Wednesday, September 29, 2021

If you would like to share your experiences and thoughts as a 70/30 Campaign ambassador, please get in touch at [email protected]. If you would like to become a 70/30 ambassador. click here.

 

My name is Claire Andrews and I am an ambassador for the 70/30 Campaign in Wales.

I decided to become an ambassador for WAVE Trust to spread awareness and share my lived experience of trauma in childhood. Myself and my three children are all survivors of childhood trauma, and my own trauma went on to last 40 years.

Both my adult children are survivors of childhood generational trauma and have suffered greatly in adult life due to this issue. I decided to break the cycle three years ago as my now 5-year-old son has also been a victim of the impact trauma has on families. He too is now in therapy trying to fix damage that has been done during the early years of his little life.

 

Claire Andrews and 5-year-old Jax.

 

'Fell through the net'

I myself am one of those children that fell through the net and so are 2 out of my 3 children. I had to wait almost three years for my 5-year-old to get the support he needed, which came after a long fight of persistent requests to services in Wales.

If it had been picked up sooner, he would probably now be well and on his way to a normal start in life, with positive change for the future. But instead, he has a diagnosis of PTSD and hyperarousal.

I now realise that if these services were more easily available to myself as a child and also my two adult children, then we may have had the positive start in life to help us go on to be functioning, well-rounded people in society.

 

My ambitions for Cardiff and Wales

My ambitions for Cardiff and Wales are that I can help to spread awareness of the importance of early intervention and prevention to support families and care for those who have witnessed trauma in there lives.

I would like nothing more than to make MPs in Wales, communities, schools, medical professionals, health visitors, midwives and many other environments in Wales trauma-informed so that the correct care and support can be offered to these families, and where therapy, skills and tools can be put into place in order to make change happen.

 

What the 70/30 Campaign should focus on in Wales

My thoughts on where the campaign in Wales should focus on at the moment are:

• To get all MPs & schools trauma-informed.
• To provide better care and support for expectant parents
• For tools to be put into place to get families to where they need to be without them being fearful of having their children removed when asking for help.
• For social services in Wales to be more pro-active in keeping families together, to help them work though issues together, instead of tearing families apart.

I've reached out to over 150 services in Wales over the last three years and was turned away from almost all of them due to the lack of support for a variety of issues which all go around in circles, such as trauma, domestic violence, mental health issues, addiction and recovery - all of which go hand in hand with one another.

In my 40 years of experiencing trauma, regarding these things I think THERAPY must come before MEDICATION. You cannot dull these things down and brush them under the carpet. These feelings need to be felt and managed and dealt with in a healthy way to unlock them one by one in order to fully heal and recover.

I am so pleased to be volunteering for this wonderful charity and I hope my personal experiences are able to help and save many families and children all over Wales from going through such hard issues alone. I want to stop families and children having to endure the hell and isolation my own family had to endure from lack of knowledge, support and help available on the impacts that generational trauma can have on people through childhood and into adult life.

In all honestly, I truly believe that, if we can all work together, the change we could make in this world would be a blessing to many.

 

#break the cycle

#itstopswithme

#strongertogether

 

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Claire Andrews is a 70/30 Campaign ambassador based in Cardiff, Wales.