Tweddle Child and Family Health Service will deliver more parenting supports for new parents and their young children giving them the best possible start to life, with the establishment of an Early Parenting Centre in Wyndham.
The Victorian Governments $123 million new Early Parenting Centres will be built in Ballarat, Bendigo, Geelong, Frankston, Casey, Wyndham and Whittlesea and two existing centres in Footscray and Noble Park will be upgraded to meet increasing demand.
The centres will provide a critical role in ensuring parents are getting the advice and care they need, including support with sleep and settling, feeding, extra care for babies with additional needs and enhancing the parent-child relationship.
Sleep and settling is one of the biggest challenges facing new parents, with around one in two Victorian parents seeking assistance from early parenting centres reporting problems with their childs sleep. This can lead to post-natal depression, isolation and stress for parents, and impact a childs behavioural, mental and physical development.
The centres will provide day-stays and longer residential stay programs to improve the health, wellbeing and developmental outcomes for children aged up to four years old. Each new centre will include 10 residential units and four day stay units helping more than 5,000 extra families a year.
Community Advisory Groups are being established to help inform planning for each new centre.
Construction of these centres will be completed in two phases with centres in the first phase being delivered by 2022, and those in the second phase by 2024.
Quote attributable to Minister for Health Martin Foley
Early parenting centres deliver flexible, targeted services to help parents with sleep and settling issues. This investment will more than triple Victorias service capacity supporting thousands more families a year.
Quote attributable to Member for Tarneit Sarah Connolly
We know that parenting can be challenging and stressful at times and some new mums and dads may need a little extra support to give their children the best start to life.