Watch Me Grow continues to expand

Watch Me Grow is another highly successful program that started with SPHERE funding.

Watch Me Grow is a novel digital application which helps to identify children with developmental difficulties. Initially funded by SPHERE and Early Life Determinants of Health (ELDoH) Clinical Academic Group, the program was developed with a view of ‘going to where the children go’ to empower parents to engage in the developmental monitoring of their children.

Understanding that more than 95% of children receive vaccination in the preschool period, the project led by Professor Valsamma Eapen (p.9) aims to engage parents in the GP waiting room during vaccination or other routine health visits. Parents complete a developmental checklist as recommended in the ‘blue book’ via the Watch Me Grow web link accessed through a QR code.

If a parent’s response to the checklist raises any red flags, the application’s algorithm automatically recommends further assessments and the GP (or another health professional as applicable) is simultaneously notified of these concerns which can then be addressed during the consultation. The program has been shown to be feasible, accessible and effective.

To ensure that parents were still able to access developmental checks during the COVID period when clinics were closed, the web link was provided to families at their homes and communities through their existing service providers (e.g. primary care, state child and family health nursing, multicultural or supported playgroups, NGOs, child care centres and preschools, Aboriginal Medical Services).

With increasing mental health concerns resulting from COVID-19 lockdowns, Prof Eapen’s team knew this new iteration of Watch Me Grow needed to screen for parental mental health and family social needs in addition to providing the child developmental checklist. With funding from NSW Health COVID-19 grant, the project has been expanded to the multicultural Fairfield community and the regional/rural community of Murrumbidgee where 15% of the participants were from the Aboriginal background. The program has shown that there was better engagement and access of services in the intervention group.

Watch Me Grow is expanding and with her latest Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) grant, Prof Eapen and her team are scaling up the project across three sites covering multicultural (Fairfield, NSW), regional/rural/Aboriginal (Taree, NSW) and low socio-economic (Wanneroo in WA) communities for not only early identification but also a tiered care response based on needs.

An NHMRC partnership grant with NSW Health, Queensland Health and PHNs is helping to fine-tune the GPto-state service care pathway from identification to linkage with service providers. Further, an ARC Linkage grant is evaluating the role of ‘one stop shop’ First 2000 days place-based hubs and service navigation in assisting families to receive services in an integrated way.

The program was recommended by Australian Health Research Alliance as one of 10 programs of impact nationally.