Page 886 - Week 03 - Thursday, 7 April 2022
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finalised in 2022. Intersex people are further supported by a dedicated intersex peer support officer at A Gender Agenda.
In November 2021, the Office for Mental Health and Wellbeing released the guidance to support gender affirming care for mental health. The guidance was developed as a collaboration between the Office for Mental Health and Wellbeing, the Office of LGBTIQ+ Affairs, the ACT Health Directorate, A Gender Agenda and Meridian. It is a first of its kind in Australia and has been designed to support providers of mental health care to deliver their services in a gender affirming way and support the specific needs of trans and gender diverse people.
We are also supporting LGBTIQ+ youth at schools through the Safe and Inclusive Schools Initiative. The Supporting students affirming gender at school: good practice guide helps school communities to be proactive in gender inclusive practice and support students when they share or express their gender identity at school. More work on supporting LGBTIQ+ Canberrans will continue through the second action plan of the Capital of Equality strategy which was recently released. The commitment also looks to build strong families and communities that are inclusive and support and nurture children and young people. The evidence is clear that a family’s needs are best met with earlier support while their children are very young or when problems emerge. Children and young people feel better supported and more sustained if they use a family’s natural resources such as their extended family or community networks.
We have built a strong universal service system that focuses on the importance of early years development and welcomes families to seek advice and supports to meet their needs. Programs delivered through the child and family centres and Child Development Service continued during the COVID-19 pandemic and offered new and innovative ways to connect with families and provide tailored support. This included the CFCs supporting families by working with community partners such as GIVIT, Roundabout and the Salvation Army to supply clothing, food vouchers and financial relief to families impacted by lockdown.
The CFCs produced weekly newsletters and kids activity books during the 2021 COVID-19 lockdown period for all families case managed by the centres. Each week, the newsletters were structured around a theme—for example, “self-care” and “staying safe during lockdown”. The newsletters included parenting tips, links to useful websites and healthy living advice. The Child Development Service delivered over 14 online drop-in clinics during the 2021 lockdown period for speech pathology, physiotherapy and occupational therapy, providing information and advice to more than 140 families.
Whilst we have a network of quality services and supports in place for families, during consultation to develop the Next Steps for Our Kids 2022-2030 strategy, families, community sector service providers and other ACT government agencies told us that the current service system is fragmented; that pathways to support need to be improved; and that funding arrangements need to reflect a joined-up system of child, youth and family services operating with a shared framework. Working across government, we need to use the expertise of children and young people, parents and
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