Latrobe Health Assembly connects the dots with healthcare website

Latrobe Health Assembly connects the dots with healthcare website made for local parents, with local parents.

Latrobe Health Assembly has launched a new website – familyassist.org.au – to help Latrobe Valley parents and caregivers determine the appropriate healthcare supports for their child’s specific needs. The website allows families to select a topic related to their child, such as speaking or emotions, and provides further information on what is typical, what may be a concern and who to speak to for assistance. This is supplemented with articles written by experts, covering subjects from breakfast tips to settling babies, and everything in between.

Family Assist also acts as a portal for families to easily search for local healthcare services – identifying which concerns each service can help with and if there are costs involved. Contact details are available for families to get in touch with these services directly from the website, to save them the time and stress of searching around. Alongside this, Family Assist includes a calendar of local family events encouraging families to connect with the community in fun and educational ways.

The need for a platform of this kind became evident in a series of workshops Latrobe Health Assembly held across the Latrobe Valley to help identify local challenges faced in the Early Childhood Development space. Parents and caregivers were not only unsure of which services are available to help their children, but also found it stressful to navigate the healthcare space.

“Our local parents and caregivers told us they needed assistance with finding ways to access help and information for their children, so we’ve worked with them to create Family Assist. If they need to find a paediatrician, a speech therapist or would like to read more about something their child is going through – they can do it all in the one place,” says Latrobe Health Assembly Chair, Tanya Rong.

“There are so many fantastic services available to families in the Latrobe Valley, Family Assist will help to build healthier futures for our children.”

You can begin using Family Assist today by visiting familyassist.org.au.