The Gaze | December 2010 1

The Gaze is the newsletter of the healthy Mothers healthy Babies, Workforce Support Project

WHAT’S INSIDe

» Editor’s Reflections

» Update from The Department

» accessing Training

» Resource Corner

» Worker Profile

» Important Dates for Your 2011

Diary

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A Bouverie Centre projectFunded by the Department of health

www.bouver ie .org.au

December 2010

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tobacco use; seeking help to deal with mental health difficulties or trauma histories; or taking other action to ensure a better start for their babies.

• how to have challenging conversations with clients at times to help them bring about important changes in their lives, and how workers are able to use their own personal style in conveying challenging messages to clients whilst remaining supportive and warm. We have heard about how clients are more able to hear the honest and direct messages when they experience you as genuine and authentic, and when they can see you are also working hard to support them.

• Significant changes can start with one small step. and the need to celebrate and acknowledge even the smallest changes. This can be helpful both for the worker to have a sense of agency in their work, and also for the client to feel motivated and valued.

• The impact of isolation and social stigma faced by the women you are working with, and the measures you are taking to help them connect with a sense of community. We have heard about how clinicians are linking clients with support groups, and how some hMhB programs are developing groups and social support programs of their own to help break down this stigma and isolation.

• The importance of sharing the load when working with complex cases; this can be achieved by working collaboratively with other agencies, or by utilising opportunities for team work and

supervision within your agency. We have heard stories about how one worker found it helpful to receive feedback from another team member that acknowledged how hard going the work can be at times, and how she was able to then enact some self care strategies to look after herself. and stories from other workers about how teaming up with other health and welfare professionals to provide a collaborative response to clients can alleviate the pressure on workers.

Reflections on the HMHB worker ForumOn November 16th the first worker forum was held at The Bouverie Centre, and provided a valuable opportunity for the healthy Mothers healthy Babies clinicians from across Melbourne to come together around a shared learning experience. While you represent a diverse group of workers, with different training and employment histories, we were struck at the forum by the sense of shared professional identity that is emerging amongst you. The training provided by Vida and aida from the Domestic Violence Resource Centre provided some really useful information and ideas for workers in assessing the risk of family violence. We heard about the prevalence of DV occurring during pregnancy, and while it can feel like a delicate area to explore whilst engaging with vulnerable clients, how important it is to ask the questions. Vida and aida provided some useful tools to help workers create safety plans with their clients and information and referral options.

By Naomi Rottem and Sally Ryan

Dear hMhB clinicians and managers, as the end of 2010 draws near, we find ourselves reflecting on the progress of the workforce support project so far. It has been 6 months since our first meetings with clinicians were held in June and July, and we have learned so much from each other over that time. Some of the stories you have shared about your work have been rich examples of the practice wisdoms which are developing amongst the hMhB programs. Below are just some examples of such wisdoms you have shared.

Practice Wisdoms:• We have heard stories about

your understanding of pregnancy and birth as a natural time of transition in women’s lives, and how this can be at times overwhelming whilst also being a powerful opportunity for positive growth. You have shared stories of how as a worker you have been able to harness this opportunity to support women to make significant changes, for example addressing relationship difficulties; drug, alcohol or

Editor’s Reflections

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It was a good reminder of the challenging nature of work in the area of family violence, and how it taps into broader societal issues such as gender politics, legal issues, values, judgements and stereotypes. This prompted us to think about the importance of a team based approach in family violence work, whether it be your organisational team or a team of various professionals working together with a family. Such teams can help to combat isolation and reduce the overwhelming nature of the pressures inherent in family violence work.For those who are interested in further training about how to intervene to support the safety of women and children experiencing DV, please see the links on page 4.

In the afternoon we looked at the impact that complex work can have on clinicians, and had some space to reflect on how we take care of ourselves in this work. We heard about how the work with clients can be both personally challenging whilst also providing inspiration and satisfaction. We look forward to having further conversations with you about your clinical practice with clients and your reflections about how this impacts on you when we meet in the new year.

Best Wishes for the Holiday SeasonFinally, we would like to wish you all a safe and happy festive season. We appreciate that this can be a joyous and restful time of year, but it can also be a time of hard work

in making arrangements with clients whose lives go on even when our services close for public holidays. We hope that you manage to have a break and enjoy some down time over the coming weeks, and we look forward to continuing our work with you in 2011. Best Wishes, Naomi and Sally

Hi, Congratulations on your work on the healthy Mothers, healthy Babies program thus far. The program continues to progress well and from May 09-10 had received over 300 referrals.

