The Forbes and Parkes community is called on to rise up today for a rally at the Parkes Hospital at 12:30pm to stop the downgrading of maternity services. The Parkes Hospital has been in the news all week after a decision to temporarily close the maternity service due to an alleged shortage of medical proceduralists.

Residents can also sign a petition of the NSW Nurses and Midwives Union at the rally and at local businesses to get to 10,000 signatures to present it to Parliament.

Parkes Shire Mayor, Councillor Ken Keith OAM also expressed alarm and frustration over the decision and said: “It is exasperating that the situation has reached a crisis point. This dilemma has long been foreseen, as our long serving proceduralist neared retirement and should have been proactively planned and managed by Western NSW Local Health District.”

Member for Orange Phil Donato reacted to ‘the genuine concern brewing in Parkes and Forbes’ on his Facebook page saying: “I want to reassure the communities of Forbes and Parkes that I will be working feverishly to get to the bottom of this.” On Tuesday he delivered a notice of motion in the Legislative Assembly that he would move the house to demand that the Government immediately restore maternity services and maintain level 3 birthing at the Parkes Hospital, and he would call on the Government to urgently source and locate obstetric and anaesthetic services to Parkes Hospital, and implement contingency and succession planning for future resignations or retirement of medical practitioners.

The Western NSW Local Health District released a statement saying there is a shortage of medical practitioners to support maternity services at both Parkes and Forbes. “The WNSWLHD is working hard to find ways to attract doctors to our communities. It is the intention to continue to provide birthing services at both Parkes and Forbes.

To maintain safe maternity services the right medical, nursing and midwifery staff need to be available; there must be sufficient numbers of births to maintain skills and experience.”

By Maggi Barnard and Beth Thomas

Felicity McLean’s book The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone has been chosen for an innovative program in the Central West that takes the traditional book club concept to the next level. Named One Library One Book, the program aims to have everyone in the region read and discuss the same book.

Central West Libraries will distribute 200 copies of The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone across the Central West Libraries footprint – Blayney, Cabonne, Cowra, Forbes and Orange. These copies have been added to the catalogues of the Library’s branches with the rest distributed throughout regional towns for the community to take, read and pass on.

Author Felicity McLean will be a guest speaker at the Orange Readers and Writers Festival on Saturday 3rd August at the Hotel Canobolas to talk about her book.

Felicity will also be attending local libraries to meet with readers in the first week of August to discuss the book with audiences.

“I’m thrilled The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone has been chosen for the One Library, One Book initiative,” Felicity said.

“It’s a fantastic program, in a special part of the world, and I’m grateful to everyone involved for encouraging reading throughout the community,” she said.

Central West Libraries Manager Jan Richards encouraged residents to read The Van Apfel Girls are Gone and pass it on to a friend or colleague.

“The One Library, One Book program takes the idea of a book club and expands it to cover an entire region,” Jan said.

“The book is blackly comic, sharply observed and wonderfully endearing. We think it will resonate with the community and reflect connections our library service has with local organisations,” continued Jan.

“We are thrilled to bring this book to readers of the Central West. It is also available via ebook and audiobook through Central West Libraries,” she said.

It is hoped One Library One Book will be widely embraced on social media with readers of The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone posting discussions about the book and photos of themselves with the book on the Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/CentralWestLibraries and #onelibraryonebook.

Young people face many life challenges, one of them being school, and particularly exam periods. These can be stressful. It is important to note, however, that stress is different to anxiety.

Many young people are able to manage stressful life events and stressful periods in their life without experiencing a mental illness. Current statistics show that:
• 75% of mental health difficulties first onset is before the age of 25.
• Anxiety disorders first onset is predominantly younger in age, under 16 years old.

When a young person is supported by their school and family to work through times of difficulty, this can build resilience. A supportive school and family environment provides information and resources that help young people feel in control, and help young people build a range of strategies that support them to do the things they want to do, even in times of stress and difficulty.

Headspace Senior Clinical Advisor Nick Duigan advises those in need to go to the headspace website www.headspace.org.au for Centre details, as well as factsheets and resources for young people and their families and friends.

NSW Minister for Health and Minister for Medical Research, Brad Hazzard, stated there would be no changes to the services available at both the Forbes and Parkes Hospitals.

At a Joint Organisation Meeting in Sydney last week Mr Hazzard stated the services currently available in these two hospitals will remain as is, despite the recent rumours. The message was reaffirmed at the Country Mayors Meeting on Friday 31st May in which Parkes Shire Mayor, Ken Keith OAM asked the question, with the same response from the minister.

“I want to assure the residents of Forbes and Parkes that we will continue to advocate on our communities behalf to ensure there are no losses of services or staff,” says Forbes Shire Council Mayor, Phyllis Miller OAM. “We have had confirmation from Minister Hazzard that our two hospitals will continue to operate as they are.”

A shortage of doctors in remote and regional centres is leaving some Australians without access to basic medical services.

