West Wimmera Health Service an Exemplar of Rural Care
Recently, By Five’s learning partner, the Centre for Community Child Health (CCCH), worked with West Wimmera Health Service (WWHS) to understand and document their Maternity and Early Years Service model. WWHS deliver a unique rural model of care led by Maternal Child Health (MCH) Nurses which provides Hindmarsh women and their families with care through their antenatal and postnatal period, plus MCH nurse visits through a child’s early years.
CCCH worked with key staff at WWHS to identify and study the various components of the model and better understand the enablers that support the delivery of care. They found that the Maternity and Early Years Service is underpinned by, and seamlessly combines, key components of a Rural Health Care Model, and Relational Model of Care and a Feminist Model of Care.
As WWHS expands its MCH team to cover the Yarriambiack Shire, this will be a useful document to support their work going forward, and for other rural health services to consider as a possible model of care in their own communities.
