By Violet Li
Murrumbek Casey Early Parenting Centre has become a vital lifeline for new families in this growing region.
Since its official opening in January 2024, the free wellness service in Clyde North has already supported more than 1000 families, offering them the care they need during the often-challenging early years of parenthood.
Lauren Savva, the acting nurse manager, recalled the centre’s beginnings and how quickly it had grown into an essential community hub.
“There is quite a demand for the service,” she said.
Ms Savva said the centre provided individualised support for families to achieve their goals.
“Families will come in with a huge range of different goals, and that could be from sleep and settling, learning to understand some behaviours. It could be feeding support, and that could be from the baby, like breastfeeding, bottle feeding, or introducing solids,” she said.
“Depending on what the family’s goals are, we will do an individualised plan for that, and then during the week, we support them through achieving that goal.
“We’ll do education sessions with the families as well, and then if there’s any more information they need, we do one-on-one education sessions as well.”
Delivered by the State Government in partnership with Monash Health, the centre provides a range of services including day stays, overnight stays, and telehealth support.
Families can access a range of programs: a residential program, which offers 10 private rooms with ensuite bathrooms; a day stay program for three days of the week, which has four separate rooms, each with its own cot, where parents can settle their babies with one-on-one support from staff; a sleep-settling program for babies aged four months to 12 months; a newborn program aimed at infants aged zero to three months; a home visiting program; and telehealth.
All programs are free and can be accessed via self-referral or through a GP or maternal child health nurse.
The centre has a team of nurses with different backgrounds, including paediatrics, newborn and mental health, midwifery, maternal and child health, social work, play therapy, speech therapy, and dietetics.
“Depending on the family’s needs or supports there, we can also offer those services to further enhance the patient experience,” Ms Savva said.
Ms Savva said the wait list for a day program was about five weeks.
For the residential program, it varies between six to 10 weeks.
“We’re constantly working on improving the service and how we can reduce the wait times to come into the program,” she said.
“We also collaborate with other early parenting centres to make sure that our families get the support they need as soon as they can.”
Every month, the centre shares a success story. This month’s story stood out for Ms Savva.
Written from the perspective of a baby, the story captured the impact of the centre’s work.
“I’ve been co-sleeping with Mum and Dad since I was born. This week, I learned to sleep on my own in a cot, and my parents learned to understand my behaviours and body language. Thank you to the amazing staff for being so patient with me,” the parent wrote.
Visit monashhealth.org for more information.
