Healthy Western Sydney

Helping Children thrive

We all want the best possible start for our children, and evidence shows that support in the early years can have a positive and long-lasting effect on a child’s life. Access to support services can help families build their parenting skills, gain knowledge and create experiences for children.

WentWest, as the Western Sydney Primary Health Network, works with local providers to deliver child and family support services across Western Sydney. You can read more about child and family services available in our region at wentwest.com.au/child-and-family

9 One in four children aged five and under in Western Sydney will develop poor health outcomes 9 Western Sydney has a young population compared to other parts of NSW, with 0-25-year-olds representing one-third of the region’s population 9 One in five women and one in 10 men experience perinatal anxiety or depression

Thrive@5 in Doonside

Our Thrive@5 in Doonside initiative focuses on a child’s first 2000 days and provides place-based early intervention programs aimed at improving the health, wellbeing and developmental outcomes of children aged 0-5 years. Programs include speech pathology, play therapy and mentoring services for children who have experienced trauma.

Little Possums

Little Possums provide culturally sensitive support through Aboriginal mentoring, advocacy and play therapy. A qualified play therapist and an Aboriginal mentor empower families by offering play therapy sessions for children who have experienced trauma. Families receive face-to-face and phone support to address challenges, build on their strengths and develop a sense of community and belonging.

CASE STUDY

Kids Early Years Network

Offering a revolutionary new approach, the Kids Early Years (KEYS) Network is designed to deliver a cohesive, coordinated experience for families. KEYS works with children aged 0-5 years by connecting them and their families to tailored, specialist services, including health, educational, social and wellbeing support. Learn more about KEYS at wskeys.com.au

Students as Lifestyle Activists (SALSA)

SALSA is a peer education and leadership program designed to motivate high school students in Western Sydney to maintain a healthy lifestyle and increase their physical activity. The award-winning project trains university students as SALSA educators, and they, in turn, coach high school students to be peer leaders for younger students. The program is run in partnership between the University of Sydney, Western Sydney Primary Health Network, Western Sydney Local Health District, medical practitioners and high schools in Western Sydney.

Around 50,000 students have benefitted from the SALSA program.

Rooty Hill High School successfully updated their school gym as part of its SALSA Youth Voices’ School Action Plan to increase physical activity or improve diet. The students used learnings from the SALSA program to identify that a decreased number of girls were physically active, developed a solution, and implemented their plan. They successfully asked for funding from their principal, ordered the equipment and renovated the space. The new gym has gender-neutral gym equipment and targeted female-only gym classes.

The gym has provided students, particularly females, an extra opportunity to be physically active before school and during lunchtime gym classes.

In a school where 25% of the students live in homes of considerable poverty and 200 of the 1125 students have health plans for chronic poor health, a health strategy of this kind is a powerful opportunity to change health and life outcomes for those students.

– Principal, Rooty Hill High School

Contact Kym Rizzo Liu if your school is interested in participating in the SALSA program: kim.rizzoliu@health.nsw.gov.au

CROSSWORD #0563 CROSSWORD #0562

ACROSS

1. What Spitz has done well 5. Poker player's response 9. Best-case scenario 14. Macadamize, e.g. 15. Ham's sign-off 16. "West Side Story" song 17. Produce a faint image of 19. Biblical gift 20. Insert more ammo 21. Bank fixture 23. Precipitated 25. Extended a subscription 30. Washer button 32. Place for fox hunting 33. Bottomless void 36. Professional associate 38. Do some pruning 39. ___ lazuli 40. Simon's couple 41. Kind of rush 44. Chromatic nuances 46. Not so bold 47. Beany's TV pal 49. Bone-like 51. Least encountered 54. "How peachy keen!" 56. Award 58. Nepal neighbor 62. Bile-duct blocker 64. Heckle 65. African lily 66. Give stars to, perhaps 67. Wheel rod 68. Does tailoring 69. In peak position?

DOWN

1. Train for a fight 2. Kid in a kiddie pool 3. Throat pendant 4. Personal histories 5. Oversized groups 6. Eggs, in the lab 7. Court calls 8. Dismal, to a poet 9. Really big 10. It breaks early 11. Be at fault 12. Hang out to dry 13. "Well, ___-di-dah!" 18. Sources of woe 22. Has emotions 24. Decorative sticker 26. Traveler's concern, for short 27. Dennis the Menace's toy 28. Chopin forte 29. Scout's good works 31. Matter 33. Battle to remember 34. Is an omen of 35. Belgian city famed in

W.W.I 37. Queen Elizabeth, for one 39. Lash of bygone westerns 42. Manage, with "out" 43. Delivery room delivery 44. Treaded things 45. Chipmaker's substitute 48. Coaxial and booster 50. Exploit accounts 52. Ermine, in summer 53. Lone Ranger's rescuer 55. Fishing souvenir? 57. Show grief 58. Neither his nor hers 59. Shut-eye 60. Dynamic team? 61. It comes out of a pen 63. Sound heard from the herd

ACROSS

1. Bowling pin wood 6. Stadium regulars 10. Flanders of fiction 14. "Manhattan" director 15. Buffalo's lake 16. Having the skills 17. Ashcan School painter 18. Nits, eventually 19. Appaloosa's relative 20. Puts under a spell 22. Partial prefix 23. Cereal container 24. Oscar-winner Hayward 25. Autocrat's worry 29. Laryngeal woe 32. Still kicking 33. Cooler residents 37. Prop for Chaplin 38. Circuit-board wrecker 39. Energy field, of sorts 40. Tires out 42. Quell, as concerns 43. Stood up to 44. Atlas features 45. Extract metals by heating 48. Many chiliads 49. Angel's prop 50. Acted like a control freak 57. Again from the top 58. Quite excited 59. Embargo target 60. Green hue 61. Hardly captivating 62. Pacific island 63. Deposited, as eggs 64. On the way, in a way 65. Aromatic chemical

DOWN

1. Brewer's preparation 2. Adversary's antithesis 3. Rainspout sound 4. Pastrami preference 5. Lend dignity or honor to 6. Oscar's "The Odd

Couple" pal 7. Grand Canyon's loc. 8. Heading on Santa's list 9. Doesn't raise or fold 10. Wombats, bandicoots, etc. 11. Violas' pit neighbors 12. Vicuna's kin 13. Bolshevik hero 21. Day care attendee 24. Hoagie 25. Hare vs. tortoise event 26. Flair or gusto 27. It climbs the walls 28. Caused a spill 29. Felt deeply 30. Convoy components, often 31. "Blood and Sand" cry 33. Cordage fiber 34. Game guide 35. Shucks! 36. Asserts 38. Bag, zoologically 41. Chocolatier's vessel 42. Mouseketeer notable 44. Charged particle 45. Must, in a contract 46. Fervor 47. Incense resin 48. Figure skating figure 50. Artist's light touches 51. Wolfish look 52. Haunted house noise 53. Valentine's Day deity 54. Go on and on 55. Head start, say 56. Diary opener