By ALESHA CAPONE
BRIMBANK City Council will campaign for a Sunshine Hospital service, which helps sick and disabled children to attend school, to be given more funding and resources.
Last month, Star revealed a crisis at the Children’s Allied Health Service (CAHS) which is based at Sunshine Hospital and services the entire West.
The CAHS is no longer able to accept multidisciplinary assessment referrals for preschool children starting school next year, due to increased demand.
CAHS offers ongoing intervention – in fields like physiotherapy and speech pathology – for children with conditions including autism spectrum disorders, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome and acquired brain injuries.
A letter from Western Heath to kindergartens has suggested parents seek aid from private medical services instead.
The State Opposition Children’s spokeswoman Jenny Mikakos raised the issue in parliament last month, calling for the crisis to be addressed.
Last week, Brimbank City Council threw their support behind the campaign.
The council’s administrators voted to raise the issue at a meeting of the Municipal Association of Victoria (MAV) on 16 May.
The council agenda said CAHS’s “inability to provide services is directly related to the growth that the western region of Melbourne is experiencing and their funding which has not been revisited since 2008”.
A Western Health spokesperson told Star that they have met with the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development twice “to discuss the issues relating to the Children Allied Health service at Sunshine”.
“It is disappointing that almost a month has passed since I raised this issue with Minister Lovell in Parliament, and yet nothing has been resolved,” Ms Mikakos said last week.
“In the meantime, western suburbs families are forking out about $1500 to have their child assessed privately or their child is missing out altogether.
“Without an assessment, pre-school children can’t access vital early childhood intervention services.”
