Regional child health service, Country Families@Ngala achieved an incredible milestone, when its 1000th member joined their interactive closed Facebook group.
Country Families@Ngala is an online parenting support service that provides virtual workshops, early parenting groups, private parenting consultations and a community based closed Facebook group to parents of children living in regional, rural and remote Western Australia. This service is delivered in partnership with the WA Country Health Services.
Members can access daily chats with a child health nurse, live discussions, as well as tutorials and workshops, covering essential topics like breastfeeding, sleep and settling, transitioning to family foods, toileting, transitioning to school, farm safety, resilience and screen time recommendations, to name a few.
Country Families@Ngala commenced in July 2018 and is a pilot program that provides essential support to the work of local child health services, by filling in gaps in service delivery caused by distance. All of the support is provided free of charge to country families by Ngala’s child health nurses and is available to families of children from 0-8 years.
“Country Families@Ngala is a telehealth partnership between Ngala and the WA Country Health Services. It is an essential service that provides virtual access to parenting support, for parents living in rural and remote areas across Western Australia”, said Ngala CEO Fiona Beermier.
“Country Families@Ngala is more than just an online platform, it really is a lifeline for many country parents who want to connect, learn and feel reassured in their parenting journey”.
Country families @Ngala’s 1000th Facebook group member, Ellen Maddock was delighted to find the online service and is already seeing the benefits for her family of five, “For many parents living in rural and remote areas of WA, traditional face to face services are not available”, said Ms Maddock.
Ms Maddock also commented, “For me Country Families@Ngala is a game changer. It’s such a relief to know there’s someone I can talk to when I have a parenting concern or question, or other parents to share this ride with. It really just gives me a lot more piece of mind”
Country Families@Ngala – the numbers:
- More than 1150 private parenting consultations delivered
- More than 1000 Facebook group members
- More than 270 live chats completed
- 19 tutorials delivered over the last 4 months
- 15 Facebook Live videos delivered over the last 5 months
- 72 workshops delivered
- 52 early parenting group sessions delivered
Parents using the service, in descending order of engagement, come from the following regions:
- South West
- Pilbara
- Wheatbelt
- Midwest/Gascoyne
- Goldfields
- Great Southern
- Kimberley