Centre cuts fear

By Casey Neill
HILLS parents fear they will lose a crucial community link in a council plan to bolster a new hub.
Members of a mother’s group based at Sassafras Maternal and Child Health Centre (MCH) say Yarra Ranges Council has cut back opening hours over the past six months in a bid to drive parents to the new Monbulk Living and Learning Centre.
Sassafras MCH is now only open two days a week for nurse appointments – down from three, – has reduced operating hours, and will no longer host mother’s groups.
“I hope the shire’s not running down services, to then say they are not being used and have to close,” mother Natalie Taylor-Jones said.
“We value having a service that was only 10 minutes away.”
Yarra Ranges Council spokesman James Martin said the shire had no plans to close the centre.
“Sassafras and the new maternal and child health facility at the Monbulk Living and Learning Centre are being run as one centre with a nurse who covers both locations,” he said. “The change in service hours at the Sassafras centre reflects the demand for services there.”
Mr Martin said a new mother’s groups would be run from the Monbulk hub, “which provides state-of-the-art facilities and a wide range of family and children’s services.”
“However, if there is strong demand for a mother’s group to be run out of the Sassafras centre, council would be more than happy to consider it,” Mr Martin added.
But Ms Taylor-Jones said many new mums would not know a Sassafras group was available.
“If I had wanted to meet other mothers and babies in Monbulk, perhaps I should have moved there in the first place,” she said.
Ms Taylor-Jones moved to Mt Dandenong in February, a month before her son Spencer was born.
She was part of the final MCH centre mother’s group.
“I’m an English immigrant and I have no family in Australia,” she said.
“Without the Sassafras MCH centre, I would have been very isolated.
“I fear the scaling down on MCH on Mt Dandenong is part of a continual relocation of services away from the mountain, which will eventually be a ghost town during the week, until the tourist buses arrive at the weekends.”
Kalorama mum Alison Williams has a six-month-old child. The mother’s group has helped her tremendously.
“We have formed a strong connection which will likely support us through the kindergarten and primary school years of our child,” she said.
“This is the basis of forming strong connections in our local community.”
Karina Phillips has two children, aged four and nine months.
“When you’re busy with kids, it really doesn’t interest me to drive all the way to Monbulk,” she said.
Another mother’s group member, Fiona McNair, said residents on top of the mountain deserve local services.
“Without such support in my local community – two of my mother’s group members live within walking distance – I would have felt isolated and less inclined to seek support,” she said.
New Ferny Creek mum Jacqueline Walters agreed.
“I just don’t know what I would have done without it,” she said.