Birthlink currently work with Future Pathways to provide a service to individuals who have registered with us. Birthlink help people who are looking for support to access care records, learn more about their family histories, and/or make contact with family members.
Adults who have been in care can have similar needs to people who were adopted, perhaps with issues of identity or looking for more information about their origins and extended family.
Birthlink are able to provide the following support services:
Records
Birthlink can help to try and locate care files and support individuals with the reading and understanding of these records.
Roots
Birthlink have skilled searchers who can search public records to compile family trees.
Re-connect
Birthlink can act as a go-between in making contact with family members.
Cathy’s story shows how Birthlink can support people:
(Names have been changed)
Future Pathways referred Cathy to Birthlink
Future Pathways referred Cathy to Birthlink for support with accessing her care records. Cathy lives with a degenerative health condition and is currently receiving palliative care. She wanted to understand her past in care better, and she hoped that accessing her records would enable her to apply for an advance Redress payment.
Birthlink contact Cathy to give her more information
Her Support Coordinator contacted Birthlink directly to make the referral. Birthlink then contacted Cathy to discuss her record search request and to let her know that it could take some time to find the information she was looking for. Cathy’s Support Coordinator then spoke with Birthlink to explain the context of Cathy’s request since the Advance Payment Scheme was coming to an end in only two weeks. The Support Coordinator felt that Birthlink understood Cathy’s needs immediately: they expedited the process of seeking Cathy’s care records as much as possible while keeping both Cathy and her Support Coordinator aware of their progress.
Birthlink gave Cathy proof of her care status
Less than 48 hours later, Birthlink provided Cathy with proof of her care status. These records were provided to the advance Redress payment scheme and Cathy was awarded an advance payment of £10,000.
Birthlink will continue to support Cathy
This has opened up new opportunities for Cathy, who has decided to use some of this money to book a trip to London, a city she has always wanted to visit but never been able to. Cathy is working with her Support Coordinator to plan this trip around her health and mobility needs. Birthlink have followed up with Cathy to see if she needs any further support after receiving her care records and they continue to seek further care records for Cathy to help her learn more about her past in care.
