Supervised Contacts

The Sunshine Coast Family Contact Centre offers Facilitated Contact sessions for non-residential parents with their children.

Facilitated Contact is supervised under strict guidelines from the Centre Management Committee. The primary objective of the centre is to ensure the safety of the child, the empowerment of the parents and the child.

Conversations between the non-residential parent and the child are closely monitored by staff. If a conversation is taking a direction that the child is obviously not comfortable with, the staff will gently redirect the conversation to another direction, or suspend the contact session if parents fail to follow staff direction.

Physical interaction between non-residential parents and children are also closely monitored. Staff are informed of the basic family history and any specific issues they need to be aware of. Staff direct the children and parents in age appropriate play and activities, thereby, passively directing the parents for future contact, this enables the parent to plan activities for their children in advance increasing their confidence and skills in practical parenting methods.

Off Site Supervision

The Sunshine Coast Family Contact Centre offers Off Site Supervisions to all eligible families.

Off site supervised contact sessions enable children to leave the centre environs with their non-residential carer and with a trained supervisor in attendance. Children can walk to the beach, river, local shopping precinct or any facility within a specified distance of the centre. For safety reasons transportation in a car, taxi, bus or other mechanised forms of transport (including but not limited to bicycles, rollerblades, skateboards etc,) are not allowed during off site supervision.

Eligibility can be determined by court ordered arrangements, agreements between both parties or directed by the children involved. A family participating in the OSS program will usually have been having supervised contacts for a period of 3 months before the change is offered. Both parents are given a letter explaining what occurs during OSS, highlighting areas of common concern and focusing on the positive benefits for children.

Changeover

The Sunshine Coast Family Contact Centre ensures the smooth changeover of children between seperated parents.

Separate entrances and parking areas are provided for the residential carer and non-residential carer to avoid conflict during changeovers of children.

Staff will encourage parents to communicate with each other in a positive and effective manner with regards to their children's needs through the use of a communication book. This encourages parents/carers to move from facilitated contact arrangements to self managed contact as soon as practicable.

Changeover/Changeback at Harmony House may commence at the successful completion of Intake Interviews with both the residential carer and the non-residential carer.