Leicester Post Sexual Abuse Service (PSA)

More Information

Delivered by trained social workers, we focus upon addressing trauma distress symptoms and family functioning with an aim to improve mental health, emotional wellbeing and bring about greater stability in the lives of those we work for. 

We provide psycho-educational support to understand the impact of trauma, alongside emotional support around the impact and consequences of trauma. We create a safer space for children and young people to share their feelings and explore a variety of coping strategies to help manage those feelings. The service is mainly delivered in person, taking place at our office or in other child-friendly settings.

We offer:

• Therapeutic support up to the age of 18 (unless the young person has SEND or LAC status, where support is offered up to age 25): We seek to involve parents and carers throughout our involvement. The length of an episode of care can vary from 6 weeks to a maximum of 24 weeks. This will depend on the circumstances of each referral.
• One-to-one support for those age 16 or over who wish to self-refer: This can be confidential if a young person doesn’t wish to involve other people in their support plan yet.
• A bespoke support plan for each family: This is created collaboratively between the family and social worker.
• Holding support: Advice and resources for those on the waiting list, or for when support comes to an end. Details of our FamilyLine phone service can be found at the top of the page.
• Advice and signposting: Sometimes we are not the right service for a family. In these cases we will do our best to offer advice and signpost them to services which may be more appropriate.

Our workers carry out an initial assessment to gather as much information of the family’s current situation as possible. We may also speak to other professionals involved with the family. This helps us to gain a better understanding of the family, their day-to-day life, the issues with which they are struggling, and how we can help. We then create a support plan where we agree on one or two therapeutic goals – these are the aims of the work, and reflect priorities highlighted by the child and family as areas that they want to change or improve. We involve parents/carers in the work wherever possible to help us to achieve these aims: Research tells us that children whose parents/carers support and believe them, and where home feels safe and stable, can begin recovery.

We recognise that recovery can be a lifelong journey. We can offer more than one episode of care and we accept re-referrals for families that we have previously worked with.

Consultations to professionals

We offer specialist advice and support for those who are working with, or may work with, families where sexual abuse is a concern. This is often accessed by schools, mental health workers, family support workers, and other voluntary sector organisations. It can take place face-to-face, online, or over the phone, and can be held in one appointment or we can offer multiple appointments as work with the family continues.