Whole Family Wellbeing
Improving the lives of families & young people with disabilities
Children and young people with disabilities and/or complex health conditions experience disproportionate levels of poor sleep. This can have ramifications for their own mental and physical health, as well as that of their families. This project focuses on training professionals from across many sectors to support these children and their families navigate sleep problems.
Context
Children and young people affected by disability and complex health needs are disproportionally affected by sleep problems, impacting the wellbeing of themselves and their families.
Approximately
80%
of young people with disabilities in Fife are affected by sleep difficulties
Lack of sleep can negatively impact a child or family member’s mental health, behaviour, and relationships.
Such struggles cause increased dependency on professional health and sleep services.
Previous sampling done in Fife shows a clear need for such specialist sleep service for this population. For this to happen, health staff must be trained in sleep support strategies.
The Project
This project aims to:
Provide
500
professionals sleep awareness training – raising awareness of sleep problems, their effects, and how to support those with them.
Train
12
Sleep counsellors who can provide more targeted support to those with longstanding and complex sleep issues.
Open up these training programs to multiple professional domains: healthcare, education, social work, etc…
Through this widespread training, this project should have a lasting impact on the community – supporting those with disabilities and raising long-term awareness of the importance of sleep.
Progress & Outcomes
Staff members have attended sleep awareness training to date
Agency breakdown of sleep trainees
[Credit: Whole Family Wellbeing December 2025 Progress Report]
Sleep counsellors fully trained
Feedback
Trainees were asked to evaluate their knowledge and skills to support families, carers, children, & young people pre- and post-training ➡
“I feel more confident as a practitioner in the information I share with families about sleep hygiene” – Sleep Trainee
Almost all trained staff reported using the knowledge they had learned in their practice:
%
Of staff reported using their sleep knowledge frequently
%
Of staff reported using their sleep knowledge sometimes
Participant Quotes
“This has been life changing for us” – Parent’s reflection
“I feel I am working more in partnership with parents rather than being ‘the expert’ who can fix things.” – Sleep trainee
“I’m so thankful that the sleep advice I was given has really helped my daughter and has improved my mood too.” – Parent’s reflection
The Whole Family Wellbeing Team
This project was the result of extensive collaboration between the Sleep Health & Wellbeing team at St Andrews and professionals from the healthcare, education, social work, and volunteer sectors.
Team members from the Whole Family Wellbeing Multi-Agency Stakeholder Group including Sarah Negrette, Kerry Cooper, Louise Stean, Amanda Urquhart, Susan McGuire, Helen Kobilnyk, and Laura Cason.
[Photo credit of Sarah Negrette]
Funding
This project was made possible through funding from the Scottish Government’s Whole Family Wellbeing fund.
Programme Resources
The Whole Family Wellbeing report is still under development. Check out other projects we’ve done or take a look at other available publications.