Dalmar Out of Home Care Services
Out of Home Care is provided to children and young people who are unable to live with their families for a variety of reasons such as family breakdown, illness, or exposure to abuse and neglect.
Wesley Dalmar Out of Home Care is accredited by the Office of the Children’s Guardian as a designated agency under the provisions of the Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1988. Wesley Dalmar is funded by the Department of Community Services to provide Out of Home Care services.
The Out of Home Care Services provided by Wesley Dalmar include:
- Foster Care
- Residential Care
- Respite Care
- Keeping Connected
- Aftercare for people who have lived in Out of Home Care
Foster Care
Out of Home Care is frequently known as ‘foster care’. Foster carers are welcoming people who provide a safe and caring environment in their own home for children between the ages of 0 and 18 years, who are in need of family care. Authorised (foster) Carers are people who truly make a difference to the life of a child and by doing this contribute to the well being of the community as a whole.
Related link: Becoming a Foster Carer
Short term Care:
Children are placed with a foster family for a brief period from overnight to a few months. Short term care may be a response to family crisis such as the hospitalisation of a parent. At other times the child may be in short term care whilst the court considers the long term needs of the child. Short term care may result in restoring the child to the family or seeking a long term foster family placement.
Long term Care:
In this program we work with foster families who have offered to care for a child until that child chooses to move on. This may involve providing a home until the child is between 15 and 25 years old.
Respite Program:
Offers weekend care to families in crisis in an attempt to prevent their children coming into Out of Home Care in the future. This is a preventative program where children are placed with the same foster family for one weekend a month. This provides a break for stressed parents, it may relieve a sense of isolation and provides a child with a different model of parenting.
Where are the Foster Care Programs located?
Foster Care programs are provided through the following services.
If you live within an hour’s travel time of one of these offices, we are interested in talking to you about fostering with us.
Castle Hill Out of Home Care
Telephone: 9899 5555
Referrals may come from any Department of Community Services office but most frequently come from the offices in Parramatta, Auburn and Blacktown.
Penrith Out of Home Care
Telephone: 4731 4600
The Penrith Out of Home Care team operates in the Hawkesbury and Nepean local government areas.
Central Coast Out of Home Care
Telephone: 4352 3721
Residential Care
Wesley Dalmar operates an Out of Home Care Residential facility, called Gateway Cottage. The residential cottage provides short term or crisis care for children and young people aged 8 to 15 years. Referrals must come through the Department of Community Services.
Children and young people may stay at Gateway Cottage for up to 3 months. The cottage provides a safe and caring home while longer term care plans are considered.
Gateway Cottage provides care for children and young people who are unable to live at home as a result of exposure to abuse and neglect. Frequently the children are angry, confused and distrustful of people, particularly adults. They may respond to their difficult situation with violent, aggressive behaviours or they may withdraw in despair.
What are the aims of the Residential Cottages?
Wesley Dalmar Out of Home Care care services aim to provide a warm and secure environment where children and young people who are away from their homes can be supported by skilled and caring staff and assisted to learn new skills, such as anger management strategies and social skills practice.
We achieve this by providing the best possible day-to-day care and support by:
- Creating a positive and consistent routine in a relaxed environment. This helps the children gain some control over their lives.
- Providing emotional support and guidance
- Spending quality time - fun time - with residents
- Using Therapeutic Crisis Intervention strategies to address aggressive or distressing behaviour, providing the children with opportunities to gain new insight and understanding of their behaviour so they can regain control.
These aims are achieved by providing:
- Assistance to the children and young people to understand the routines of the cottage, participate in weekly house meetings, setting limits and consequences, resolving conflicts, and encouraging participation in cottage activities such as trampoline, board games, TV, arts and crafts, and bike riding. Children are expected to attend school or have an alternative daytime program in place during school term time. A special activity program is offered during school holidays.
- Providing feedback to the Department of Community Services regarding the child's development, and the development and implementation of care plans.
- The cottages are staffed by trained personnel: As required, there are one or two staff present during the day whenever children are on site; one staff member sleeps over each night and 24 hour telephone After Hours support is provided for staff.
Contact Gateway Cottage
Gateway
Telephone: 02 9569 9546
The Gateway residential unit provides crisis care for up to 6 children aged 8–15 years. Referrals come from the Department of Community Services Metro Central or from the DoCS Helpline.
Keeping Connected Program
Keeping children who are in care connected with their birth families is an essential part of Out of Home Care. One of the main goals of foster care is to maintain contact between children and their birth families. Research shows that children who maintain regular contact with their families do better in foster care than those who lose that connection.
Each child or young person in care has an individual case plan. Maintaining regular contact with family, friends and cultural community is an important part of all case plans. Regular visits are scheduled wherever possible and birth families are kept informed of their child’s progress.
The Keeping Connected Program provides a structured approach to this by arranging regular supervised contacts that are safe for the child and promote positive experiences of interaction with their family.
Keeping Connected believes that contact visits should be pleasant events for all concerned and that through sensitive planning and supervision, we can give parents and children alike a great experience.
The service provides trained supervisory workers to transport and supervise contact visits. Services are provided in a neutral place with supervision by staff who are carefully matched to the situation and who are focussed on the success of the visit.
Keeping Connected offers:
- Visiting times and activities suitable for the child and family
- Safe environments
- Reliable transport
- Reports back to the case worker
Wesley Dalmar is an approved provider of this service to the Department of Community Services. The service is provided on a fee-for-service basis. Referrals are accepted from Metropolitan Sydney (managed through the Castle Hill office) and the Central Coast office.
Where is Keeping Connected located?
Castle Hill Out of Home Care
284 Old Northern Road
PO Box 462 Castle Hill NSW 2154
Telephone: 9899 5555
Central Coast Out of Home Care
Unit 3/13 Anzac Road
PO Box 3516 Tuggerah NSW 2259
Telephone: 4352 3721
