Services
ABOUT OUR
SERVICES
HEALTH IS MORE THAN JUST NOT BEING SICK
Health is more than just not being sick. It is about feeling good physically and mentally, being connected to culture and not being addicted to harmful substances (e.g. smoking, drugs or alcohol).
When someone comes to Eleanor Duncan, we work with them to address their physical, spiritual, emotional, social, economic and cultural needs.
To do this, we have our Health Services and Community Programs. Our Health Services treat the physical wellbeing of our clients, while our Community Programs support clients to access primary care and empower them to live happy and healthy lives.
OUR SERVICES
Eleanor Duncan Aboriginal Services’ highly trained, professional staff has been providing health care to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people on the Central Coast for more than 20 years.
Eleanor Duncan provides comprehensive primary care to patients, including:
Eleanor Duncan
Medical
Gulgul Yira
Dental
Dhanggan Gudjagang
Maternal, Child & Family
Buridjga & Maliga
Youth Services - Safer Families
Muru Bara
NDIS Ability
Services
Buridjga Youth Program
Targeted Earlier Intervention
Muru Bara
NDIS Ability
Services
Ngaliya
Permanency Support & Family Preservation
Aboriginal Together Home Program
Homelessness
Ma-Guwag
Suicide Prevention
Yadhaba
Wellbeing Services
Gurayi-Biyn Yadha
ITC Chronic Disease
Ngaliya
Permanency Support & Family Preservation
Aboriginal Together Home Program
Homelessness
Ma-Guwag
Suicide Prevention
Yadhaba
Wellbeing Services
Gurayi-Biyn Yadha
ITC Chronic Disease
CULTURALLY SAFE ENVIRONMENT
Eleanor Duncan provides a culturally safe and appropriate environment for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to access health care and support workers.
Call us today to discuss how we can best support you on (02) 4351 1040.
ELEANOR DUNCAN
ABORIGINAL HEALTH CENTRE
Eleanor Duncan Aboriginal Health Centre aims to deliver culturally responsive integrated primary health care services to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community living on Darkinjung Country.
Our Medical Services team includes:
- General Practitioners
- Primary Health Care Nurses
- Treatment of Acute Illnesses
- Management of Chronic Conditions
- Social & Emotional Intervention & Referrals
- Smoking Cessation
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Referrals to:
Podiatry, Dietetics, Diabetes, Education Optometry, Speech Pathology, Physiotherapy, Pathology, Endocrinology, Paediatric Care, Psychiatry, Psychology & other Yerin Eleanor Duncan Aboriginal Health Service Programs.
Appointments
Eleanor Duncan Aboriginal Health Centre Wyong Practice is open Monday to Friday 8:30am – 5:00pm. We are closed on weekends. You can obtain an appointment by phoning reception on (02) 4351 1040 or 1800 493 746 (free call).
Eleanor Duncan Aboriginal Health Centre Umina Practice is open for medical appointments on Wednesdays only between 8:30am – 4:30pm and alternate Fridays between 09:00am – 05:00pm. The Umina Practice is located at 4 Berith Street, Umina Beach.
For your convenience, Eleanor Duncan Aboriginal Health Centre offers both male and female doctors. Walk in appointments are not available – you are required to pre-book your appointment.
Your Health Information
Eleanor Duncan Aboriginal Health Centre is committed to maintaining the security of your personal health information at all times to ensure that this information is only available to authorised personnel.
Your medical records are confidential. All staff at Yerin Eleanor Duncan respect the privacy and confidentiality of your health information. We have a comprehensive policy about the management of your personal health information available here. Please visit our friendly medical reception team if you require a copy of this policy.
- Bulk Billing Available
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For after hours, please call
13SICK (National Home Doctors)
- Bulk Billing Available
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For after hours, please call
13SICK (National Home Doctors)
GULGUL YIRA
DENTAL
Eleanor Duncan Dental Service, partner with Central Coast Local Health District Oral Health Services, provide a five-day dental service to community, under the Aboriginal Community Controlled model.
