Helpline

• Carer Assistance Program
• Self-Referral
• Helpline

PCA Families Helpline is a free, independent and confidential service, offering short term support, practical information, advocacy and referrals to other services. 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. Several advisors also have firsthand lived experience of permanent care or adoption.

Our contact details can be found on the contact page.

How we can help

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 ‘gets it’ to help you plan a way forward.

Our Helpline offers support related to:

• Becoming a permanent care, adoptive or kinship care family,
• Building and maintaining relationships between you, your child/ren and their family/families of origin,
• Improving family dynamics and communication,
• Trauma-informed parenting, including developmental, behavioural and attachment challenges,
• Helping your child/ren with their life story, identity and cultural needs,
• Managing key transition points such as starting school or adolescence,
• Navigating government departments and systems,
• Finding suitably experienced allied health professionals,
• Understanding legal processes (though we cannot offer legal advice) and finding suitably experienced legal representation,
• Accessing suitable services when longer term support is needed
• Accessing our Carer Assistance Program (self-referral program) to improve the mental health and wellbeing of parents and carers (find out more here).

If you are seeking financial support, please refer to the Flexible Funding section.

A range of other fact sheets and resources are also available.

Privacy

PCA Families will seek consent from you to contact a third party about your circumstances unless there is an immediate risk of harm identified for a child, young person or another person. Any client information used for PCA Families reports will be de-identified to protect the identity of children and families.