Welcome!

Hello!

Welcome to first edition of the Collective blog.

I have to say that this blog has been a long time coming. For years I have had people encouraging me to start one (I finally did it Jac!) but it took a little while for me to get there.

For the first edition, I really wanted to start by explaining my “why” for the blog. As a local girl, I grew up with the same problems of stigma and poor access to services that so many of you reading this would also face. As teenagers, we all tend to dream of making a difference. For me this meant breaking down barriers in rural health care. And so my journey began.. I moved to “the big smoke” to study, before coming back to the land. Again, probably like most teenage dreams, my goals were harder to action than I imagined (probably like that dream of marrying Freddie Prince Jr). Never one to step back from a challenge, I have spent most of my adult life determinedly fighting for this dream (health care, not Freddie). After completing my internship under some wonderful mentors in Child and Adolescent Mental Health, I felt I could support more families, and had a better chance of bringing about change, venturing out on my own. This is where the Collective journey began. Over the past few years, I have been fortunate to have some equally passionate colleagues join the Collective team. Our goal continues to be about raising awareness, and bridging the gap to allied health services in Dubbo and the rest of the west.

I have to say, this is not an easy thing to achieve. Rural NSW is BIG. Thankfully my team are an incredibly passionate and inspired group of women. We are constantly brain storming ways to provide services in creative ways. Firstly, this was through our outreach clinics. More recently we launched our telehealth program. Now our blog finally comes to life. Our blog and social media platforms are wonderful ways for us to be able to connect with more people. They allow us to stay in touch, and provide support and education, whether you are reading along from your couch in Dubbo, or your coffee table in Collarenebri. We want you to know that we know you deserve support too, and we are listening.

I hope you will continue to follow along with myself and the rest of the Collective team each week, as we share information, updates, and stories of our adventures. We would also love to hear from you about your own experiences, and the ways we can better support you, so feel free to touch base with us across one of our platforms.

Thanks for following!

Tanya

Ps. Pic is of course courtesy of the wonderful Clancy Job Photography.