A FOOTSCRAY mother will be among the first to benefit from a $9 million national initiative called MyTime – a project that gives support to parents who have children with a disability or a chronic medical condition.
The project was launched last week by the Federal Government with support groups officially opening in Sunshine, Shepparton, Launceston, Lalor, Bundoora and Brisbane.
Footscray’s Andrea Day and daughter Sosia, 2, will make use of the Sunshine service.
They will be among 2500 families in Australia to access the latest carer information and support services.
Parents who have a child under school age who is eligible for the Carer Allowance can make use of the MyTime sessions.
Ms Day said she valued the service as Sosia was born with Down syndrome and had “attachment issues”.
“We are not able to put her in childcare and we can’t use the respite care that is offered because she gets too upset if I’m not there,” Ms Day said.
But during the MyTime sessions, Sosia is in the same room as Ms Day, being looked after by a qualified carer.
Ms Day, at the same time, is able to attend talks on issues relating to Down syndrome and share experiences with other carers of children with Down syndrome.
“They have guest speakers who are relevant to us as carers, they talk about Down syndrome affecting every day life- such as choices for education,” Ms Day said.
She said the Sunshine group at present had eight parents with children with Down syndrome.
“These parents are not just sympathetic but they really understand how it felt when you first discover that your child has Down syndrome,” Ms Day said.
She said she did not know that Sosia would be born with Down syndrome despite taking the early detection test for Down syndrome while pregnant.
She said Sosia has enriched her life and that of her family, including her husband, Giuseppe Scollo, and daughter Gabriella, 5.
“As a result of having her we have been privileged to be part of a cross-section of the community we might otherwise not have known,” she said.
Ms Day said Down syndrome resulted in Sosia having low muscle tone that affected her speech and Sosia also had an intellectual delay, among other conditions.
She said this challenged Sosia’s development process and made her frustrated, which could sometimes result in Sosia acting out.
“For instance she has trouble with communicating her needs, she might want something but might not know how to get the message across,” Ms Day said.
But a speech therapist is teaching Sosia Makaton sign language to overcome her occasional inability to indicate that she is hungry or to express other needs.
Ms Day said that until now the focus of the support services she had accessed had been in relation to assisting Sossia’s developmental growth.
She said juggling Sosia’s intense needs, finding time for Gabriella and running to schedule in terms of specialist appointments could take its toll on a parent.
“MyTime is not so much focused on the child but on helping you as a parent,” she said.
“Essentially they realise that if parents are supported they have the ability to cope with the situation – they provide more resources – and happier parents benefit the family as a whole and make them more functional.”
The Parenting Research Centre is the national co-ordinator for the project.
The Sunshine branch is at Dempster Park Community Hall, Phoenix St, North Sunshine.
The Down Syndrome Association can be reached on 9486 9600 and MyTime on 1800 889 997.
