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Health, wellbeing and everyday life

Health

Adopter Training

All Stage 2 adopters will attend a paediatric first aid course, commissioned by Adoption South East (ASE) and delivered by Baby and Beyond.

Your General Practitioner (GP)

Your GP is an important person in your network who will be able to advocate for you and your child in years to come. The GP can refer to other services.

East Sussex Health Care Trust has a webpage which explains the referral pathways from their GPs.

Adoption and your child's GP

  • Children placed for adoption should be registered with their new GP as soon as they've moved to their prospective adoptive parents.
  • Your child will still have their original NHS number linking it to their NHS records.
  • A new NHS number is issued when the Adoption order is granted.
  • The child's social worker will send the Adoption Order to the NHS trusts so they can issue the new NHS number.
  • All previous NHS records are then closed down and sealed. Once registered with the GP your child will be linked in with a range of services. Immunisation details will be sent to you and a health visitor will be allocated.

The Health Visitor

Your Health Visitor will be skilled in work with babies and toddlers and will be able to answer a range of questions. Your Health Visitor can request a nursery nurse to support you with specific issues such as sleeping, feeding and toilet training.

The Institute of Health Visiting website gives more information about what your health visitor can help with.

Out of hours support

This can be accessed by dialling 111.

Emergency

In an emergency dial 999 for the ambulance service.

Wellbeing

It is important that you don't feel guilty about carving time out to look after yourself. Children are extremely skilled at reading their parents in this respect and parents hold a valuable key to their own and their children's well-being.

Becoming a parent brings new challenges in terms of the way you can meet your own needs and you will be joining a host of parents who have found helpful ways to readjust. Here are some of their recommendations:

Resources for wellbeing

  • Headspace helps you learn to relax with guided meditations and mindfulness techniques that bring calm, wellness and balance to your life.
  • Calm provides resources for sleep and meditation.
  • ChillPanda has been developed with a child psychologist experienced in helping families and children manage worries.
  • Happyfeed is a gratitude journal with photos designed to boost your mood by reflecting on three good things each day.

Resources for exercise

Exercise can boost wellbeing and is a proven way to improve sleep. It can feel very difficult to prioritise exercise when you have children.

Face to face groups

Parent and toddler groups can be a great way to meet other new parents and your health visitor will be best placed to refer you to a local group. Local groups are listed on Families Online. You will need to choose the area that you live in to get the nearest groups to you. You may also find groups at local libraries and museums and art galleries.

We run our own under 5s parent and toddler groups across the Adoption South East region, which are a great way to meet other adoptive families and create long lasting networks for you and your children. We run adopter events 8 times per year, as well as various other support and networking groups. We can also link you in to the many, adopter led, peer support and networking groups that exist across the ASE region.

To find out more about the groups we run, adopters who live in the ASE region can sign up to our monthly newsletter by emailing adoptionvoices@adoptionsoutheast.org.uk. When emailing please let us know the adoption agency you adopted through, as well as the name of your social worker if you have one.

Financial support for social activities

Everyday life

Everyday life can be tricky for our adopted children. We have compiled a list of useful websites that give tips on managing various everyday challenges.

Routines

Bedtime routines (thesleepcharity.org.uk)

Sleep

Sleep advisor tips (millpondsleepclinic.com)

School Holidays

Transitioning into school holidays (familyfutures.com)

Successful school holidays (adoptionuk.org)

Travel

Hidden Disabilities - tips for travel (gatwickairport.com)

Tips for taking fostered or adopted children on an overseas holiday (homeforgood.org)

Movie reviews

Adoption At The Movies reviews films based on adoption related issues. It does not have the latest movies, but does review many older films that your children are likely to watch. It explains the adoption related content, the reinforcing positive messages of the film and also the challenges the movie may present.

Support for social activities

A CEA Card app that allows a person with a disability to get a free cinema ticket for the person accompanying them.

You can apply for a card from Thorpe Park that allows a child with disabilities, and three friends, to access the rides via a shorter queue.