Read Emma’s story

Our participant Emma’s story

Emma was referred to HeadsUp by her Family Liaison Officer after her son got to school age. Being a full-time single parent, caring for a friend with multiple health conditions and struggling with ongoing personal issues made it hard for Emma to think about taking the first steps back to work as she lacked confidence and suffers with long term anxiety.

After her son started school and her personal problems were slowly being dealt with, she felt ready to start thinking about looking for work but became stuck as she had no idea where to start. Emma got the confidence to ask for support from HeadsUp after a suggestion from her Family Liaison Officer and has not looked back since. She has been given moral support from her Peer Support Worker who has also helped her to find some direction around her employment goals, working together to look for employment which is flexible around her childcare needs.

She is looking forward to becoming more financially secure, which would enable Emma to take her son on more days out and would love to get to a point where she could take him on holiday. Emma has been with HeadsUp for two months and thinks the support her Peer Support Worker gives her has been “fantastic”, having 1:1 support has built up Emma’s confidence and has helped her explore different roles, deciding that she would like to work in the childcare sector and is currently now in the process of enrolling on courses to help her reach her goals.

Emma looks forward to her appointments with her Peer Support Worker and although she suffers from long term anxiety which is being affected by her current personal situation, she is slowly becoming more confident and independent, being able to engage with other support services without her Peer Support Workers assistance. Emma would highly recommend the HeadsUp Service and her Peer Support Worker, saying “fantastic support work, [the Peer Support Worker] needs praise… it’s given me more confidence”.