Mother Tongue just been accredited by BACP
7 October 2006
Mother Tongue just been accredited by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy – the first in Reading!
Mothertongue aims to enhance communications, understanding and learning across cultures.
Background
Mothertongue multi ethnic counselling and listening service is a culturally sensitive professional counselling service for the 16+age group. The uniqueness of the service is that the counselling sessions are delivered in the language of the client in a supportive and accessible environment. The client is therefore able to express their deepest emotions and feelings in their first language.
Counselling is offered in Urdu, Hindi, Spanish, Gujarati, French and Punjabi. A specially trained interpreter is used where the language is not spoken by the counsellor. The charity offers holistic support to people and professional development to staff and volunteers from minority ethnic communities.
The counselling service is delivered through local satellites in the community including a GP’s surgery, Citizen’s Advice Bureau, Primary School and a Community Centre. Counsellors who work for Mothertongue are highly trained paid professionals with several years experience. All have regular clinical supervision both internally within Mothertongue, with a psychotherapist registered with the UKCP, and externally with a clinical consultant. They aim to be responsive to the diverse needs of clients and have adapted counselling practice appropriately.
Mothertongue was initiated three years ago and has been delivering a counselling service for two years. Since then it has seen clients from the following seventeen countries:
African Caribbean Islands, Bangladesh, Bosnia, Burundi, China, Ethiopia, France, Ghana, India, Iraq, Kenya, Kosovo, Mauritius, Mozambique, Pakistan, Rwanda, Somalia
The organisation has sought to address practical constraints on accessibility by, for example:
1. Having the service delivered from various satellites in the community e.g. Town centre CAB, local GP surgery, primary school and community centre.
2. Providing professional counselling in a range of languages so that clients can speak in their mother tongue.
3. Providing childcare for clients during counselling sessions.
4. Specially trained culturally sensitive volunteer support workers provide practical support to clients with form filling, attending appointments, attending professional appointments and so on.
5. There is NO CHARGE for the counselling and support sessions.
Mothertongue is funded until May 2005 by the Community Fund and continues to be funded by Reading PCT. From May 2005 it has been awarded three year funding from the Lankelly Foundation. Other funding for specific projects has come from the British Psychodrama Association, European Social Fund and Berkshire Healthcare Trust. Berkshire Community Foundation funds the employment of a part-time volunteer coordinator.
Mothertongue is committed to developing opportunities for a greater number of people from minority ethnic communities to take on professional roles in social care.
The organization is underpinned by a strong sense of culture and values. It has developed its own specific model of culturally sensitive counselling which is appropriate to individuals from a wide range of diverse backgrounds and cultures.
The diversity of the staff, volunteers, trustees and the counselling team gives the charity the ability to offer a real understanding and commitment to respect and understand a wide variety of cultural traditions.
Accreditation of Service by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy
This is a new initiative by the BACP which sets a benchmark for high quality services who provide a high level of provision for staff and users within a common ethical framework.
The BACP Service Accreditation Scheme has been established to help the public and practitioners identify services providing a high standard of counselling/psychotherapy.
So far only a few services in the country have been accredited. Mothertongue multi ethnic counselling service is delighted to announce that it is the first Counselling Service in Reading to achieve this award.
The BACP commented that the application submitted by Mothertongue was of a very high standard and that it was “very comprehensive and clearly presented, representing a thoughtfully managed and effective counselling service working in a vital area of counselling provision”
The award of Accredited Service means that:
1. Users and referrers can feel confident that they will receive a high standard of service and professional care at all times.
2. Funders can feel confident that their investment is well managed.
3. Staff and volunteers can feel that their work is recognized by the wider community.
To find out more about the service, training, volunteering opportunities, or ways to make a referral, please contact Beverley Costa on: 0118 901 5749 or at
info@mothertongue.clara.co.uk
