Australia’s country communities are facing
a paediatric health crisis, with NSW families waiting up to six years to access paediatricians,
or being told that there is no local service at all.
Experiences in the early years of life form the foundation of our brain’s architecture, and we know that learning, behaviour and health across a person’s lifetime are all built on that foundation. Unfortunately, too many children are being left behind because they can’t access vital support services, simply because of where they live.
Evidence suggests a ‘confluence of factors’ including the COVID pandemic and natural disasters have exacerbated developmental and mental health challenges for country kids. Teachers and early educators on the ground in rural areas are consistently reporting that following COVID lockdowns, there are greater numbers of children they worry about, and these children are increasingly younger and more complex in their needs.
Royal Far West (RFW) aims to help bridge the gap in services for country communities. Our flagship Child and Family Services provides children from rural and remote communities with critical developmental and mental health services that they otherwise would not have acccess to.
In addition to providing direct services, RFW works hard to give voice to needs of country children and advocates for all children to have access to the developmental and mental health services they need, so they can access timely intervention. More recently we have been actively shining a spotlight on the rural healthcare crisis in the media.
“We need to continue to advocate for the needs
of country children to ensure where you live
is not a barrier to access the vital health services needed to reach their potential,” RFW CEO, Jacqueline Emery said.
Newspapers such as the Australian Community Media regional network, television channels such as WIN News and Channel 7 and regional radio stations have all brought this issue to air. In total we saw over 2,000 media articles and reached over 115 million viewers.
At RFW we will continue to shine the spotlight on the healthcare needs of country communities to help drive equitable access to services and outcomes.