Yerin Eleanor Duncan Dental Service provides a range of oral health services, including:
Preventive Dental
Extractions
Root Canal Therapy on Anterior Teeth
Restorations
Dentures
Referrals for some Wisdom Teeth Extractions Externally
Eleanor Duncan Dental Service also provides weekly Allied Health Clinics, including Podiatry and Optometry.
Eligible recipients must:
- Be Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander or;
- Be non-Aboriginal with an immediate family member who is Aboriginal and is a current client of Yerin EDAHC that has also had a health check done by our GPs
- Have had a 715 Aboriginal Health Check within the past 12 months (either from Yerin or another GP)
Please contact Eleanor Duncan Dental Service on (02) 4350 0222
DHANGGAN GUDJAGANG
MATERNAL, CHILD & FAMILY
At Eleanor Duncan, we want to make sure our kids get the best start in life and that they are being born into happy, healthy families. The Dhanggan Gudjagang Team believes every mother and baby deserves a positive birth and parenting experience and supports clients in accessing comfortable, culturally safe services.
The Dhanggan Gudjagang Team provides:
- A culturally safe and nurturing space supported by Yerin Eleanor Duncan’s Dhanggan Gudjagang team
- Pregnancy care and education
- Cultural and parenting care plans
- Culturally appropriate resources
- Gulgul-ba Women’s Group
- Hospital visit after baby’s birth
- Postnatal care: including home visits for you and baby from your Midwife and Aboriginal Health Worker
- Child Health Nurse and Aboriginal Health Worker for babies from six weeks to eights years of age
- Mum’s, Dad’s and baby’s yearly Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander 715 Health Assessment
- Celebrating our Dhanggan’s (Mother’s) and Gudjagang’s (Baby’s) on Darkinjung Country events
- Support to clients and families who are at risk of experiencing domestic and family violence
The team also provides support to clients and families who are at risk of or experiencing domestic and family violence.
BURIDJGA YOUTH PROGRAM
TARGETED EARLIER INTERVENTION (TEI)
The Buridjga Youth Program provides support to high risk, vulnerable Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people, aged between 12 to 24 living on the Central Coast, Darkinjung Country. The program delivers services in five key support areas of:
- Intake and assessment
- Family capacity building
- Providing information, advice, and referral pathways
- Providing education and skills training advice
- Specialist support access and referrals
The Buridjga Youth Team delivers individual case management, youth groups, on country cultural experiences, assertive outreach via regular home visits, mentoring, school based engagement, cultural support, whole of family engagement, support to access GP’s for 715 health checks and referrals to psychological services.
Clients can self-refer or be referred by school staff, support services, family members, justice services, health services or police via the online referral pathway on Yerin’s website.
For further information please contact the Team Leader – Youth and Family on (02) 4351 1040.
MALIGA SAFER FAMILIES
Maliga 'Shine' in Darkinjung Language
The program aims to improve child and family wellbeing, parenting and educational outcomes, whilst encouraging role modelling of positive behaviours, healthy lifestyle and education choices and safety in the home.
The program will support strong, healthy and resilient individuals, families and communities, which in turn may enhance pathways to education and employment and reduce substance abuse, violence and contact with the criminal justice system.
The Maliga Safer FamilIes Team provides:
- A culturally safe and nurturing space supported by Eleanor Duncan’s Maliga Safer Families team
- Case coordination
- Referrals and advocacy
- Culturally appropriate resources
- Access to social groups
- Support for children in schools
- Home visiting
- Support to clients and families who are at risk of experiencing domestic and family violence
Eligibility:
- Family is Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander
- Family has school aged children/young people residing in the household (preschool, primary, secondary)
- Family must reside on the southern end of the Central Coast in postcode areas 2256 or 2257
- Family are unable to access support networks due to vulnerability and/or hardship
MURA BARA
NDIS ABILITY SERVICES
Yerin Eleanor Duncan Aboriginal Health SERVICES is a registered NDIS Provider
Our Muru Bara (‘Making Pathways’ in Darkinjung language) provides culturally responsive disability support under the National Disability Insurance Scheme to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living on Darkinjung Country.
