Supporting family wellbeing
Family support services help people overcome difficulties during times of need.
The Tasmanian Government assists a range of non-government services that provide support to individuals and families. Services include personal and family counselling, community kinship care and parenting advice and support.
Personal and family counselling
Personal and family services are community-based counselling services that focus on the needs of individual people or families.
Statewide
Call Lifeline Tasmania on 131 114 for 24/7 phone-based counselling or visit Lifeline Tasmania's website.
St Helens and surrounds
Call Anglicare Tasmania on 1800 243 232 or visit Anglicare Tasmania's East Cost Counselling Service website. Appointments can be made for the St Helens office or support staff can come to you in the St Helens, Bicheno and Fingal Valley areas.
Circular Head and surrounds
Call Wyndarra Centre on 6452 2722 or visit Wyndarra Centre's website.
George Town and surrounds
Call Catholic Care Tasmania on 1800 819 447 or visit Catholic Care Tasmania’s website.
Southern Tasmania
Call Hobart City Mission on 6215 4200 or visit Hobart City Mission's website.
Services for parents
Early Support for Parents
Early Support for Parents gives parents in southern Tasmanian information, advice, mentoring and support. Early Support for Parents assists families in comfortable and familiar environments, including through in-home visits.
Kentish House
Glenhaven Family Care provides services from Kentish House. Based in Sheffield, Kentish House offers centre-based support by working with visiting service providers to help people and families access supports. Services include:
- playgroups
- referrals to other services
- parenting programs and workshops
- emergency relief
- youth activities.
Community kinship carers
Community kinship care is an informal private family care arrangement which is not governed by a court order.
Community kinship carers are usually grandparents or other relatives who have day-to-day caring responsibility for children. As each child’s parent is still their legal guardian, carers can often face issues when seeking services or providing consent.
We fund Mission Australia and Baptcare to provide community kinship carers with:
- information
- advice
- practical support
- referrals and peer support options
- brokerage and flexible respite options.
Find their services at the FindHelpTas website.
We also fund the Foster and Kinship Carers Association of Tasmania to offer training opportunities and education for community kinship carers.
Financial support
Energy hardship
If you are struggling to pay your power bills, you can apply for support from The Salvation Army who administers an energy hardship fund.
Family assistance
We support Anglicare Tasmania, Hobart City Mission, Launceston City Mission, St Vincent de Paul Society and The Salvation Army to provide family assistance services. The services include emergency relief and preventative support programs for Tasmanian families facing financial hardship.
Financial counselling
We fund Anglicare Tasmania to provide a free financial counselling service across Tasmania. The service helps people to organise budgets, manage debt and refers people to more specialised services. It also provides advice on consumer credit law, debt enforcement practices, bankruptcy, hardship policies and government concessions.
No-interest loans
The Tasmanian Government is a key partner of the NILS Network of Tasmania. We support the network to offer no-interest loans to low-income Tasmanians to help them to buy essential household items and services to avoid becoming trapped in a debt spiral often associated with payday lenders.
