Best Practice » Narratives from the Field

Rainbows Program
A school health nurse initiative in the Armadale and Peel, Rockingham and Kwinana (P.A.R.K) regions

Rainbows – guiding kids through life’s storms.

The Rainbows program was developed in 1983 and had been run in Western Australia since 1988.  It is a program that provides facilitated peer support for grieving children and adolescents who have experienced divorce, separation, death or any other pain-filled transition within their family unit.

Within the Armadale and P.A.R.K regions several community health nurses have been trained to facilitate the program in local primary and secondary schools.  The primary goal of Rainbows is for the community health nurses to provide a safe, supportive environment for young people who are experiencing grief to express pain and confusion, build self esteem and learn effective coping strategies to deal with their loss.

This program has been very successful and is a great example of how facilitated peer support can minimise the potential risks of children who experience grief and be guided by the philosophical principles of primary health care.

For more information visit website at www.rainbows.org

Mary Benaim is the clinical nurse manager for Youth Health Team based at Mandurah Community Health Centre

Core of Life
Peel youth health nurses promote teenager’s knowledge of parenting and pregnancy

In line with the Health Promoting Schools Framework and Primary Health Care philosophy community health nurses in the Peel, Rockingham and Kwinana (P.A.R.K) regions are delivering an innovative and interactive program The Core of Life in secondary schools.

This program focuses on emerging attitudes towards teenage pregnancy, birth, breast feeding and parenting.  The overall aims of the program include providing young people with a solid foundation of knowledge and skills to plan for pregnancy, birth and parenting in the future and promote self-reliance in students in finding solutions for their questions about relationships, pregnancy, and life for teenage parents. The program includes the use of role-plays to build on young people’s problem solving skills and can be adjusted to differing cultural, linguistic and intellectual needs of the participants. It also encourages students to talk to their parents about the program as this generally provides an opportunity to discuss family values in relation to teenage sexuality and teenage pregnancy. 

Youth health nurse Liz Woolfenden presents the Core of Life Program to young students

For more information regarding the program visit www.coreoflife.org.au