As the first step in your NDIS journey, we encourage you to check your eligibility on the NDIS website by clicking here. If you think you meet the eligibility requirements, or you are not sure, please call us on (02) 4351 1040. If you already have an NDIS plan and are in need of our services, please use our NDIS online referral pathway. Alternatively, you can call and speak with an NDIS team member.
Respite
In February 2021 Eleanor Duncan became a registered Voluntary Out-of-Home Care provider, completing all necessary registration compliance as per the NSW Office of the Children’s Guardian.
Our Voluntary Out-of-Home Care program plays an important role in caring for some of our most vulnerable children and provides much needed respite and support for families caring for children with complex needs. Children with disability and complex care needs often require additional supports and rely on the commitment of Eleanor Duncan providing safe, skilled, and caring adults to meet their needs.
Voluntary Out-of-Home Care is arranged by a parent of a child/ren (i.e., a person who has parental responsibility for the child), or a person authorised by the parent to act on their behalf with an organisation like Eleanor Duncan.
Eleanor Duncan is a designated agency (accredited by the NSW Children’s Guardian to provide statutory care) registered by the Children’s Guardian to provide, arrange, or supervise VOOHC. We do this by providing supports to our children aged 7 to 13 years, with or without a disability, providing short term respite. Delivering overnight centre-based care at Eleanor Duncan’s beautiful home located at Woongarrah.
NGALIYA
FAMILY PRESERVATION
Through our Permanency Support Program – Family Preservation Program, Eleanor Duncan is committed to supporting Aboriginal children and young people to safely remain living with their parents. This program aims to support families as well as provide support and healing for those who have been adversely affected. Our practices are informed by an understanding of personal and intergenerational trauma and seeks to holistically address individual, and community needs from a culturally responsive framework.
Eleanor Duncan seeks to keep families together and preserve culture. We believe that community and cultural connection is an essential part of remediating past and current struggles and for building strong and positive futures for Aboriginal children, young people, and their families.
The Family Preservation team works with families who currently have an open child protection case with the Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ). The team can work with the family for up to 2 years to provide wrap around support services to increase safety and decrease the risk of harm through:
- Family and parenting support, including family relationship counselling, parenting skills and in-home practical support.
- Child focused support, including counselling or psychological services according to the level of identified need, services to address health need, educational and learning assistance.
- Safety monitoring and assessments, including joint home visits with DCJ caseworkers
- Risk mitigation, including referral to targeted services to address risk factors such as domestic and family violence services, mental health or drug and alcohol services.
Please note clients cannot self-refer to the program and can only be referred by the Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ).
Please contact Eleanor Duncan on (02) 4351 1040 for further information.
NGALIYA
PERMANENCY SUPPORT
Through our Ngaliya Permanency Support Program, Eleanor Duncan is committed to supporting Aboriginal children and young people who are unable to live with their parents. This program aims to support families as well as provide support and healing for those who have been adversely affected. Our practices are informed by an understanding of personal and intergenerational trauma and seeks to holistically address individual and community needs from a culturally responsive framework.
Eleanor Duncan seeks to keep families together and preserve culture. We believe that community and cultural connection is an essential part of remediating past and current struggles and for building strong and positive futures for Aboriginal children, young people and their families. We know that past government and social policies and practices have contributed to an over-representation of Aboriginal children, young people and families in welfare and state care-reliant programs. The lived experience of the Stolen Generations is reverberating for us, and we strive to not let history be repeated.
PROVIDING CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE CARE ARRANGEMENTS
Typically, a respite placement is between 2 and 28 days.
A child or young person may need a carer for one weekend or during school holidays.
It is designed to assist in supporting full-time carers.
Short to medium term care can range from caring for a child or young person overnight, to up to a year. After this period of time, the child or young person may return back to living with their family, kinship or move into a long-term care arrangement.
