Child and Family Services (including Kinship Care)

Family Services

Bethany's Family Services Case Work Program provides a range of support for families who are experiencing significant difficulty in caring for their children. The program provides an environment that meets all their needs by providing timely intervention for families at risk of entering or re-entering the Child Protection system.

Working in collaboration with other local services to support and strengthen families and their links with the community, the program also provides longer-term case management support to families on an assertive outreach basis.

The Family Services Case Work Program is a key component of Bethany's Child and Family Services and is funded by the Department of Human Services

Services Provided

The Casework Team offers a broad range of assistance, which includes practical in-home support, access to services, child behavior management, parent-child interaction, parenting strategies, outreach support and casework intervention.

The program also provides access to a range of child and parenting focused groups, trained and skilled volunteer workers who provide additional in-home support, limited brokerage assistance to meet children’s needs as well as parenting goals and specialist assistance to parents with intellectual and or learning difficulties.

The Disability Case Management Program has been incorporated into this area, providing the full range of casework services to parents who have an intellectual disability or supporting families who have a child with an intellectual disability  which is impacting upon the family functioning.

Access

The program is voluntary and available for families with a child under the age of 18 who are facing significant difficulties in meeting the child’s needs.

Referrals can be from a wide range of services including self-referral, other Community Support Organisations, Schools, GP’s, Department of Human Services, Family Support Services and Disability Services.

Should you require assistance or are working with a family who you believe could benefit from this program call the Barwon Child FIRST on 1300 55 1948

Kinship Care

Kinship Care is where a child is cared for by a relative or close family friend. Bethany’s Kinship Care Service covers a large geographic area which extends across the City of Greater Geelong, Surf Coast Shire, Borough of Queenscliff, Colac Otway Shire, and Corangamite Shire.

As part of our program we offer monthly Support groups for Kinship Carers. Click here for more information about meeting dates and locations.

Our Information and Advice line, 1300 557 611, allows any Kinship Carer in our service area to call us during business hours, Monday to Friday 9 - 5 pm, for any issue they may be facing or just for a chat and any professional can call for Kinship related queries. 

If you have privately arranged Kinship Care we also provide suppport, advice and assistance to you. For more information on Private Kinship Care arrangements click here

Our service also offers Family Group Conferencing and Single Session Work as well as some short term case management support of up to ten or up to forty hours for each family.

Additionally, we also work with families who are involved with Child Protection where children are under Statutory Orders through Department of Human Services,  for more information please click here.

For all enquiries regarding these programs please contact
Lyrae Love
Manager - Child and Family Services
Phone: (03) 5278 8122