Child, youth and family
In the Brisbane South PHN region, the majority of children live in locations of comparatively higher socio-economic disadvantage resulting in them having poorer nutrition, lower physical exercise and immunisation coverage and high development vulnerabilities. Overall, rates of developmentally vulnerable children are higher in our region than the national average.
In response to the findings of our Needs Assessment and identifying the improvement of child health and development as a health priority for the region, Brisbane South PHN is focused on working with partners and the community to deliver universally supported, regional and place-based projects to address this issue, and other primary health issues that impact whole of family wellbeing.
Thriving and On Track
The Thriving and On Track (TOTs) project is a collaborative initiative between Children’s Health Queensland, the Department of Education, Brisbane South PHN, Logan Together and The Benevolent Society. This program aims to increase access for children aged 2.5 to 3.5 years to developmental screening and early intervention services in the Logan and Inala areas.
In these project areas, child development checks are offered in early childhood education centres, and families are supported to access early intervention services when required. Timely access to developmental screening and support services has the potential to improve lifelong outcomes.
As part of the TOTs project, Brisbane South PHN aim to support General Practitioners through building capacity to complete child development assessments and refer to local support services. This aim will be flexibly supported through building Communities of Practice and offering professional development opportunities.
Contact the TOTs Team
Email: tots@bsphn.org.au
Children in care
The ‘Strengthening health assessment response for children and young people in care’ is a Queensland-wide project aimed at improving both the child safety and health sector responses to the needs of young people in care.
The objectives of the project are to:
- improve access, timeliness and quality of health assessments for children entering care.
- improve general practice/primary health/specialist staff knowledge and understanding about working with children in care, particularly the National Clinical Assessment Framework.
- improve primary health/child safety integration and case coordination.
Contact the Children in Care Team
Phone: 1300 467 265
Email: contactus@bsphn.org.au
Southern Moreton Bay Islands child and family support
Brisbane South PHN is working closely with the Southern Moreton Bay Islands (SMBI) community to improve the health and wellbeing of children aged from birth to 8 years old, including improving maternity care, through the SMBI Community Impact Initiative. This initiative delivers a community-driven, cross-sector, place-based approach to improve the health and development of children residing on the islands.
There are numerous challenges associated with delivering health care services to the SMBI area, and health data indicates children residing on SMBI experience a high than average percentage of development vulnerabilities. For this reason, Children’s Health Queensland, Metro South Health, Brisbane South PHN and the SMBI community are working together to deliver the SMBI Initiative.
Since early 2019, over 1,000 community conversations have occurred through the SMBI Initiative. These conversations have informed the development of a collective Action Plan for the initiative that identifies with four key focus areas:
- health and child development, early childhood support and school readiness
- a strong and connected community
- healthy family relationships
- wellbeing programs and recreational activities for school-aged children.
Through the SMBI Initiative, several changes are being trialled in local health services to improve maternity care and child health and development systems, including:
- focusing on relationship-based maternity and child health care ensuring the same midwife and the same child health nurse for families.
- having a SMBI only phone number for families to contact Child Health
- SMBI community providing information about child development and child health services in a way that is understood by local families
- more effective support for families to make GP referral to access specialist support
- allied health support to enable children with developmental concerns to obtain timely services.
Data and information will be collected to indicate whether the changes were successful and should be permanently implemented, or whether they need to be revised to achieve better health outcomes.
Delivery partners
|
Bay Islands Community Services Inc. |
Department of Child Safety, Youth and Women |
| Bay Islands Multi-Sport and Recreation Association |
Department of Education |
| Benevolent Society |
Metro South Health |
| Children’s Health Queensland |
Redland City Council |
| Yulu-Burri-Ba |
Running Wild |
More information
First 2000 Days prospectus reference list