This type of care can be required because of family emergency or crisis where families have voluntarily sought assistance, however, the most common reason is due to Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) intervention; a child/young person is removed from their parents care due to ongoing safety and wellbeing of the child/young person that has been compromised.
Long term care is provided to children who can no longer live with their birth parents and DCJ has assessed all family options and feel that it is in the best interest of the child to remain in care up until the age of 18.
At any stage throughout the long term order, a birth parent can take the matter back to court if they can demonstrate they have the capacity to commence caring for their child again.
For Aboriginal people, adoption and guardianship remain culturally contentious for most permanency decisions for Aboriginal children and young people. Eleanor Duncan supports the AbSec Statement on Guardianship orders for Aboriginal children and young people.
It is recognised that fostering has become increasingly demanding and complex. Eleanor Duncan is committed to providing high quality training and support for foster carers and view training as mandatory.
We are always looking for Aboriginal foster carers, for our children and young people (Gudjagangs). When we don’t have enough good Aboriginal carers, our children and young people are placed with carers from other backgrounds.
We are looking for foster carers who:
- Are dedicated to maintaining and supporting children and young people’s connections to country, community, family and culture;
- Have deep understanding that looking after and guiding children from another family is different from looking after your own children;
- Genuinely like and enjoy children and young people and can remain enthusiastic about them, even when times get tough or they’re being difficult;
- Appreciate and acknowledge that fostering will have an impact on your own children and wider family;
- Do not expect children to be grateful for the care you show or demonstrate through your actions;
- Can understand that a child may lie, steal or display sexualised behaviour;
- Can accept that a fostered child or young person may take some time to adjust and respond to the care you offer and;
- Understand that trauma experienced by children and young people is why they behave certain ways that are sometimes difficult to understand.
If you’re interested in becoming a foster carer for Yerin Eleanor Duncan, please call (02) 4351 1040 or click here.
How we support our carers:
Eleanor Duncan values the work foster carers do and the unconditional contribution they make to the lives of the children and young people in their care. It is of paramount importance that appropriate support for the families who foster is provided, and our care team will work hard to maximise these supports.
As an Eleanor Duncan carer, you will be linked with one caseworker who will work alongside you on any given placement. The caseworker will work in partnership with you to ensure that the child/young person’s needs are met whilst in your care and that you are supported to carry out the day-to-day requirements.
The focus of Eleanor Duncan’s practice is to support families to prevent children and young people entering care and where this is not possible, to work to restore children and young people to their families. Where longer-term care is needed, Eleanor Duncan will work to identify the best possible outcomes in line with the Aboriginal Placement Principles and Permanent Placement Principles that support children and young people being connected to family, community, culture and country.
ABORIGINAL TOGETHER HOME PROGRAM
HOMELESSNESS SERVICES
Aboriginal Together Home Program provides intensive case management to support Aboriginal people who have a history of long term homelessness into stable accommodation. Intensive wrap around support is provided to participants for up to 2 years. Eleanor Duncan is working in partnership Compass Housing Services to provide long-term social housing for our community engaged in the program. The Aboriginal Together Home Program aims to:
- Rapidly rehouse people who are street sleeping or have a history of long term homelessness,
- Provide access to culturally appropriate health, mental health, and wellbeing services,
- Rebuild family, community, and cultural connections,
- Support the development of daily living and self-management skills,
- Facilitate engagement with positive structures activities such as social groups education and/or employment.
Eligibility:
- Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people who reside on the Central Coast, Darkinjung Country.
- Client is 18 years of age or above.
- Client is currently street sleeping or has a history of long term homelessness, street/rough sleeping.
- Approved or eligible for priority housing using the Application for Housing Assistance (AHA).
- Client has an income within the social income eligibility limits / or can be supported to access income.
Please note clients cannot self-refer to the program and will need to be referred by a support agency, Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) or a Specialist Homelessness Services (SHS) agency.
