Supporting Kids

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By April 17, 2015 No Comments

Authors: Upper Murray Family Care

Year: 2005

Event: 2005 TheMHS Awards

Subject:

Type of resource: TheMHS Awards

Award state: VIC

Award level: Winner

Award category: Infant, Child and Adolescent

Abstract: Supporting Kids is a partnership of agencies and parents working together to understand and address the needs of children who have a parent with a mental illness. It aims to improve service delivery to these children in the Eastern Hume Region of North East Victoria. Initially service providers committed a sum of $2000 each to fund a needs analysis and run a small pilot project with La Trobe University as the research partner. The success of the well evaluated pilot project and the collaboration between agencies and consumers resulted in further funding being sourced. Supporting Kids is now delivering a number of programs for children who have a parent with a mental illness and is recognised as a leading example of collaborative partnerships and evidence based practice in meeting a previously unmet need. Description of Facility/Organisation: Supporting Kids developed five years ago as a collaborative effort by a number of service providers and consumers in response to the identification of an unmet need in the support of children who have a parent with a mental illness. Initially service providers committed a sum of $2000 each to fund a needs analysis in conjunction with La Trobe University. Further funding was sourced from Central Hume Primary Care Partnerships and Hume Region Department of Human Services. A partnership was also developed with Eastern Health Mental Health Service in Melbourne to run Vic CHAMPS funded through Vic Health, Beyond Blue and Department of Human Services mental health branch. Five holiday programs, three peer support programs and two camps have been delivered involving 35 children and 22 families. The two project workers have also worked with agencies to build their capacity to respond to children who have a parent with a mental illness

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