Shire offers free sessions to support families

The Surf Coast Shire has teamed up with a number of organisations to offer the community support through the Resurfacing program.

Resurfacing will offer a number of free events throughout November to support mental health and wellbeing as we near the end of a year that has inflicted plenty of stress and hardship onto the community.

The initiative is focused on families, particularly those with young children. The Shire is hoping some of these events can provide parents with the appropriate tools and techniques to manage their child’s wellbeing.

Surf Coast Shire General Manager of Culture and Community Chris Pike said he hoped these sessions provided an outlet for parents to identify, and learn how to manage, any struggles their children might be having.

“It’s been a stressful year, we all know it, but sometimes as adults we focus on our situation and think we are either hiding it from our kids, or it’s not going to affect them,” Pike said.

“Hopefully, these sessions give parents the time and headspace to think about how their child might be traveling, and how they can support them. We’ve also got a few sessions that will focus on the wellbeing of parents because it’s very difficult to care for your kids if you’re not looking after yourself also.

“The focus is really on increasing parents’ awareness of and confidence in managing their child’s mental health, as well as their own, across the parenting spectrum (newborns to teens).

“We want to empower parents to advocate for their children when it comes to mental health, whether this is when their kids are struggling, or just helping them maintain good mental health.

The Surf Coast Shire Maternal and Child Health, Early Years and Youth teams will be joined by a range of specialists from Drummond Street Services, DadStuff (Relationships Australia Victoria), Food and Mood Centre, Cranstoun Psychology and Epworth Children’s Clinic to offer the program.

“This is really about keeping the child in mind. Sometimes the first sign we see that a child is struggling is them ‘acting out’. As parents, it’s easy to focus on the behaviour, rather than looking for the reason behind it. Hopefully, these sessions give parents the confidence and skills to do this.”