How to get dads involved

Thursday 22 September 2005

Picture this - A few burly blokes hanging around the barbie, cold beer in hand, talking about the usual things - footy, cars, breastfeeding…

The Family Action Centre at the University of Newcastle will host the Father-Inclusive Practice Forum next week bringing together practitioners, researchers and policy advisors together to examine how family services can make this picture a reality.

Richard Fletcher, from the University's Engaging Fathers Program, says the forum will showcase best practice in father-friendly services and develop a national framework to guide all early intervention services in becoming father-inclusive.

"The forum is a response to two developments," says Richard. "Firstly, evidence is now clear that positive father involvement benefits children's development from day one. The second change is that we now all expect fathers to be involved."

"Mothers and fathers want this, as do the staff at the hospitals, schools and créches where families get their support. The problem isn't that people do not want dads to be involved, the problem is how to make it a reality."

This forum will target the services supporting families and will ask: What skills does a midwife need to engage dad in the discussion of breastfeeding? What does a child care worker need to know about fathers to talk to him about his child's progress? How can teachers include dads in homework? If you want to run a group for fathers, what training do you need and do you have to be male?

Keynote speakers include:

• Professor Colin Binns, Professor of Public Health at Curtin University of Technology, who has written Australia's national guidelines on infant feeding and is a world leader in research on breastfeeding. He will present the evidence of father's influence on women's breastfeeding decisions.
• Professor Trevor Cairney, Master of New College at the University of New South Wales and a leading researcher in family literacy will outline the evidence showing that if schools wish to improve the literacy levels in the classrooms, then getting dads on board is an obvious step. At the conclusion of the Forum the National Framework For Father-Inclusive Practice will be available online for all services to use.

The Father-Inclusive Practice Forum will be held at the University of Newcastle on Wednesday 5 and Thursday 6 October 2005 with support from the Commonwealth Department of Family and Community Services.

For interviews: Richard Fletcher on (02) 4921 6401.