Landry launches trial of a text messaging support service for new parents

Assistant Minister for Children and Families, Michelle Landry, today launched a trial for Parent Link at a community event in Rockhampton.

Parent Link is a free text messaging service aimed at providing information and resources to parents and expectant parents in the first 1000 days of their child’s life.

“The unique time period of 1,000 days leading up to a child’s second birthday is crucial to lay foundations for optimum health, growth and neurodevelopment that lasts a lifetime,” Minister Landry said.

“The Parent Link trial aims to pilot ways to build parenting skills and behaviours early on so we can explore better ways to support parents across Australia in the long-term.”

Parent Link is being trialled across three sites in Queensland – Rockhampton/Livingstone, Ipswich and Toowoomba until 31 December 2019. To access the service, parents and carers subscribe online before receiving free text messages tailored to their child’s development stage.

Local coordinator organisations in each trial region will also contribute to the service by offering a tailored training package to service providers involved with early childhood interactions.

“The aim is to build a learning network that is collaborative and can support parents across the board. Results of this trial will inform State and Territory governments about the efficiency of this approach.”

Parent Link is a Third Action initiative from the Australian Government’s overarching National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children 2009-2020.

To register for this service, visit www.dss.gov.au/parentlink.