Please contact Yerin Eleanor Duncan on (02) 4351 1040 for further information.
MA-GUWAG
SUICIDE PREVENTION
Our Suicide Prevention Program, Ma-Guwag (‘hey, take care’ in Darkinjung language), focuses on suicide prevention and mental wellness, and provides targeted and culturally responsive community awareness and help seeking behaviours.
Our Suicide Prevention Team works collectively with all Eleanor Duncan programs, in a transdisciplinary framework, to provide programs that work towards building resilience and help seeking behaviours through education and preventative interventions. Collectively, we can work towards healing from our trauma and reducing loss due to suicide in our communities.
Services include:
- Yarning groups
- Support accessing Yerin Eleanor Duncan programs
- Support to self-assess mental health
- Access to cultural activities
- Access to wellbeing groups, including BetterFit
- Men's and Women's Groups
- Increased access to information and resources, including external after hours crisis services
- Support activities and group sessions to build resilience and safe networks
- Support in seeking additional health and wellbeing services
There are many reasons why people think about ending their lives – some of the common experiences include:
- Being abused, bullied or isolated from family and friends
- Significant loss (such as a child, life partner, community member)
- Major life stresses (relationship breakdown, legal or financial problems)
- Chronic pain and illness (including mental illness)
- Homelessness
- Unemployment
- Alcohol and/or drug use
- Off country – away from kin, extended family and community supports
- Childhood trauma
You might be experiencing a combination of the above in your life, and this might be why you feel overwhelmed. If this describes what you are feeling, you can access support from Eleanor Duncan’s Mental Health workers.
Call: (02) 4351 1040 or 1800 493 746
If you are in immediate danger or need after hours support, call one of the below services:
YADHABA
WELLBEING SERVICES
Eleanor Duncan Aboriginal Services takes a holistic approach when caring for our clients and families. We help our clients address their physical, social, emotional and cultural wellbeing. We believe that this view of health best meets the medical, social and emotional needs of our local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The Yadhaba Wellbeing Team empowers Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults to improve their wellbeing, including their mental health.
Eligibility:
- Be referred to the program (self-referral or provider referral)
- Be an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person over 18 years
- Live on Darkinjung Country
- Must obtain a Mental Health Treatment Plan as soon as practicable
Services we provide include:
- Case management
- Psychological intervention
- Addressing drug and alcohol issues
- Improving clients’ mental health
- Dialectical Behaviour Support
- Connecting clients to culture
- Support with smoking cessation
- BetterFit Exercise and Lifestyle Program
- Social and Support Groups (Men’s, Women’s and Wellbeing)
GURAYI-BIYN YADHA
ITC CHRONIC DISEASE
Eleanor Duncan is here to help our clients manage their chronic health issues. If a client has been diagnosed with a chronic health issue (diabetes, respiratory disease, kidney disease, heart disease or cancer), they can become an Integrated Team Care (ITC) client. The ITC assists clients to receive the health care they need.
Our team can:
- Transport clients to and from appointments
- Organise doctor’s appointments
- Arrange appointments with specialists
- Follow up with clients on their health plan
- Make home visits
- Get prescriptions filled and delivered
- Attend medical appointments with clients
- Advocate for clients to be able to access culturally appropriate services.
If you think you would benefit from being an ITC client, discuss it with your doctor at your next visit or contact us on (02) 4351 1040.
HEALTH PROMOTION
Eleanor Duncan Aboriginal Services Health Promotions team aims to empower Aboriginal people living on Darkinjung Country to live strong, healthy, long lives by increasing community engagement, awareness, health literacy and preventative health strategies.
Our Health Promotions team delivers education on preventative health topics to support our Aboriginal community members to remain as healthy as possible for as long as possible. We deliver a combination of educational and organisational sessions to enable individuals in our community to increase control over and improve their health.
We deliver a range of health literary and education events – make sure you follow our social media accounts for updates on upcoming events.
Call: (02) 4351 1040 or 1800 493 746