Lifestyle health of young people living in out-of-home care

Healthy Eating Active Living (HEALing) Matters Program

Many young people living in out-of-home care (OOHC), who have been removed from their biological parents, have experienced some form of abuse or neglect, family violence or parental substance abuse prior to entering OOHC. Young people in OOHC generally experience poorer health, social, educational and financial outcomes than young people not living in care.

HEALing Matters was the focus of Dr Rachael Green’s PhD thesis and has grown to become a Victorian Government funded online training package and knowledge exchange platform for OOHC residential workers and carers. The program was co-designed by Dr Green and Professor Helen Skouteris in partnership with key stakeholders, including end-users and young people with a lived experience of residential OOHC.

Its primary aim is to improve the eating and physical activity habits, as well as the wellbeing and life skills, of young people living in residential OOHC. HEALing Matters contributes to social and economic impact by reducing inequalities and promoting increased inclusion and health equity. Giving voice to young people and carers in the design and evaluation of HEALing Matters also empowers the community to take action and make meaningful changes to their social and physical environments.

The residential care workforce benefits from participation in HEALing Matters through capacity building that enables them to improve the lifestyle habits/routines of the young people they care for, helping them deliver on mandated requirements around healthy food and access to physical activity.

Dr Emma Galvin is project managing and leading the large-scale implementation and scale up of HEALing Matters across Victoria in partnership with the Victorian Department of Health, the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing, and community service organisations. HEALing Matters is a key therapeutic model in both the KEYS Residential Care Program Guidelines and Two and Three Bed Therapeutic Residential Care Program Guidelines in Victoria. HEALing Matters has also been implemented across the Department for Child Protection, South Australia. Dr Galvin is supported by research assistants Kostas Hatzikiriakidis and Luke Patitsas.

International HEALing Matters Alliance

Professor Helen Skouteris, Dr Rachael Green, Dr Heidi Bergmeier, and Dr Alex Chung have established an International HEALing Matters Alliance: Nurturing Children's Growth and Development through Healthy Eating and Physical Activity with a focus on reducing health inequities.

This Alliance is aligned with the WHO Nurturing Care Framework for Child Development, whereby policies and programmes must better address the nurturing of child development (especially in the first 2000 days) to give all children the best start to life.

This Alliance is also aligned with, and an extension of, work Prof Skouteris and Dr Chung began at the Salzburg Global Seminar 'Halting the Childhood Obesity Epidemic' (December 2019) and this published paper on reframing the early childhood obesity prevention narrative through and equitable nurturing approach.

The Alliance was formed in 2021 and will form a shared vision and priorities, commencing with a co-authored international advocacy paper focusing on: “Why nurturing children’s growth through healthy eating and active living matters to reduce health inequities and why policy and advocacy in this context matters”.

The Alliance brings together a group of academics and practitioners from across the globe, seeking to address health inequities for children and their families. The goal of the Alliance is “to ensure that all families are free from structural inequality and oppression and are empowered to nurture their children's growth and development through healthy eating and physical activity within the context of responsive emotional support, safety and security, and opportunities for early learning”. To achieve this goal, the Alliance has recommended a number of priority areas for action: address structural racism; promote a life-course approach though coordinated action; involve multiple sectors and breakdown siloes; support at-risk families; enable collective action through co-design; embed effective governance to ensure sustainability; seek systems change through implementation science principles; promote nurturing care through supportive polices and build public awareness. Further information about the International HEALing Matters Alliance and their recommendations can be read in this paper published in the journal, Health and Social Care in the Community.

Alliance members

The Transition from Care Linkage Project

The Transition from Care Linkage Project is a three-year research project funded by the Australian Research Council (LP210300791). The project is a collaboration between Monash University, the Department of Families Fairness and Housing, Anglicare Victoria, MacKillop Family Services, Baptcare, VACCA, and the Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare. All partners share a mission to enhance support for young people in out-of-home care (OOHC) during their transition to adulthood.

It was well established that young people in OOHC face poorer health, education, and social outcomes compared to their peers due to diverse experiences of neglect, abuse, and trauma. It is also recognised that once young people leave care, their experiences of social, health, financial and wellbeing inequity continues. As a result, young people with OOHC histories have an increased likelihood of justice system involvement, early pregnancy, social exclusion, mental and physical health problems, homelessness, addiction, and intergenerational child protection involvement.

This project aims to improve transition planning and post-care outcomes for young people by developing a world-first longitudinal data evidence base, identifying best practices, and disseminating what works to improve transition pathways with, by, and for young people.

Professor Helen Skouteris and Professor Philip Mendes are the Chief Investigators on this project and are supported by Dr Danielle Newton (Research Fellow), Sofia Grage-Moore (Research Assistant) and Hayley Wainwright (Project Manager).

The research will deliver on the aims through the five key objectives below:

1. Investigate how transition from care plans are completed by partner organisations to foster active agency in young people to plan and prepare for their own future.
2. Identify best practices for preparing 15–17-year-old people to transition from OOHC and examine how these innovations shape outcomes for young people aligned with the six recommendations made by the Commission for Children and Young People to help young people in OOHC to plan and prepare for their future.
3. Identify best practices for preparing 15–17-year-old people for the life domains of housing, employment, financial security, and life skills; and ensuring family, community and cultural connections, and cultural identity, are fostered and supported for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people transitioning to adulthood.
4. Develop guidance to advance the application of these transition pathways and plans to policies and programs with a specific focus on Victoria which recently became the first Australian jurisdiction to extend care until 21 years of age.
5. Disseminate translation lessons that are generalisable nationally.