- Parenting In the Early Years Conference
A one-day conference for service providers highlighting the critical importance of effective engagement with parents during the early childhood years.
Wednesday 13 May 2009, 8.30am to 5pm
Hotel Grand Chancellor, Hobart
Cost - $60 per person (inc. GST)
Lunch, morning and afternoon tea will be provided
Registration Form
RSVP: 27 April 2009
Brought to you by The Tasmanian Early Years Foundation,
Good Beginnings Australia and Mission Australia
Professor Graham Vimpani AM
Head of Discipline of Paediatrics and Child Health, University of Newcastle
Professor Graham Vimpani AM is Professor of Community Child Health and Head of the Discipline of Paediatrics and Child Health at the University of Newcastle; Clinical Chair of Kaleidoscope, Hunter Children’s Health Network within the Hunter New England Area Health Service; and Medical Director of the Child Protection Team of the John Hunter Children’s Hospital in Newcastle.
He is a community paediatrician and has a longstanding interest in promoting child development through a range of social policies and early intervention strategies that address the support needs of families with young children. His research interests have spanned childhood injury prevention, child protection, the impact of lead on child development, the evaluation of home visiting, health outcomes in adolescent boys and the links between socio-economic inequality and child health.
He is Chairman of the Board of NIFTeY Australia (the National Investment for the Early Years) - a cross-sectoral advocacy body designed to promote greater awareness of the importance of the early years of life. He has a Ministerial appointment as Co-Chair of the NSW Government Children’s Health Priority Taskforce and member of the NSW Health Advisory Council.
Professor Vimpani was a recipient of the Centenary Medal in 2003 for services to early childhood and in January 2007 he was awarded an AM. He is a Board Member of several NGOs concerned with children’s welfare.
Teenage Pregnancy – Improving Outcomes with a
proposed “Triad of Care”
Professor Julie Quinlivan, Dean, University of Notre Dame Australia, Executive Dean, College of Medicine
It has been assumed that teenage mothers are poor parents and that being teenage, per se, leads to adverse maternal and infant outcomes.
However, most of the studies reaching these conclusions have compared poor, socially isolated and disadvantaged young mothers with older, financially secure and well supported mothers. It is likely that the financial resources and support available may make more difference that age.
Economic analyses from the United States confirm that it is the social isolation and adverse financial and educational backgrounds that are significant rather than age. This means that education, training and support for young mothers can overcome the barriers that teenage mothers face.
There is good evidence that three separate initiatives can improve outcomes for teenage mothers. These are teenage specific antenatal clinics, prenatal and postnatal home visitation by nurses, and peri-preschool. No trials have evaluated their impact in succession, but each separately has an impact and it is likely their combination would prove to be even more powerful.
This talk highlights the evidence behind the above claims and puts forward the goal for a ‘triad of care for teenage mothers’. This combination could help to break the ongoing cycle of disadvantage.
Engaging with Fathers – the known and the unknown
Dr Richard Fletcher
Lecturer, Discipline of Paediatrics, University of Newcastle
Dr Fletcher pioneered the development of Men's Health and Boy’s Health areas of study. As a lecturer in Health Studies in the Discipline of Paediatrics, University of Newcastle and Team Leader of ‘The Engaging Fathers Project’, Family Action Centre. He has designed and delivered courses and seminars on health research, boy’s development and father involvement to teachers, nurses, occupational therapists, and medical students.
We know that fathers are different to mothers and that fathers have an impact on their children’s development with the most recent evidence pointing to father’s importance from birth. But we know very little about how to successfully deliver services to fathers as part of our support to families. The younger the child the less we understand about effective engagement with fathers. In this presentation the evidence of father’s impact on infant development and evidence from a recent comprehensive review of children’s centres will be used to suggest appropriate family-centred early intervention services for fathers and their families.
The Incredible Years
Ms Dorothy Abbot, Mr Andrew Lawrence & Dr Gareth Furber
The Incredible Years (IY) is a series of programs developed by psychologist Carolyn Webster-Stratton, which aim to reduce childhood aggression, behaviour problems and promote social competence. Targeted at parents, teachers and children, the programs have extensive research support and are currently used worldwide in children’s mental health centres, preschool and childcare centres, child protective agencies, and primary schools. In this presentation, we will walk participants through the “who, what, why, when and how” of the IY series focusing on:
-
Who the target populations are for the programs.
-
What the programs consist of and the key principles upon which the programs are based.
-
Why the programs have been so successful, that is, the current evidence base.
-
When to implement the programs.
-
How the programs have been used worldwide.
This presentation will also cover our experiences of delivering some of these programs in a Child and Adolescent Mental Health (CAMH) service in South Australia, including some preliminary data of treatment group characteristics and outcomes.
