Latest news
August 2010
Strong Families going from strength to strength
In 2009 the Brisbane-based organisation Community Living Association developed ‘Strong Families’ for children in families where a parent has an intellectual disability or is from a refugee background. The program focuses on practical supports and early intervention – avoiding the need for a crisis based response.
The pilot project has been successful and Community Living Association is now going solar to raise money for the program to continue.
Read more about Stronger Families
Read more about Strong Families Solar.
Read more about the fundraising event in Brisbane on 20th August.
June 2010
Healthy Start Practice Network National Forum
With support from the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs the Healthy Start National Forum brought together 65 professionals in child and family support on May 12 in Sydney. The conference was held to enable the Healthy Start Practice Network to shape future opportunities for building capacity in Australia to support parents with learning difficulties and their children.
The event used innovative methods to engage participants. Fifteen speakers presented their current work to a multi-disciplinary audience. All participants then came together as one group to identify new opportunities to enhance the lives of parents with learning difficulties and their children. From there, smaller working groups developed eight collaborative projects to be sustained beyond the forum.
An audio-visual record of the conference presentations and discussions will soon be available together with outcomes of ongoing collaborative project activity.
February 2010
Healthy Start Practice network reaches 2000 members!!
Since the conception of Healthy Start in June 2005 we are thrilled to announce there are now over 2000 subscribers to the Healthy Start Practice Network. The network is made up of individuals and agencies Australia-wide who share an interest in supporting children of parents with learning difficulties. Network members are kept informed about new developments in Healthy Start via regular e-alerts. Encourage others to become a memebr by completing the 'Join the Network' form on any page of the Healthy Start website.
January 2010
Therapy Focus Learning Hub’s Award
Abigail Lewis, Therapy Focus Healthy Start Learning Hub Convenor, was recently presented with an excellence award for outstanding contributions to early childhood intervention in WA. The award was for her work promoting and developing Healthy Start in WA and for the work she does in Autism. Congratulations Abigail, very well deserved.
November 2009
Swedish Visitors
A group of Swedish researchers and practitioners who share an interest in parenting with learning difficulties recently visited Australia. The Swedes were interested in the work of Healthy Start and spent time with the national team discussing opportunities for collaboration on current and future projects. Our guests, Lydia, Lena, Sven-Erik, Berit and Mikaela were full of praise for the varied approaches to supporting parents with learning difficulties in Australia.
While in Australia they were able to visit the University of Sydney and the Parenting Research Centre (PRC). Our friends participated in an all day seminar hosted by the Australian Family & Disability Studies Research Collaboration and presented to the Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Sydney. Also in Sydney were visits to the Burnside North Campbelltown Family Centre, Burnside Macarthur Family Services and the Women’s Activities and Self Help Group (WASH House).
The visit to Melbourne included presenting to PRC, visiting learning hubs, and liaising with professionals at the Royal Women’s’ Hospital (Melbourne), Tweddle Family Services, Monash University and the Department of Human Services in Victoria. They returned to Sweden full of new ideas and keen to put them into practice. A big thank you to all those who made our visitors feel so welcome throughout their stay. If you like to read more about their organisation click here.
September 2009
ABC TV discusses parents with intellectual disability (2009)
ABC’s Stateline program recently highlighted issues facing families where a parent has intellectual disability, in a report that featured the work that Barkuma (South Australia) is doing to support these families. In the Stateline report Margaret Fischer, who is the Barkuma Healthy Start Learning Hub Convenor, talks about how Barkuma fights to keep families together.
Click here to see a video of the ABC Stateline Report
August 2009
Supporting GPs to work with parents with learning difficulties
The Healthy Start Team would like to congratulate the Eureka Learning Hub for having an article published on the website of the Ballarat and District Division of General Practice. The article describes communication strategies that GPs can use with parents with a learning difficulty at medical consultations. This Local Story and links to the actual article can be found in the Learning Hubs section of the website, which also features real life stories about the activities of other Healthy Start Learning Hubs.
If your Learning Hub would like to be profiled for a Local Story, please contact the Healthy Start Team to find out more.
August 2009
New Healthy Start ‘Research Reviews’ now available
A new resource is now available via the Healthy Start website. The Website features a new collection of Research Reviews which summarise the major findings of important research articles about parenting with a learning difficulty. The Research Reviews will also include a discussion of what the findings mean for you, as a practitioner who supports parents. The first Research Review in this series is now available in the Practice Points section of the Healthy Start website. Keep an eye on this webpage for more Research Reviews coming soon.
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