A digital solution to address the mental health and psychosocial impacts of the pandemic for children and their parents in the first 2000 days

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Australian families with preschool/school children have been experiencing significant distress during the COVID-19 pandemic and it is estimated that 1,600,000 Australian families will experience financial hardship during the pandemic. The associated economic recession is resulting in widespread job losses and financial stress, adding further distress. An extra three quarters of a million children are now living in families experiencing employment stress with three suburbs from South West Sydney (SWS) in the top 10 communities impacted3 and marginalised families in rural communities have been further isolated as well. Parental mental health difficulties consequent to the pandemic will adversely impact children’s development and well-being. Specifically, families from priority populations such as from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) and rural/regional backgrounds are particularly at risk of poor health outcomes. This has been compounded by the closure of Child and Family Health Nurse (CFHN) services for in-person consultation which has substantially reduced access to resources for vulnerable families during the pandemic. The Watch Me Grow – Electronic (WMG-E) Platform is an innovative technology that will provide a unique opportunity to reach vulnerable families at their homes, critical during the current pandemic. WMG-E has been evaluated for child developmental monitoring and we now propose to expand this to screening and addressing parents’ mental health and unmet psychosocial needs (e.g. financial support, housing) - optimising the family’s wellbeing. We will use this "virtual care approach" to focus on a predominantly CALD community (Fairfield in SWSLHD) and a regional/rural area (Murrumbidgee LHD). We will utilise the opportunistic contact for routine CFHN checks to engage and empower parents (including those who would otherwise not engage with health services), normalise and de-stigmatise mental health and psychosocial screening, and provide urgent targeted interventions.