Home Based Support

Home visiting allows us to access families who are normally hard to reach. For many of our clients getting organised to go out and keep appointments while managing a new baby, combined with the feelings engendered by the new arrival, can present enormous difficulties. Even without a baby most of our inner city clients would be unlikely to attend an agency for help and having someone visit at home is the only way they will access support.
Families report that being in their own home allows them to feel more in control and able to set the pace of the relationship with the worker and gives them a greater sense of agency. As well clients report feeling valued by the worker who is willing to visit them at home.

ABORIGINAL HOME VISITING

Relationships in the first years of a child’s life are increasingly being identified as the foundation of resilience and healthy adjustment later on. As well, current research emphasises the importance of social connectedness, the breaking down of social isolation and the development of communities to children’s well being.

PIFA aims to create a therapeutic, caring community around families we visit at home so that social isolation is broken down and the Aboriginal community is strengthened. The project, though fairly small in numbers, is intense and long-term. Through action research a model is being developed that can be drawn on by others working with Aboriginal families. In these ways the Aboriginal home visiting project offers multi layered and far reaching outcomes.

Urban aboriginal parents have suffered dislocation. They have been dislocated from their land, their culture, from their community and often from their own families. As a result of many levels of loss and trauma this generation is left with anxiety, rage, depression and a sense of helplessness in the face of conditions over which they feel they have no control. Clearly, these families will face quite distinct challenges related to pregnancy and in bringing up their babies. Supporting these families during their early parenting requires a special type of engagement which, while taking into account the normal developmental needs and stresses of all new parents, appreciates the particular issues which they face and is sensitive to their cultural heritage.

The Project uses Parent/Infant therapists to home visit Aboriginal families from the inner western areas of Sydney at least weekly during pregnancy and through their child’s early years. Parenting groups are also available to these families. Positive childcare experiences for both infants and parents are achieved through a partnership with Murawina Aboriginal Childcare Centre

Expected outcomes for the families are:

• improved parent / child relationships ,
• increased feelings of parenting confidence and competence
• extended social networks
• deepened understanding of the role of the past in influencing the present