Released 25/07/2017
It was a pleasure to visit the ACT Government’s Child Development Service at Holder today to mark its first year of operations.
The Child Development Service assists families in the ACT who have concerns about their child’s development, including speech and language, movement, hand skills, self care and social or emotional development.
Over the past year approximately 1500 children received allied health services through the Child Development Service, with overwhelmingly positive feedback from families.
Of these, more than 1200 accessed the Drop-In Clinics held across the three Child and Family Centres and at the Child Development Service Centre in Holder.
I’d like to congratulate and acknowledge the hard work of the staff who have implemented this new service model and work on the seamless transition of therapy services to the NDIS.
The Intake Service and Drop-In Clinics provide a way for parents and other referrers to seek advice, find out if further services are necessary and where these services are available.
Staff have worked collaboratively to provide services at Gugan Gulwan, Winnunga Health Centre, Koori Pre-schools, Canberra Cares, and the South Sudanese, Deadly Bubs, and Koori playgroups at the Child and Family Centres to enable access to allied health services for these communities.
Access to speech pathology, occupational therapy, social work, physiotherapy, psychology, Child Health Medical Officers and Community Paediatricians is determined through a comprehensive intake and screening process.
For more information on the Child Development Service visit http://www.communityservices.act.gov.au/childdevelopmentservice
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Rachel Stephen-Smith, MLA | Media Releases