Family Mental Health Support Service
The Family Mental Health Support Service (FMHSS), also known as Connect, provides support to
families where children or young people are affected by, or at risk of, mental illness. No formal
diagnosis is required. This service support parents or carers to reduce stress and enable children
and young people to reach their full potential. The service works with children, youth and families
to build on what is already working, while helping to find solutions for areas of concern. The service
commenced in Wyong in 2013-14 and this year, we were successful in securing funding for additional
services in Bourke, Cobar, Coonamble, Coffs Harbour, Kempsey and Nambucca.
A Family’s Story
Connect Wyong is providing long-term support to grandparents caring for their three grandchildren
aged five, seven and ten who were removed from their parents care. The children have a history
of long-term trauma including abuse, neglect, homelessness, exposure to domestic violence and
parental drug use. When first accessing the service, the children were behaving aggressively at school
and all were several years behind academically. There was no funding for educational support due
to the lack of formal assessments and diagnoses. The grandparents were socially isolated, receiving
no financial support and were at risk of homelessness. The parents were also coming in and out of
the children’s lives and engaging in behaviours that created significan t risk and re-traumatisation.
Change and stability for this family is being achieved through the flexible and comprehensive service
response that the FMHSS programs provide. In this case, it involved the provision of family case
management and co-case management with Family and Community Services. This included home
and school visitation, trauma informed parenting education, behavioural support strategies for
teachers, mentoring for the children in sports and social skills, referrals for paediatric supports, health
assessments and psychological supports for the children, counselling support for the grandparents
and referral to housing support services.
Currently, formal placement of the children into their grandparents care is proceeding in the courts.
Now that appropriate educational support is in place, all three children are developing to age
appropriate educational levels and the children are engaged in sustainable extra-curricular school
activities, while the grandparents are involved in a local sporting club committee.
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