The achievements of the program have also been recognised in the newly released Victorian Women’s Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2010-2014. http://www.health.vic.gov.au/vwhp/downloads/vwhws2010_14.pdf The workforce support program is also well underway with both clinician, and manager’s groups being held regularly and the first training day being conducted in November.

Other things of interest in the last three months include:

Evaluation of training program:Thanks to everyone who responded to the survey. Of the 10 respondents, at least half had attended seven of the eight study days, while other staff were quite new to the program and had only attended one or two training days. Overwhelmingly nearly all respondents reported that the training days they attended were useful or very useful to their work on the healthy Mothers, healthy Babies Program.

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Update from the Department By Jeanette Cameron

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Respondents suggested a number of other topics they would like to explore through training and this list has been forwarded to Bouverie staff for their consideration and planning.

Evaluation Project:everyone should have received a copy of the Interim Evaluation Report by now, and HDG Consulting has been in contact with all agencies about the data collection for Stage 2. The remaining data collection dates for agencies are scheduled for 5 December (for November data); 5 Feb 2011 (for combined Dec/Jan data); and 5 March (for Feb data) and 5 april (for March data).

a final copy of the report will be forwarded to The Department in May – June 2011, after a pre-final report workshop with hMhB staff in May 2011.

Thank you once again for your ongoing commitment to collect and submit this data.

Updates to service model:a number of recommendations were made to the department as part of the Interim Evaluation Report including suggestions on: • enhancing program flexibility for

discharge• Promoting assisted attendance at the

routine 6 week post natal GP visit• Sharing evaluation results an information sheet on these topics has been developed and sent to all hMhB program managers for discussion with hMhB staff.

Best wishes for the festive and holiday season.

Regards,Jeanette Cameron Senior Policy Advisor – Early Intervention Programs Unit.Department of health

In the first year of hMhB operation, the Department of health delivered a number of training days for clinicians, addressing particular areas of practice.

We are aware that new staff have come on board since that time who may have missed some or all of those workshops, and have had some people approach us asking how they can access those trainings. While we won’t be able to repeat those particular workshops, we are always interested to hear ideas about what training would be useful for hMhB clinicians, so that we can plan ahead for our worker forums, which will be held twice a year. In addition to this, I have included a list below of other trainings that may be of interest and weblinks where you can find out more about how you can access these;

Culturally and Linguistically Diverse TrainingMulticultural Centre for Women’s Healthhttp://www.mcwh.com.au/Centre for Culture, Ethnicity and Healthhttp://www.ceh.org.au/Refugee Healthhttp://www.foundationhouse.com.au/professional_development/index.htm

Alcohol and Drugs in Pregnancy (free training)http://www.thewomens.org.au/alcoholDrugseducationandTraining

Where to access training

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Indigenous Women’s HealthWithout Prejudice, Racism Awareness education and TrainingContact Chris Twining- chris.twining@bigpond.comVictorian Community Controlled Aboriginal Health Organisation (VACCHO)http://www.vaccho.com.au/

Family Partnership TrainingQueen Elizabeth Centre http://www.qec.org.au/assets/pdf/training/Calendar2010.pdf

QUIT Smokinghttp://www.quit.org.au/resource-centre/training/training-for-health-professionals.aspx

Antenatal and Postnatal DepressionParent Infant Research Institute (PIRI)http://www.piri.org.au/TRAINING.php

Children’s Healthhttp://www.rch.org.au/ccch/profdev.cfm?doc_id=10492

Childbirth Education TrainingThe Women’s Hospital http://www.thewomens.org.au/ChildbirthEducationTraining

Family Violence http://www.dvrcv.org.au/training/http://www.tafe.swinburne.edu.au/CRAF/

*please note that some of these workshops are free of charge and others may come with some costs attached. Please speak with your manager about your organisational training policies and budgets

If you come across any useful resources that you would like to share with other hMhB clinicians, please email them to Naomi Rottem

Fact SheetsDepartment of human Services (DhS) has developed factsheets on immunisation and individual vaccines in 20 community languages. www.health.vic.gov.au/immunisation/fact-sheets/language

Family Planning NSW has also developed some translated factsheets on the following topicsMenstruation, STIs, Emergency Contraception, Contraceptive Implant, Progesterone IUD, The Pill and more. www.fpnsw.org.au/index_factsheets.html

Early Support Services – Newborn Hearing Screening a new program has been developed to provide support, assistance and information to families of babies who have been diagnosed with a permanent bilateral moderate – profound sensorineural hearing loss. For further information contact Julie Gillepsie on 9929-8252 or Julie.gillespie@eyeandear.org.au

