Single Parents are Valuable Clients to all Service Providers.
There are many resources and information out there for single parents and sometimes single parents can get a little lost in where to go to get that professional help they and their children need. Getting advice and referrals from friends and family members can be great but when single parents need professional help, what is out there for them?
If you’re a single parent the biggest information one-stop-shop in the 21st century is to use the Internet. Google the heck away and type in any question you want. There you will get many second opinions. However there will be times that you will have to meet face-to-face with people in your community that are there to help you and your children.
Sometimes you may get a little bit nervous and think that you don’t deserve to approach professional people because you may think your not as clever or as posh as they are. Just remember you are a “customer” a “valuable client.” Without you and your children and everyone else that uses the service providers expertise, the service provider would not have a job. Yes.. they need you as much as you need them. Just think you and your children are helping them live their Dreams.
Knowing what service providers do will give you a head start, so you can focus on asking them the real questions you want answered, then you and your children can move on and Live Your Dreams.
As a single parent you now no longer have to figure out what people do.
Here are the 7 groups of service providers and all the things single parents need to know about what they do for you and your children.
1. Doctors, Pharmacists, Dentists and Nurses
These are highly skilled health professionals who provide preventative, curative, promotional and rehabilitative health care services in a systematic way. They assist you and your child in maintaining your physical health only. They are not experts in parenting 101 of your children, they are experts in health.
2. Religious/Spiritual teachers
Most religious or spiritual teachers have titles like Pastor, Rabbi, Father, Priest, Deacon, Deaconess, Bishop, Monk, Nun, Elder, Guru… I think by now you get the gist of the titles and may think of a few more I have not mentioned. Their advice will often lean towards the religion or spiritual understanding. Their organizations can be a big caring community of support for single parents and their child, some offering real support to assist you and your child and at times in your home.
3. Counselor, Psychologist and Psychiatrist
These are professional health experts that can assist you and your child in maintaining emotional and mental health.
Counsellors don’t tell you what you need, that’s just not what they do. Counselors do not give you advice, they help you make your own choice within a framework of agreed counseling contract. In effect you tell your story, they listen, you come up with your own solutions, then they say I’ll see you next week, just to do that all over again. So you’re actually paying someone to sit there and listen to you, whilst you talk to yourself and fix your own problems.
Psychologists study the human mind, their job is to figure out emotional, mental and behavioural problems. They can use their knowledge to help you understand what they have observed to be the problem.
A counsellor and psychologist can not diagnose, in other words they can not tell you that your child has ADHD and Depression, not unless a qualified medical clinical professional has done so.
Unless the person is a Clinical Psychologist who can diagnose existing or potential disorders like ADHD and Depression but even in doing so, there ought to be thorough collaboration with you. I would go as far to say that without a minimum referral to a Clinical Psychologist, even a general doctors visit should not go making such mental health diagnosis with prescriptions to you and especially your children unless the general doctor has had a recent extensive medical background in mental health. or It is always best to seek for a second opinion from the professional, a psychiatrist. Too many people now a days are quickly being diagnosed and given medications in this area as a quick fix solution with too many side effects. Single parents… be very real careful out there.
A Psychiatrist is an actual doctor who specialises in mental health. They have the professional experience and the minimum years of mental health study to diagnose, treat and help prevent disorders of the mind.
4. Social workers
Social workers are very passionate and care a lot, they are there to help you improve your life and to better cope with problem’s you are facing. With the right social worker by your side, they are the world of resource and can help you with services that you never knew existed. Social workers are there to help you get through the difficult times.
5. Childcare workers
Are excellent when they love your children. They can assist you to understand the social, emotional, physical and educational developmental needs of your children. Work with them, they are a world of knowledge when it comes to what works for them when they care for your children. They can give you some great tips in managing your children’s behaviours.
6. Educational teachers
Teachers will be in your children’s life longer than the other service providers. Their role is to develop work and lesson plans in line with educational curriculum objectives for all children in their care. They are not your children’s parent, even if they are parents themselves. Their place is to be your children’s teacher. When your children are having learning challenges, focus on what the teacher recommends in regards to work and lesson plans. What you implement at home is your business, not the teachers. In society the boundaries of parent and teacher are too often crossed over and it’s because the teachers develop a fairly close relationship with your children having spent a lot of time with them that they care for your child too. All single parents want their children to thrive in their learning and not fall behind, just remember your child is the one in the classroom. They can only do their best when they are happy, are having fun and most of all are interested to learn.
7. Parenting Helplines
Helplines are great for someone to talk to via the telephone or online and sometimes is available for 24-hours. This service tends to have counselors at hand for times of parenting emergency when you need someone to go through steps with you, that can help you with your children or situations where you need to breathe, calm down and talk to someone to gather some perspective on any situation. As a single parent, these parenting helplines may be the only person you can contact in the middle of the night, so use their services they are there to lend an ear.
These 7 groups of service providers are awesome people. You may have noticed a main factor that is common with all of them and that is… they ALL have a Core Value which is CARING. It is because they care that they provide their services for you and your children.
Respect is a two way street. When you need these services just remember that the people you come across began with enthusiasm, passion and what they do, may actually be their purpose in life and their Dreams too. They have invested their time in learning what they are sharing with you because they care.
Just remember all single parents are Valuable Clients to all Service Providers. However no service provider has the parenting 101 knowledge of your children like you do. All parenting decisions are in your hands. You are the single parent, who is the most valuable client.
For more information I invite you to watch the Daily Insight video made for single parents. You can find this topic on YouTube titled: Single Parenting 101 — You are a Valuable Client to all Service Providers.
Live Your Dreams
x Daphne Marsters
