Help for regional families needing city health services

The Friendly Faces Helping Hands Foundation is about connecting country people to city health services. The ACI Rural Health Network proudly announce the launch of a refreshed Friendly Faces Helping Hands Website to acknowledge National Carers Week and the silent and unwavering commitment our carers contribute to the health and wellbeing of our communities each and every day.

The www.friendlyfaces.info website provides country people and their families/carers, with practical information about hospitals, accommodation and support services when healthcare is required in an unfamiliar city a long way from home. Statistics show that each year, almost 600 rural residents in NSW alone suffer a serious trauma which requires lengthy hospitalisation in a location far from home.

Inspired by Kelly Foran using her own personal experience, the website was designed to feature local information about 28 major hospitals in NSW and neighbouring states. The website and hotline phone support are designed by country people for country people,  as a centralised ‘go to’ place for rural patients and their families or carers to get the help they need to make a trying time easier and minimise the overwhelming feelings of isolation. “Knowing where to access parking, cheap eats, supermarkets, accommodation and even hairdressers for people, or their family or carer when they are away from home for long periods, is crucial to their ability to cope in this overwhelming situation,” Kelly said.

Check out the new-look Friendly Faces Helping Hands Website.The website is the ‘go to’ place for help at your fingertips:

• Linking rural communities to the major hospitals, health facilities and health resources within cities.
• Assisting people to access quality information to make a trying, traumatic time easier.
• Helping people who are a long way from home to get control of some of the situation.
• Basing all of this on lived experience.