Impact

Improving the health of our community and beyond.

Integrated Kids Connect Program addressing inequities in service access in the early years

The Integrated Kids Connect Program brings together three SPHERE Clinical Academic Groups (Early Life Determinants of Health, Kids UnLimited and Neuroscience, Mental Health and Addiction) and two Strategic Platforms (Knowledge Translation and Innovation), to transform the current child and family service system through an integrated and inclusive approach to addressing neurodevelopmental challenges in childhood.

Every nine minutes, a child is born who is at risk of having a neurodevelopmental disorder (NDD) such as speech delay and autism.

Notably, one in five Australian children embarks on their educational journey without foundational developmental skills, a figure that rises to one in three among priority populations including socioeconomically disadvantaged and culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities.

This gives rise to a cascade of negative health outcomes, constituting approximately one-third of paediatric presentations and influencing detrimental life trajectories. Unfortunately, these challenges tend to escape identification until the onset of formal education or later, primarily due to suboptimal parental adherence (20-30%) to the recommended routine health and developmental checks outlined in the Personal Health Record, commonly known as the Blue Book.

Compounding matters is what researchers call the “inverse care law.” This phenomenon reveals a paradox where families hailing from the most disadvantaged backgrounds, with children facing the highest developmental risks, are the least likely to complete essential developmental assessments. Furthermore, researchers argue that the timely provision of support is impeded by the intricate, poorly-coordinated, and inefficient nature of the Australian child and family service system. This system is marked by fragmentation, duplication, and notable service delivery gaps, creating obstacles to accessing timely and coherent assistance.

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As a result, children often present after complexities/co-morbidities have set in, thereby missing early intervention opportunities leveraging the plasticity of the developing brain. Late intervention costs the Australian economy $15.2billion each year due to additional health, education and welfare costs.

The program’s lead, Professor Valsamma Eapen from the Early Life Determinants of Health Clinical Academic Group, explains that the program will address a “missing link” in the priority population’s service journey.

“When we trialled the Watch Me Grow Electronic (WMG-E) weblink in the community (NSW Health COVID 19 grant) and in primary care (NHMRC Partnership Grant), a translation gap was identified in connecting the state system with community and primary care services. Currently primary health care professionals (PHCPs) are not reaching all, especially priority population children/families,” said Prof. Eapen.

“By empowering parents to engage with developmental surveillance program starting from pregnancy/birth, and providing proactive identification of needs, we will increase the service efficiency and integration so that no child is left behind.”

Making an impact

The aim of the program is to transform the current child and family service system by systematising parental access and engagement with child developmental monitoring via an integrated, strengths based, blended (digital/ place based) service navigation and tiered care delivery program.

“Leveraging the existing service infrastructure and resources and using the opportunistic contacts for immunisation (>90% uptake) and other routine service contacts from birth, the program will reach ‘all’, including ‘hard to reach’ families regardless of their language, culture, socioeconomic or geographic backgrounds,” said Prof. Eapen.

“This will also fundamentally shift the focus from a risk/disorder focus to proactive services/ supports at the right place/time as per needs using strengths-based approaches.”

Together, the program is expected to address the current evidence to implementation –translational – gap in service inequities and lead to timely identification of child developmental needs. At the same time, it will promote parental mental health and identify the psychosocial needs of families.

“Building on our pilot study which showed WMG-E platform to be feasible and effective in engaging parents, this program will provide ongoing monitoring to identify developmental differences as they emerge, and deliver timely and appropriate intervention and supports, thereby reducing cost and service burden and improving health outcomes and intergenerational health and wellbeing.”