[pod30]

Please help to save the extended role of Child Health Nurses beyond the newborn days and especially Mother's Groups for everyone. It is proposed and planned that the extended services will only be able to those judged as vulnerable.

Due to cut backs these vital services will be gone. I believe Mother's Groups are currently on hold. The advice and expertise parents receive from the Nurses/Midwvies is invaluable.

See Mercury article http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2012/...ar-stories.html

Email chatas@iprimus.com.au for a petition and return to the CHATs address at Rosny. Help to get parents at schools and other centres to sign by 31 March.

Facebook group - https://www.facebook.com/pages/Save-the-Chi...335594749812462

Thanks P

[Chelli]

Well done with creating awareness about this. I'm appalled that the new parents group has been taken away. I have worked closely with the child health to keep the mother's groups together after the 6 week program and what I found is that although the "vulnerable" members were in need of the support, those who were coming from a professional background were equally in need of reassurance and support. Many of those new mothers struggled as they have never been around babies before. Also, the vulnerable parents were usually the first to drop out of programs like that; they're difficult to engage for a reason.

I can't believe that vital services that have the potential to reduce isolation and the incidence of untreated PND are just being cut while the politicians in this state continue to give themselves hefty pay rises

[laridae]

Don't believe everything you read in the paper.

http://www.dhhs.tas.gov.au/news_and_media/..._service_update

[Chelli]

In the statement released by the dhhs, I noticed they said this

New Parent Groups, which provide valuable mechanisms for social connections, will continue to be facilitated by CHAPS but we are looking at a variety of options to deliver them in a sustainable way into the future.

The two CHAPS nurses I spoke to recently were really upset with the proposed changes. The New Parents groups are going to be more of a one off morning tea and then the parents are on their own. Previously it was 6 weeks, and each week they addresed various issues concerning new parents. It was a time where new parents could get valuable information from each other. It would be such a shame if services like this aren't valued.