I’m passionate about community services because
I work with children with neurological conditions
and long term conditions to assist them in
activities and participation in their own environment."

Lauren Haworth is a Community Children's Neurological Physiotherapist and tells us a little about her role with the trust...

"Initially I decided to join the trust as I wanted to be associated with such a large organisation with such a good reputation. After joining on a six month temporary contract, I never left and have been here seven years now. I love my job!

I trained in the North East at the University of Teesside and completed a previous rotational physiotherapy role in another West Yorkshire NHS trust. I specialised in Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy, but felt that Children's Physiotherapy was an opportunity and an experience I had to try. It is very rewarding working with children.  

Every day is different in my role. I am very privileged to have my treatment area in a school, or health centre, or patients home, or swimming pool or trampoline! I treat and assess children in environments appropriate to the goals we are working on and negotiate family orientated treatment plans to accommodate the child and family as much as possible.

By working in the community, I think we are able to see the real challenges and difficulties affecting our patients in their own homes and environments and I'm proud to be able to assist with this."

Building therapeutic relationships

We have a team of health visitors that work with babies, young mums and families across Leeds. Sam Taylor is a recent member of the team...

“I'm passionate about community services because
working in the community allows me to see
clients in their own homes and environments,
which allow me to build the therapeutic
relationships that are key to my role.”

"I have been working in health visiting for just over one year. I recently completed the post graduate diploma, which included a year-long placement with one of the Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust's (LCH) health visiting teams.

My background is in adult nursing and I previously worked in a hospital, which gave me valuable experience in healthcare and with the public. I trained to be a health visitor as I wanted to make a difference to outcomes for children and families, as well as trying to improve their experiences of childhood and parenting through caring support and guidance.

I received a lot of support whilst on placement at LCH and was made to feel part of the team from day one, this made me want to return once I was qualified.  

The role of a health visitor includes a variety of things, such as delivering the core Healthy Child Programme, running well baby clinics and the antenatal programme for first time parents, assessing families and children who require additional packages of care and planning these as well as attending multi-professional meetings for families.

In health visiting it is really important to form empowering relationships with families that support them in making changes to improve the outcomes of their children. It is extremely rewarding when you see these changes happen."