The award winning developmental screening program Healthy Kids Bus Stop makes regular visits to Murrumbidgee Local Health District and last week reached a major milestone, with the 1000th child screened in the District since visits began in 2015.

The Healthy Kids Bus Stop aims to improve the health and wellbeing of children aged three to five years living in rural and remote communities through early detection of lifestyle risk factors, delayed development and/or illness.

Royal Far West’s Community Programs Manager John Reid said this was a wonderful milestone. The Murrumbidgee Local Health District have been strong partners, working together across a large geographic region to deliver this important screening facility for young children.

Health checks are delivered by Royal Far West, in partnership with Murrumbidgee Local Health District, Ronald McDonald House Charities, local Councils and schools.

Manager Healthy Children and Families for Murrumbidgee Local Health District Nicole Myers said Murrumbidgee was very lucky to have a partnership with Royal Far West, as well as other partner agencies such as The Sheppard Centre and Intereach.

“We’ve had the Healthy Kids Bus Stop visiting MLHD since 2015 and in that time we have been able to provide over 1000 children in smaller communities with the opportunity to access a whole range of health screenings and information services all in the one visit,” she said.

“It’s also a wonderful chance for all of our clinicians to come together as a multi disciplinary team. They spend a lot of time working all alone out in their communities so this is a great chance to come together and learn from each other.

“In the afternoons after we’ve seen all the kids we sit down together and share our knowledge and expertise together about where we can refer these kids on to that will best suit them. Having that expertise from Royal Far West is just invaluable for our allied health teams locally to help build their skills base.

“Often their work is more focused on adults so having those RFW staff in a mentoring role means that in future if they have a complex situation to manage with a child they have that network available and can ‘phone a friend’ for support.

“It’s a really nice collaboration, just to come together and do the best we can for our children who don’t always have access to a lot of services.”

Identifying children’s developmental issues before they start school is critical to their life trajectory and the Healthy Kids Bus Stop program helps identify children who will benefit from extra support and early intervention to maximise their opportunities at school.

The program is designed to be fun and interactive, with children progressing through bus stops or ‘health stations’, hopping on and off at each station in order to complete their health assessment. Between health stations, children are engaged in play while parents and carers are given the opportunity to consult further with the multidisciplinary team of health professionals and collect health promotion materials.

A general Child Health Check is also included, which assesses a child’s immunisation status and developmental milestones.

The Healthy Kids Bus Stop is an integrated ‘whole of child’ health and developmental assessment and pathway-to-care program.

The comprehensive health stations include screening and assessment for oral health, vision, hearing, food and nutrition, language and speech development, and fine and gross motor skill development.

Children requiring further assessment will be referred to appropriate local services and those with complex needs may also be referred to Royal Far West’s Paediatric Developmental Program.

More information about Bus Stop locations is available at www.royalfarwest.org.au, or by calling 02 8966 8557 for more information.

To help support children in rural and remote areas of Australia, call 1800 500 061 or go to the website www.royalfarwest.org.au

This article appeared in the Narrandera Argus, 9 June 2022.