- A new child development program is being launched across the Torres Strait, Cape York, and Northern Peninsula Area.
- The Torres and Cape Hospital and Health Service received $3.6 million from the Palaszczuk Government’s Connected Community Pathways program to fund the new service.
- The new service will see the establishment of mobile visiting allied health team to work in collaboration with local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Allied Health Assistants.
- The team will travel directly to see and treat patients at their local Primary Health Care Centres across the region.
An exciting new child development program giving families direct access to a host of specialist services will be launched across the Torres Strait, Cape York, and Northern Peninsula Area later this year.
The Torres and Cape Hospital and Health Service was successful in obtaining more than $3.6 million through the Palaszczuk Government’s Connected Community Pathways (CCP) funding program for the initiative.
The program will see the establishment of mobile visiting allied health teams, to work in collaboration with local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Allied Health Assistants.
The team will include speech pathologists, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, psychologists, social workers, and dietitians.
They will travel directly to see and treat patients at their local primary healthcare across the entire region.
The team will provide specialist assessment, diagnosis, and support of children with complex developmental delays, medical conditions, and disabilities as well the provision of ongoing therapy and support, and the building of local capacity in targeted communities.
The mobile visiting model has been developed due to current accommodation shortages in community.
Quotes attributable to the Minister for Health Shannon Fentiman:
“I am passionate about ensuring Queensland children get the best quality healthcare, no matter where they live.
“Our Palaszczuk Government’s $67.5 million Connected Community Pathways program is providing initiatives that improve access to health care for people living in remote Queensland, such as our Virtual Emergency Department telehealth service.
“The $3.6 million new child development program will bring health care directly to communities, with teams of allied health professionals travelling to, and operating from their local Primary Health Care Centre.
“Our children deserve the best, and this program means less travel for families and less demand on our hospitals.
“The Torres and Cape Hospital and Health Service is one of four successful funding applications related to child development, along with Darling Downs HHS, Wide Bay HHS and Children’s Health Queensland HHS.”
Quotes attributable to the Member for Cook Cynthia Lui:
“Access to early developmental therapies and care can provide lifelong benefits to health, education, and wellbeing.
“The service will provide access to specialist assessment, diagnosis, and support for children in the Torres Strait, NPA and Cape York with complex developmental delays, medical conditions, and disabilities.
“This new service will prove beneficial for children living in remote areas who have previously had to travel long distances to access these services.
“The Palaszczuk Government is committed to providing equitable access to healthcare to those living in our remote regions.
“This funding announcement comes on the back of the recently announced expansion of maternal child and family health services in the region.
“This expansion will see a team of Cairns-based maternal, child and family midwifery consultants who are both midwives and child health nurses and First Nations health workers traveling throughout Cape York to support mothers, babies, and their families.
“I understand the new maternal and child health team will work closely with the allied health Integrated Child Development Service and alongside the existing Torres and Cape Paediatrician Service which provides specialist paediatric care.
“They will be able to refer children directly into these services.
“These are all great initiatives for our communities, many of which are vulnerable and disadvantaged.
Quotes attributable to Torres and Cape Hospital and Health Service Executive Director of Allied Health Amanda Wilson:
“Recruitment for the child development team is under way.
“The move to establish the child development program was a result of a Local Area Needs Assessment project which was undertaken by the health service last year to better understand community health needs.
“Through that project it was identified that maternal and child health and child development was the absolute top priority.
“We are thrilled to have been selected as a funding recipient to provide these much-needed services for our communities, and work toward our goals of investing in healthcare in the first 2000 days of life.”
