Fundiing for Ngala Helpline

Posted on: Thu 3 March 2011

The Ngala Helpline, Western Australia’s peak parenting helpline receives essential funding from the Western Australian State Government to increase the scope of its online services for families across Western Australia.

 Ngala has received funding from the Western Australian State government for its Helpline service.  The Ngala Helpline supports families with appropriate and timely information and receives 22,000 calls per year from WA families with young children.  65% of calls are from families seeking help with children 12 months and under, and are calls related to sleep and settling.

Ngala, established in 1890 is a provider of Early Parenting services with a passion for supporting and guiding families and young children through the journey of early parenting.  The Helpline is Ngala’s main contact point for parents with babies and young children who have a number of parenting concerns.  The Helpline is the front door to many other Ngala services.

Health Minister Kim Hames said the Ngala Helpline Service would receive $46,000 to June this year, and an additional $92,000 for 2011-12. This funding is in addition to $319,000 Ngala annually received from the Department of Health.

 “Many parents I have spoken to have told me how crucial the Ngala Helpline Service has been during the early days of caring for their baby,” Dr Hames said.

 “As a doctor and a parent, I know how daunting caring for a baby can be and the Ngala helpline can pre-empt the need for acute crisis health care by providing information, advice and referral to parents and carers of young children.”

The Minister said the additional funding would be used to bolster web-based technology including call-back requests via the internet and this funding will also allow further development of a web-cam service for helpline callers and online support via parenting forums,” he said.

These funds are key to us launching an online forum in mid February, which will increase access particularly for families in remote areas of Western Australia.   It will also enable Ngala to develop other online resources for families.

Indeed, the Minister added that “the internet has shown to be a major resource for parents who may find themselves isolated from extended family or community support, so this is an exciting development for Ngala’.

The funding will also provide additional:

• highly-trained and qualified practitioners on Helpline and Online services
• access for FIFO families
• help for families relocating to WA and who may not have an extended family or have community support.

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