Helpline
About Helpline
PCA Families Helpline is a free, independent and confidential service, offering short term support, practical information, advocacy and referrals to other services.
Who Can Use Helpline?
Helpline is available to permanent carers, kinship carers and adoptive families. Parenting children who have traumatic early life experiences and disrupted attachment can bring its own challenges and can often require a parenting response that is trauma informed.
Our Approach
Our approach is child-centred, family-focussed and trauma-informed. Our caring and supportive advisors have extensive experience working with families and children in need and or a first hand experience of care or adoption.
How Can Helpline Help You?
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PCA Families knows that parenting children who have experienced trauma, grief, loss, attachment issues, abuse and/or neglect can be difficult, and that many children require additional support to recover, heal and thrive. We understand that systems can be tricky to navigate, and that sometimes you need to speak to someone who understands.
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Our Helpline offers support in the form of information, advice and referrals related to:
- Becoming a permanent care, adoptive or kinship care family
- Building and maintaining relationships between you, your child and your child's family of origin
- Parenting children with early childhood trauma, including developmental, behavioural or attachment challenges, communication and family dynamics
- Managing key transition points such as starting school or adolescence, including trauma resources to share at home or at school
- Helping your child with their life story, identity and cultural needs
- Finding suitably experienced allied health professional resources Support with navigating government departments and systems
- Assisting with queries regarding Department of Families Fairness and Housing (DFFH) carer payments or Additional Child Care Subsidy (ACCS) payments, and where to get help Information and advice regarding where to access other community supports
- Understanding your legal requirements (we cannot offer legal advice) Identifying pathways to access legal documents (such as passports) or to find legal representation
- Access personal carer support (for example our Carer Assistance Program here)
- Access funding to support ongoing care and respite needs where other sources of funding have been exhausted or don't exist. For example, therapeutic, educational, medical or other needs (find out more here)
- Link you to peer support pathways, offering education through sharing (find out more here)
- Information and referral to programs like housing and private rental as children age out of care (find out more here)
Access our flyer about Helpline here
Operating Hours
Helpline is available 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday, excluding public holidays. Contact can be made by phone or email, including after hours where you can leave a message that will be responded to within 2 business days.
Contact Details
Phone 03 9020 1833 Email