Breast Feeding – Baby Friendly Health InitiativeThe Baby Friendly health Initiative (BFhI) is an international initiative that aims to give every baby the best start in life by creating a health care environment where breastfeeding is the norm, and evidence based practices known to promote the health and well-being of all babies and their mothers are followed. Training packages to support clinician’s education with breastfeeding and the BFhI are available on the Wa Department of health website http://www.healthnetworks.

health.wa.gov.au/projects/doctors.cfm and the Government of South australia website www.babyfriendly.sa.gov.au

Statistical report on Australia’s Mothers and Babies – Australian Institute of Health and Welfarehttp://www.aihw.gov.au/publications/per/50/11813.pdf

Picturing Mother and Child – Art exhibitionAn art exhibition featuring works from the Cunningham Dax Collection depicting the mother-child relationship. Includes works by contemporary artists Joan Rodriquez, Margaret Chapman, Julie Goodwin, Konrad Winkler, Graeme Doyle, NEG and Sophia Xeros-Constantinides.http://www.daxcollection.org.au/exhibitions

Resource Corner

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Stella Lado is an outreach case worker with the healthy Mothers healthy Babies program at Dandenong Community Health Service. She originally trained for 5 years as an educational psychologist in Sudan, and worked as a teacher both in Sudan and egypt before coming to australia in 2004. When she first arrived in Australia, Stella says that she decided “teaching is not for me”, partly because she was not so confident in her english at the time. While she was working as a Sudanese Liason officer for aMeS (adult Multicultural education Services) Stella was offered an opportunity to work for the City of Greater Dandenong as an African Peer Educator. It was through this job that Stella began running baby parenting groups and playgroups, and decided to enrol in further studies. She subsequently completed a double diploma in Community Development and Welfare.Stella has had a huge range of experiences working with people of different ages, cultures and life stages. She has worked at a women’s community centre, in high schools, in playgroups and now in the health sector. She found out about the healthy Mothers healthy Babies program when it was first starting up and has been working there since the Dandenong program began.

What do you find most rewarding about the HMHB role?Stella says, with a big smile on her face “to see those beautiful babies being born”. She also finds it rewarding to walk with the women through their journey and to see how they are able to trust her, and how “they can really change after the baby is

born”. She says to receive the women’s thanks and to know that she’s done something important to help them is really rewarding.

What do you find challenging about the work?Stella says that at times when there are a lot of complicated issues to deal with it can be quite overwhelming. She said that even knowing where to start can be challenging, and then sometimes there can be frustrations with other services involved and it can feel like getting nowhere. The other challenge Stella reflects upon is how much she has had to learn since coming to Australia. She says “it is a totally different system here” and that she is always asking a lot of questions – She says she is not ashamed to admit what she doesn’t know. Stella’s clients often ask her about how she has managed to achieve so much in her 6 years here in australia and she tells them; “if you want to learn you have to ask a lot of questions too”.

What tips have you found useful to engage reluctant clients?Stella finds that humour is very helpful in engaging with clients. She says that it’s important to be who you are, and to be clear about why you are there and what you will be doing. This can help clients feel more comfortable with you.

What sustains you in your work?Stella says that “knowing that what I do can make a difference” is the most sustaining thing in her work. She also said that speaking 4 ½ languages can be a big help!Stella also finds sustenance in working with women from so many different cultures and discovering that there are a lot of similarities between their different customs, traditions and even languages.

Stella Lado Worker Profile

The Gaze welcomescontributions from HMHB workers and will be inviting you to share your wisdoms and experience in each edition of the newsletter

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The Bouverie Centre8 Gardiner Street,Brunswick,

Victoria 3056, australia

T: +61 3 9385 5100, F: +61 3 9381 0336

e: bouverie.centre@latrobe.edu.auwww.bouverie.org.au

A Bouverie Centre project. Funded by the Department of Health.

South-Eastern Worker Peer Support Meetings Facilitator: Naomi Rottem

Thursdays at 9.30 – 11.30 am

10th February14th April9th June11th August13th October13th December

North-Western Worker Peer Support Meetings Facilitator: Sally Ryan

Tuesdays at 10am-12pm

8th February12th April14th June16th August18th October13th December

Managers MeetingsFacilitator: Shane Weir

Thursdays 17th MarchTuesday 26th JulyTuesday 11th October

Healthy Mother’s Healthy Babies Worker Forums

Monday 16th MayTuesday 22nd November

Important Dates for 2011