About Healthier Wealthier Families

The HWF collaboration will test the feasibility and benefits of linking Australia’s existing community-based nursing and financial counselling services. It adapts a successful model used in Glasgow, Scotland to reduce the financial hardship experienced by families with young children.

The successful pilot study reduced family stress, improved knowledge and increased annual income by an average of $6,504. Implementing and evaluating HWF with more communities will show how the partnership between health and social sectors can improve the financial and mental health experiences of Australian families with young children. Analysis of the benefits, costs and implementation of HWF will also contribute to building understanding of scaling and adaptation for other services. If you would like to learn more about Healthier Wealthier Families or are interested in partnering with us to support scaling of this initiative, please contact hwf.study@mcri.edu.au 

Client stories

The Australian collaboration

The HWF collaboration is led by the Centre for Community Child Health and BEST START-SW, in partnership with community-based Maternal and Child Health and Child and Family Health services, Uniting Vic.Tas, Upper Murray Family Care, Wesley Mission, the Melbourne Institute: Applied Economic & Social Research, the University of Melbourne, RMIT University, Western Sydney University, and the University of New South Wales. 

Get in touch with Dr Anna Price to bring Healthier Wealthier Families to your community, learn more, or to join the research collaboration.

How does financial hardship and poverty impact child and family health and wellbeing?

The financial security of families is central to children’s wellbeing. It helps families access safe and healthy housing, nutritious food, healthcare and education, and enables children to grow up in environments with less financial stress. Unfortunately, in Australia, at least 1 in 6 children live in poverty, and one quarter experience deprivation (such as missing out on proper nutrition, housing and supportive personal relationships) due to financial hardship. Poverty can harm children’s future health, learning, economic productivity and participation in society. Without help, poverty can persist across generations. Our collaborative and service systems approach to reducing poverty and inequity aims to help our whole society be healthier and wealthier. Take a look at our Combatting child poverty landing page for related resources exploring the impacts of financial hardship and evidence-informed strategies to reduce financial hardship and poverty for families.

Using research to advance the equity agenda

The team presented at the International Congress of Evidence-based Parenting support (I-CEPS) at a symposium called 'The road to equity needs to be paved with more than good intentions: Using research to advance the equity agenda'. You can view the conference recording after clicking the link and registering for free. Topics covered include housing interventions for child protection and overviews of the Healthier Wealthier Families and right@home interventions.

Publications

• Price AMH, White N, Burley J, et al. Feasibility of linking universal child and family healthcare and financial counselling: findings from the Australian Healthier Wealthier Families (HWF) mixed-methods study. BMJ Open. 2023;13(11):e075651.
  
  
• Price, A., Zhu, A., Nguyen, H., Contreras-Suarez, D., Schreurs, N., Burley, J., Lawson, K., Kelaher, M., Lingam, R., Grace, R., Raman, S., Kemp, L., Woolfenden, S., Goldfeld, S. (2021). The Healthier Wealthier Families (HWF) pilot randomised controlled trial: testing the feasibility of delivering financial counselling to families with young children who are identified as experiencing financial hardship by community-based nurses. BMJ Open,11:e044488. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2020-044488.
  
  
• Burley, J., Samir, N., Price, A., Parker, A., Zhu, A., Eapen, V., Contreras-Suarez, D., Schreurs, N., Lawson, K., Lingam, R., Grace, R., Raman, S., Kemp, L., Bishop, R., Goldfeld, S., Woolfenden, S (2021). Connecting healthcare with income maximisation services: A systematic review on the health, wellbeing and financial impacts for families with young children. PubMed. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-056297.
  
  
• Burley, J., Price, A., Parker, A., Samir, N., Zhu, A., Eapen, V., Contreras-Suarez, D., Schreurs N., Lawson K, Lingam, R., Grace, R., Raman, S., Kemp, L., Chota, S., Goldfeld, S., Woolfenden, S. (2021). Assessing the impact of healthcare - income maximisation models of care for families of children aged 0-5 years experiencing financial difficulties, on family finances, and parent/caregiver(s) or children’s health and wellbeing: A systematic review protocol. 
  
  
• Johansson N, Sarkadi A, Feldman I, Price AMH, Goldfeld S, Salonen T, Wijk K, Isaksson D, Kolic E, Stenquist S, Elg M, Lönn E, Wennelin J, Lindström L, Medina M, Aberg S, Viklund J, Warner G. Ameliorating Child poverty through Connecting Economic Services with child health Services (ACCESS): Study protocol for a randomised controlled trial of the Healthier Wealthier Families model in Sweden. BMC Public Health 22(1):2181 25 Nov 2022, https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-022-14424-x.
  
  

• Price AMH, Contreras-Suarez D, Zhu A, Measey MA, Schreurs N, Woolfenden, Burley J, Bryson H, Efron D, Rhodes A, Goldfeld S. Associations between ongoing COVID-19 lockdown and the financial and mental health experiences of Australian families. Australian Journal of Social Issues, 2022;00:1–21. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajs4.252.

• Imbulana DI, White M, Hiscock H, Price AMH. The feasibility of identifying financial hardship in a tertiary paediatric setting, and associations with caregiver and child mental health. Journal of Affective Disorders Reports. 2023;12:100485.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadr.2023.100485.
  

The Australian HWF trial registration

Registration: https://www.anzctr.org.au/Trial/Registration/TrialReview.aspx?id=378514