Resources & Referrals > Health Categories > Child Youth Health
Child Youth Health
Children and young people of refugee background, including people seeking asylum, can use most health and community services funded by the Victorian Government. These services include hospital services, community health services, the Refugee Health Program, torture and trauma counselling and catch-up immunisation. Victoria also has specialist health programs for people of refugee health backgrounds, including people seeking asylum.
For information about approaches to care for children and adolescents from a refugee background please see the Refugee Health Guide.
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School’s In For Refugees (SIFR)
School’s In for Refugees is a Foundation House resource designed for busy school staff. We can assist your school to confidently support students’ engagement, wellbeing and achievement, and promote staff wellbeing too! Our professional learning content is easy to find and full of tips, links, resources, and good practice examples addressing primary and secondary school settings.Visit
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Maternal and Child Health Service
Victorian Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Services work in partnership with families to care for babies and young children until they start school.Visit
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Victorian Foundation for Survivors of Torture (Foundation House): Direct Services
Foundation House provides a range of specialist programs for young people from refugee backgrounds who have recently arrived in Australia, which have been developed in partnership with AMES Australia and the Centre for Multicultural Youth (CMY).Visit
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Centre for Multicultural Youth
The Centre for Multicultural Youth is a not-for-profit organisation based in Victoria, providing specialist knowledge and support to young people from migrant and refugee backgrounds.Visit
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Orygen Youth Mental Health
Based on evidence and best practice, Orygen programs address gaps in youth mental health services, embrace mental health, alcohol and other drugs, primary care and educational services.Visit
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Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS)
Child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) provide specialist mental health treatment and care to children and adolescents up to 18 years of age.Visit
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Royal Children’s Hospital — Immigrant Health Service
Immigrant Health Service provides a comprehensive approach to physical and mental health for children and young people who arrived as refugees or seeking asylum. The service is free of charge for all refugee and asylum seeker children.Visit
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Monash Refugee Health & Wellbeing
Monash Health’s Refugee Health and Wellbeing service provides comprehensive primary care services and tertiary services including infectious diseases, paediatrics and psychiatry.Visit
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Referral
Berry Street- Early Learning is Fun
Berry Street’s Early Learning is Fun (ELF) program supports vulnerable parents to create nurturing relationships with their children. It uses a model of therapeutic intensive supported playgroups.Visit
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Working with Children, Young People and Families from a Refugee and Asylum-seeking Background: A Tip Sheet
A tip sheet for mental health clinicians, counsellors and key workers working with children, young people and families from a refugee or asylum seeking background.View Document
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Reverb 2.0
REVERB is a prevention and early intervention mental health initiative, co-designed and co-delivered by multicultural young people. It aims to embed multicultural lived experience to address stigma, build cultural responsiveness, and increase young people’s confidence to seek support.Visit
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Building belonging: A toolkit for early childhood educators on cultural diversity and responding to prejudice
‘Building Belonging’ is a comprehensive toolkit of early education resources which includes an ebook, song with actions, educator guide, posters and lesson plans. It is focussed on encouraging respect for cultural diversity and tackling racial prejudice in early childhood settings.Visit
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The Early Childhood Access and Participation Project: Talking with Chin Families from Burma about Early Childhood Services
This guide describes a model that encourages dialogue between early childhood service providers and families from refugee backgrounds.View Document
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Nutrition for Refugee Children: Risks, Screening, and Treatment
Paper on paediatric refugees and their increased risk for growth and nutritional deficits.Visit
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Department of Education: Supporting students from refugee backgrounds
Schools play a key role in supporting students from refugee backgrounds, particularly during the first few years of their settlement in Australia. Find out about Refugee education supports and Professional learning and resources.Visit
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Resources for schools to support multicultural youth
Centre for Multicultural Youth (CMY) has a range of resources that can be utilised by schools for teacher professional learning, for in-class work or to share directly with students and families.Visit
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Forced Marriage: A Good Practice Guide
This Good Practice Guide provides an introduction to the issue of forced marriage and essential information to assist frontline workers to respond effectively to a young person at risk.Visit
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Inclusive Organisations: A guide to good practice strategies
Inclusive Organisations provides a framework that organisations can utilise to improve their engagement with young people from migrant and refugee backgrounds and enhance good practice across their services and programs.Visit
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The health and human rights of children in immigration detention
Report to the Australian Human Rights Commission Monitoring Visit to Wickham Point Detention Centre, Darwin, NT October 16th – 18th 2015.Visit
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Migrant and Refugee Young People Video Storytelling Project—’This is me’
A suite of videos by highlighting the journey of refugee and migrant young people as they make Australia their new home. Funded by the Lord Mayor's Charitable Foundation, CMY's 'This is Me - Migrant and Refugee Young People Video Storytelling Project' empowered young people to speak out on issues that matter to them and share their stories with the wider community.Visit
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Story Book: Donkeys can’t fly on planes
This is a collection of 25 true stories of survival written by young Sudanese refugees who have found a new home in Australia.Visit
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Parents’ Evaluation of Developmental Status (PEDS)
Parents’ Evaluation of Developmental Status, or PEDS, is an evidence based screening tool that elicits and addresses parental concerns about children’s development, health and wellbeing. PEDS is a simple, 10-item questionnaire that is completed by the parent.Visit
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Immigrant Health Service-Developmental Assessments for children
Developmental assessment in refugee/asylum seeker children can be complex, requiring an understanding of second (or later) language acquisition, language transitions in relation to development, the impact of forced migration, trauma, and settlement, and support services available.Visit
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Australian Refugee Health Practice Guide—Child & adolescent booklet
This booklet contains information regarding pre-arrival health screening, post arrival health assessment, immunisation, nutritional issues, haematology issues, development and learning, adolescent health and development, disability, mental health, emotional and behavioural issues and more.Visit
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Foundation House Webinar: Supporting Early Years to School transition for children and families from refugee backgrounds during COVID-19
What strategies can be used to support children and families from refugee backgrounds to make a successful transition this year and into 2021? This webinar will look at what some early years services and schools have done to adapt their transition programs for the current COVID-19 situation.Find out more
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Working effectively with interpreters to support families from refugee backgrounds —Foundation House
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Refugees and asylum seekers: Supporting recovery from trauma
This information sheet has been written by Professor Louise Newman and Amanda Harris for the Australian Child and Adolescent Trauma, Loss and Grief Network.View Document
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Foundation House— Supporting Early Years to School transition for children and families from refugee backgrounds during COVID-19
Schools and early years services are encouraged to practice the following strategies in supporting transition of children from a refugee background, in combination with the Transition to School Kit and the Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework for children aged 0 to 8 years.Visit
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Culturally informed ways to support mental health in refugee and asylum seeker children
This resource provides information about culturally informed ways to support the mental health of refugee and asylum seeker children. It aims to support practitioners from a range of mental health, social work and community-sector backgrounds who work with children and families from refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds.Visit
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How the experiences and circumstances of culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) children and families influence child mental health
Children from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds may have specific experiences which affect their mental health. It is important to use a social determinants lens when exploring the factors that contribute to the mental health of children from CALD backgrounds.Visit
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Improving the mental health and wellbeing of young people from migrant and refugee backgrounds: Literature Review
This literature review has been drawn from academic and grey literature available within Australia and internationally. It focusses on good practices that are considered to improve the lives of young people from migrant and refugee backgrounds that are experiencing mental ill-health and are being supported in the community, including primary care settings.View Document