Our tour of Dalwood Spilstead
Our visit to Dalwood Spilstead services occurred on Tuesday 17th October and members and guests attending were hosted by Kerry Gwynne, Manager Spilstead Services. Kerry showed us the Dalwood Home property and Spilstead Centre then following dinner we enjoyed a great presentation on the Spilstead Model and Evidence Base.
 |
| Kerry Gwynne - Manager Spilstead Services (always enthusiastic) |
AND SOME OF THE ROTARIANS & FRIENDS:
Between 1931 and 1989 over 1,000 children attended the Dalwood Children’s Home for either short term or long-term respite. Day Care was added to specifically meet the educational and developmental needs of children in care under school age. Moreover, unlike many other children’s homes, Dalwood has not had any problems associated with investigations or claims that emerged in the 3 Royal commissions into children’s homes, because it was run very professionally as a Schedule 2 Hospital. The home is fully charity funded.
The reasons for referral then and today are surprisingly similar:
- Violence in families
- Single parents not coping.
- Inability to deal with behavioural problems with children.
- Drug and alcohol problems with one or both parents
- Mental health problems
 |
| In the PresSchool grounds |
Bill Splistead, a Dalwood Board member also was a pedigree dog show entrepreneur donated all the proceeds of his dog shows held in Western Sydney to the service. Bill Spilstead didn’t have any children and left a large bequest to the service and the name Dalwood Spilstead was adopted. The preschool was built with his bequest.
What happens today:
All referrals come from the Child Protection services of the Department of Community Services when it decides that the children are at risk. They refer the whole family to the Dalwood Spilstead Service, rather than removing the children.
Kerry explained Dalwood Spilstead service have developed and administers a unique, well-researched and proven model of care which supports the whole family all in one place. It combines extensive support for the parent(s) together with intensive support for the children. This significantly reduces any stress on both parent and child.
These services include:
Parent’s Programs: Councillors who connect with the parent and help to set goals and administer individual programs, counselling, parenting programs, parent-child work, support groups, leisure groups plus a lot of home visiting for parents. Over 90% have had a challenging childhood themselves and giving them a good parenting model is a key factor of ensuring success.
Children’s Program: Ensure that the child’s development isn’t impacted by the parent(s) problems and provide Interaction plus role models to help them learn using therapists and teachers - together with clinical psychologists and speech pathologists on the team. Speech Pathology and Clinical Psychology are funded by the Child’s Play Sponsorship Project auspiced by the Rotary Club of Balgowlah.
Each child has their own case manager – generally an early childhood educator who focuses on the child’s wellbeing and development by providing stimulation, socialisation, and attachment. Up to the age of 12 months they home visit then they then attend the therapeutic preschool – the Spilstead Centre for two days a week. Maximum room occupation is usually about 5 children with a teacher & volunteer. The focus is on getting children ready for school, excelling at school, loving, and doing well at school. This ensures their development milestones are set for life and help minimise problems such as attendance, antisocial behaviour, and possible crimes) from occurring later.
In addition, the service works with the parent(s) and child together. One key thing is that the engagement and retention with the family is much greater and successful compared to other models – despite often the referred parents having been in trouble with the law or DOCs; and are initially resistant, frightened, or very untrusting. Dalwood Spilstead has retention above 90% compared to others which are about 50%.
Presentation on The Spilstead Model & Evidence Base
After dinner, Kerry showed her presentation from the recent Edinburgh conference and spoke of the enormous benefit to the children & parents, the health department, and the general community in terms of successful and sustainable outcome and the ongoing savings to the healthcare/social services’ budget.
Diagrammatically the Spilstead model (SM),can be shown (below) as a single governance model that enables a seamless continuum of care for families irrespective of their vulnerability.
The ‘one stop shop approach” Spilstead Model (SM) is unique in ensuring a holistic approach with all services for both parents and children – provided under one service umbrella and from one team. This enables optimum engagement with families and ensures maximum co-ordination and consistency of service delivery.
“The SM has been designed to integrate a comprehensive range of evidence-based interventions for vulnerable families and children at risk within a trauma-informed and relationally sensitive therapeutic milieu. The model combines parent support, home visiting, and parent child attachment interventions with multidisciplinary centre and home-based early childhood education and development programmes, in an environment of family centred strength-based practice.
The Dalwood Spilstead Service is now internationally recognised for its unique and highly successful models of care which have been validated by both short term and longitudinal research.” Splistead Model & Evidence Base- Northern Sydney Health District report 2023.
Significantly improved outcomes:
The results of improvements recorded In Evaluation of Brighter Futures (early Intervention Program Final report Sept 2010) are shown below;
When the Splistead Model data is added the results achieved become most apparent.
 |
| Spilstead Model in Lighter Blue |
Kerry showed that 80% of parents reported that at the follow up after 10 years, they retained clinically significant reduction in stress scores in areas such as moodiness, social isolation, failure to achieve, delinquent & anti-social behaviour compared to standard approaches. Moreover the 76% of children in the follow up study were found to be functioning in the normative range on the Child Behaviour checklist.
The attrition rates of percentage of clients who completed the Brighter Futures Early Intervention programme (reported 2010) and significantly higher score occur with the Spilstead model.
The cost per family comparison shows almost 10% - 50% savings.
Staff Retention:
Thanks Kerry
All our members and guests greatly appreciated the opportunity to learn about the great service that you and your team provide to families, especially young people in need in our community.
Our club has been a strong supporter of the Dalwood Spilstead Service since its inception in 2004, and we are committed to continuing to maintain this support, especially in the coming period.
Thanks to John O'Brien for the photos.
--ooOOoo--
Welcome Robert
Robert Thompson was inducted into the club on October 3. He and wife Anne have moved back from Tasmania - however they did spent many years in this neck of the woods some time ago. Robert was a member of Rotary Club of D’Entrecasteaux Channel and was the President some years ago and Anne is a PHF - so they will really fit into the Balgowlah Club activities.
Welcome Robert and Anne!
 |
| Co President Diana Hart and Robert Thompson. |
CARS AND CLUES:
Get ready its on again - the poster says it all;
Lindy needs volunteers to make it the best one yet!!
ALSO
Don't forget our AGM on November 21. Its only a month away - give some serious thought to how you can work in an key role or in our great committees and keep our club punching above it weight. Step up and enjoy working together.
Comments
Post a Comment