Site Index

Welcome to Option 2

About The Option 2 Intervention

Training and Consultancy Services

Option 2 in YOUR Area

The National Support Network

Reports, Reviews and Evaluation

The Option 2 Statistical Database

Useful Links

Publications

Option 2 In Cardiff

and The Vale of Glamorgan

How to make a referral

Case Consultation

Meet the Team

Contact Details

Training

Information for Families

Outcomes

Referral

Case Holding Social Workers can contact us by telephone in the first instance. If there is nobody about please leave a message on the answering machine, we check up on it regularly.

·        Option 2 in Cardiff on 02920 460 111 (24 hour answering service)

·        Option 2 in the Vale of Glamorgan on 01446 725 264

We will spend some time with you collecting information and exploring what the issues are for worker and for client family. What do you as a worker really want to see in the way of change?  For instance if you want the substance misuse to stop we need to explore how realistic this is. Clearly you will want the children to be safe at home. Are these two things compatible?. We will focus on the risks and what makes the child safe rather than what we do not like about the parent’s behaviour.

We will do this either over the telephone or by coming to visit you.

Referral Criteria:

• Children must be at active risk of accommodation or registration on the CPR. Or

• Children who are accommodated on a short term emergency basis and who are to return home within 7 days

• Families must be in crisis and clearly aware that there is a real risk of their children being removed or registered.

• Children must have a social worker who will continue to have case responsibility during our intervention.

• There are substance misuse problems in the family.

• The family needs to know that a referral is being made.

Case Consultation

It may be that you do not wish to make a referral or that this is not an appropriate time for a full scale crisis intervention. We are always happy to provide consultation about cases where children's services practitioners are concerned about the role substance use may be playing in any of their cases, even though it may not be appropriate that the family is referred to us for a full intervention. Furthermore, if any of the district fieldwork teams would like a regular consultation 'surgery' spot to be provided at your place of work, please get in touch.

The consultation model was built on the existing Option 2 philosophy, model and consultation practices (Hamer, 2005). It recognises the unique role of Option 2 in bridging Children’s Services and Substance Misuse Services. In addition it draws on current research and practice in consultation models in its conception and measurement (e.g. Bremble & Hill, 2004; Jones & Weinberg, 2006).

In meeting with the Option 2 worker, consultation sessions will be recorded and a practitioner would have the opportunity to:

• Discuss the impact of substance misuse on their case

• Consider harm reduction strategies

• Consider specialist resources available to the worker and the client/ family

• Gain advice and information about substances

It may be that a one-off consultation is sufficient. However from this initial consultation a number of further services may be accessed when appropriate:

Ongoing Consultation

An opportunity to continue to consult on the case on a regular basis.

Signposting to Specialist Services and Resources

Self help materials and services as well as specialist substance misuse services.

Referral into Specialist Substance Misuse Services

The Option 2 worker would support referrals into specialist substance misuse services in the locality.

Contact details

At the moment, Option 2 is fully operational in Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan.

Email Rhoda

Option 2 Admin

Email Michael Maw - admin for Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan

Option 2 In Cardiff

Email us at option2@cardiff.gov.uk

Option 2 in the Vale of Glamorgan

Fax: 01446 725215

Meet the team

Rhoda Emlyn-Jones OBE, MA, CQSW, DipSW

Team Manager.

Email R.Emlyn-Jones@cardiff.gov.uk

I have extensive experience of over 25 years in the alcohol and drug field and childcare services. I am a Principal Officer managing Substance Misuse Services in two local authority areas, Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan, these services include social work teams, community based counselling services, child protection and substance misuse services, other generic and specialist counselling services and a training unit. 

I worked closely with the authors of the motivational interviewing (MI) model since the early 1990’s  and I'm a member of a group of accredited international trainers in motivational interviewing.  At a local level I chair the strategic planning structure in relation to alcohol and drugs, addressing education, prevention and community safety as well as service development and treatment options.

Dr Amanda Bremble, DClinPsych, BSc(Hons)

Option 2 Therapist, Cardiff.

Email  ABremble@cardiff.gov.uk

Dr Amanda Bremble is a qualified Clinical Psychologist and was instrumental in setting up the Option 2 service with Rhoda and Mark in 2000. She returned to the team in May 2006 after working in Gwent and the Channel Islands developing models aimed at fostering closer working between Children’s Services and Child Mental Health Services in the Looked After System. Amanda is thrilled to be back!

Michael Maw,

Admin support for Cardiff and

Email. Mmaw@cardiff.gov.uk

Mark Hamer, MA, DipSW, BA(hons),

Option 2 Therapist, Cardiff.

Email: MHamer@cardiff.gov.uk

I have worked directly with disadvantaged people for nearly 20 years. In that time I  have been a child protection field worker for the local authority. I have been a prison teacher and have facilitated groups for a variety of voluntary and statutory providers, including parenting groups, anger management groups, support groups and community development groups.

Since  2000 I have been a therapist with Option 2 in Cardiff when Rhoda set up the service with Amanda and myself as founder therapists. Before coming into this work I worked in industry as a welder in an oil refinery, I was homeless for while, then I worked on the railway for many years. Following a fine art degree I had a variety of jobs including: magazine editor, office manager and illustrator and I ran my own graphic design business for a few years before becoming a househusband, bringing up my two children while my wife worked as a broadcast journalist. I've written a couple of books, I paint, play a bunch of musical instruments, grow lots of organic fruit and vegetables and I enjoy camping, backpacking, hill walking and music festivals. Visit my website

Julie Jones BSc (Hons), Dip: F. Therapy, Dip: Couns, Dip: Supervision.

Our Therapists

Our therapists are all highly skilled and qualified social workers, psychologists or counsellors with experience of working with families in crisis. 

As you can imagine they need to be deeply committed to supporting families and helping them to create change.  They need to be person centred, non discriminatory and able to advocate on their clients behalf in Case Conferences, Core Groups and in Court.  They need to be available to families when they are needed and at ease with families displaying all the behaviours characteristic of fear, crisis and real human sadness.  They need the complex skills which will help families and individuals to contemplate, initiate and maintain change.

Therapists need to be aware of their strengths and values, they need to constantly question their own beliefs and they need to have a strong belief that people try to do the best they can with whatever resources they have. Therapists need to be hopeful, creative, flexible, calm, empathic, caring, having an unconditional positive regard.  They need to be able to build and maintain trust through openness and honesty, through availability and a real concern for the wellbeing of the client.  They need to be accepting of people’s beliefs and values no matter how idiosyncratic they may be and able focus on the differing needs of the individuals within that family system whatever their age and status.  They will have a love of the richness of humanity.

Download the 2005 - 2006 Annual Report

Please note: these documents are in .pdf format.

Some systems have problems opening these files.

To overcome this, right click and choose 'save as' to save to your computer.

Training

Option 2 have been training and supporting workers in our own successful brand of crisis intervention with families since 2000. This is a model that is very successful and one that we are passionate about. If you want to know more, visit the training page.

Information for Families

This information is taken from a leaflet that we give to the families we work with.

Working with Families

Sometimes families experience extreme difficulties and risk their children being taken into care or having their names placed on the Child Protection Register.  We seek to build on family strengths at that time to help the families to resolve the crisis.

• Option 2 is provided by Cardiff Council Social Services and funded by the Welsh National Assembly.

•  The project is staffed by skilled and experienced full time workers who have been specially trained to work with families in crisis and where there are substance misuse issues.

• If you feel that the service is not meeting your needs, please talk to us about it.

Option 2 has been recommended by many of the families that we have worked with, and we won the Community Care Award for excellence and innovation in the field of Child Protection in the UK, 2001.