Ready Steady Family

Active
Duration:

July 2019 – June 2026

Funding Amount:

$5,907,800

Locations

Brimbank

Hume

Melton

Merri-bek

Wyndham

Melbourne Macedon Ranges Yarra Moonee Valley Darebin Maribyrnong Hobsons Bay Wyndham Brimbank Moorabool Melton Hume Merri-bek

Overview

The Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care’s 2018 Needs Assessment Report indicated a low uptake of mental health referrals among new parents, despite the significant prevalence of mental health difficulties within the postnatal period. To address this, NWMPHN implemented an evidence-based service providing an appropriate level of support, based on need.

In 2019, NWMPHN commissioned Drummond Street Services to implement a program called Ready Steady Family (RSF). Based on the success of its initial iteration, it was re-commissioned and expanded in June 2023.

RSF is for parents in the antenatal and postnatal periods. It aims to enhance parental mental health and wellbeing, and prevent the onset, relapse or exacerbation of perinatal mental health difficulties during the transition to parenthood. The service prioritises culturally and linguistically diverse communities, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families, LGBTIQ+ families, refugee families and people with disability.

The program is a stepped-care model that provides tailored services based on specialised intake risk assessment with all parents and caregivers in each family. The family is allocated a brief, medium or intensive intervention. Each intervention is tailored to the family’s needs according to known evidence-informed wellbeing domains including mental health and wellbeing, connected family relationships, safe family environment, confident caring, material security and community connections.

A specialised screening tool utilised during the intake assessment is being widely promoted among primary health professionals in our region. The RSF team works with universal and specialist services (including GPs, midwives, maternal child health nurses, and mother-baby units in hospitals) to undertake ongoing risk screening and assessment throughout the antenatal and postnatal period.

Outcomes

As of July 2025:

  • 1008 clients engaged with this program for individual and family support since July 2019.
  • there have been more than 7,300 attendances (including babies) in group programs and information seminars.

Further outcomes expected for this activity are:

  • increased access to wellbeing and mental health services
  • increased family functioning
  • increased positive parent—child interactions
  • increased mental health wellbeing for parents and carers
  • improved coordination of services
  • workforce development for identifying and responding to mental health risk factors for new and expecting parents
  • improved capability for health professionals to provide quality care for people transitioning to parenthood
  • strengthened protective factors for health parenting, such as health partner and family connections and social connectedness.

In May 2024, DSS subcontracted Dadfit, to co-deliver the Dadfit program as part of the RSF dad’s and partner’s outreach. The RSF and Dadfit teams co-delivered multiple five-week community programs, that supports fathers’ mental and physical health, and builds parenting and relationship skills. Following the successful co-delivery of multiple sessions, NWMPHN expanded the partnership with additional funding, to better support men (who are new parents) from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, within the RSF program.

The expansion involved:

  • The extension of reach of the five-week Dadfit program, delivering programs supporting dads in Wyndham, Hume and Collingwood between January and June 2025.
  • The design and delivery of a new program element – Dads and Kids Sports Afternoons. The aim was to foster father-child connections.
  • The development and delivery of a new training program and resources for Dadfit facilitators and volunteer Dad Team Leaders.
  • A program evaluation led by Drummond Street Centre for Research and Evaluation.

Outcomes for this partnership include:

  • a total of six 5-week Dadfit programs delivered to 96 dads.
  • a total of six Dad and Kids Sports Afternoons with 100 dads and 127 children participating
  • development, and delivery of the facilitator training program to 10 Dadfit facilitators.

The Drummond Street Centre for Research and Evaluation, in collaboration with Dadfit, delivered an evaluation report in May 2025. The report demonstrated positive outcomes, with over 90% of dads reporting positive effects on their physical health, mental health, community connections, relationship with their child(ren) and relationship with their partner (co-parent). Additionally, the NWMPHN funded co-delivery of the Dadfit programs successfully reached culturally and linguistically diverse communities, with over 82% of participants born outside of Australia.

Page updated 7 August 2025.

Services involved