Wednesday is Aotearoa Social Workers’ Day – a day for celebrating their work across social services, early learning services, and advocacy for children’s rights and wellbeing. Andy Brew speaks with social worker Jessica Eaton about the issues facing Marlborough’s children and families.

“Social work is about helping people, and more so about helping people help themselves,” said Jessica Eaton, a social worker at Blenheim’s Barnardos office.

Born and bred in Blenheim, Eaton has been a social worker for the charity in Marlborough for the past four years. In that time, she said she had seen a shift in the kind of problems affecting children and families, particularly since the pandemic.

“We’ve seen a rise in anxiety and emotional dysregulation after Covid. It was a big change for everybody, and for the kids especially,” she said.

“We’re working with a lot of kids who have neurodiversity, so ADHD (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder) and around the autism spectrum and things like that – they seem to be quite prevalent.

“I think society is forever changing, and is presenting a lot more challenges for kids now, and there’s a lot more technology out there as well, which I’m sure has had an impact.”

Eaton said she worked with children from ages “zero to 18”, as well as their parents and guardians. Although the number of people needing help hadn’t changed much, the complexity of their issues had, she said.

“At the moment there’s a lot of financial stress, as there is with a lot of people around New Zealand, and just dealing with what life throws at them can be really challenging for them.

“We seem to be seeing families coming in who are just really struggling with parenting skills and their children’s behaviours becoming harder to manage. We’re seeing families struggling with food, sleep and those sort of things.

“They might be struggling with things like their children’s behaviour or have parenting needs, so we do lots of parenting education and that seems to be really helpful for a lot of people.”

Eaton said she and her colleagues worked with more than 120 families in Marlborough, and ran a number of courses such as Active Dads, the Incredible Years Parent Programme, and a parent support group for people who had children with ADHD.

“I really love running the parent groups, but also just working with families and helping them, giving them ideas and when they work, and it’s awesome to see when things are going right.

“When working with kids, you can’t just sit down and just talk to them about what’s going on. You’ve got to use different ways in getting them to open up. So we find some games they like, or go for a walk in the park, and just having some fun, and engaging with them,” she said.

Eaton said the most difficult part of the job was not being able to help more children and families in Marlborough due low staffing levels and an absence of other services in town.

“Blenheim’s a really small town and with that comes its own challenges – we want to be doing more but there’s only so much we can do,” she said.

“It’s really challenging for everybody working in health because there’s wait lists for things, and a lot of services have moved out of the region in the last 10 years and that’s created some gaps.

“The services we have in Blenheim are very limited, there’s not a lot them, but the ones we have are amazing.

“We have some amazing social workers in Blenheim, but we definitely need more, and I think if you spoke to almost any other agency they’d say the same – that there’s just not enough boots on the ground.”

Despite these hurdles, Eaton said she loved her work and would recommend the career to others.

“It can be a really challenging job, but I think it’s a very fulfilling career, and it’s something that if you’re interested in helping people, you can make a world of difference.”