“The two towns continue to work with State and Federal Governments to ensure the doctor numbers remain,” says Mayor Miller. “As a rural community we are entitled to medical facilities and services the same as our city counterparts have.”

Arts OutWest is encouraging local groups to apply for the 2020 round of Country Arts Support Program funding.

The State Government’s annual Country Arts Support Program (CASP) provides small grants of up to $3,000 to arts and community organisations in regional NSW to run their own local arts projects.
Applications for 2020 funding close Monday 29 July 2019.

“CASP funds are a valuable way to kick start exciting local, on-the-ground arts projects,” Arts OutWest executive director Tracey Callinan said, “This funding program
about giving regional people access to a diverse range of arts activities that are made for and by the local community.”

Projects could include workshops, arts activities as part of community festivals or events, artist-in-residence programs, public art and design projects, performances, community seminars and forums and exhibitions.

The funding is open to all incorporated associations, not just those focused on the arts. Unincorporated groups or collectives of artists are allowed to find a local organisation to auspice their funding. Likewise if an individual artist has a project in mind they can team up with a local group.

There were six projects funded in the Central West region through CASP in 2019: a performance by the Allegri Singers; a mural at Bathurst Seymour Centre; a sketchbook library in Forbes; a youth drama program in Condobolin; and creative poetry workshops in schools in Orange. You can read more about these projects under ‘news’ at artsoutwest.org.au

To apply for the funding groups must discuss their project with Arts OutWest beforesubmitting an online application. Read the funding criteria at http://regionalartsnsw.com.au/grants/casp/ and contact Arts Out-West on 02 6338 4657 or email artsoutwest@csu.edu.au

 

One focus of the CWA is to assist and support women and children in country areas. The branch’s attention was drawn to the issue of children who visit the Forbes Women’s Refuge who may not have many personal items with them as it is emergency accommodation for women facing some form of domestic crisis and need to leave home quickly.

To make the children feel more “at home” and safe, the CWA Evening Branch provide pyjamas for children up to the age of 14. A pair of pyjamas may not be a lot but when you have little or nothing and have had to leave the comfort of home quickly without much, it can be comforting to have something that can be kept and taken with them when they move to longer term accommodation. It gives the children something of their own.

Another focus of the CWA is to encourage friendship and broaden members’ cultural knowledge and experiences.

At the May meeting some of those recently experienced cultural events by members were discussed. Just a few of them included joining an archaeological dig just outside Forbes in a dry creek bed and quarry where fossilised remains of small water born creatures called Triobites were unearthed by a group of researchers from the Sydney Museum with locals assisting.

Other experiences included traveling on the Ghan, visiting the Pioneer Women’s Hall of Fame (Alice Springs), exploring the Royal Flying Doctors Service, School of the Air and experiencing the Bombing of Darwin through a virtual 3D display (Darwin).

“Inked,” a display of cartoons satirising political and social issues was also visited at the National Gallery Canberra.

Each year the CWA nominate an issue in the agricultural area to focus on. This year the Agricultural focus is on Honey. To fit in with this issue some members explained the process of making environmentally friendly food wraps by using beeswax and cotton material.

At the July meeting members will experiment by making some of these popular wraps to replace the use of plastic food wrap in an effort to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill.

Members of the group, Robyn Miller, Karen Wright, Stephanie Allen and Grace Allen who attended the Royal Easter Show gave a brief talk about their experiences working on the CWA stand.

They were involved in all parts of the service whether it was making scones, serving scones, and washing up the mountains of dirty plates. These ladies were also able to provide moral support for Forbes entrant, Sally Downie, in the Miss Showgirl competition.

Congratulations to Sally on achieving a very creditable second runner up and surviving what was a very long and arduous week for all the contestants.

New members are welcome to attend any meeting which are held every second Thursday evening of each month at the Vandenburg Hotel at 6.30pm.

By Sue Cunningham
Publicity Officer,
CWA Forbes Evening Branch

What a catch by Adriaan van Wyk!

Last week Riverina Nationals’ MP and Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack lauded the efforts of volunteers as “champions of their local communities”. The praise came as events rolled out to acknowledge the hard work of volunteers during National Volunteer Week.

“Volunteers are so important to the social fabric of our local communities,” Mr McCormack said.

“Every day, we should be thanking those who sacrifice their time to make our regions even better places to live and work. Having a dedicated week to show our appreciation is the least we can do to show the pillars of our local communities that we care about what they do for the Riverina and Central West,” continued Mr McCormack.

“Volunteers are champions of their local communities and whether it is helping out the local sporting club, assisting our most vulnerable or putting time in recovery efforts after a significant storm, these selfless individuals play an essential role in helping to shape rural and regional Australia as well as helping to build resilience in our towns and regional capitals,” continued Mr McCormack.

The Liberal and Nationals’ Government recognises these efforts by providing grants through its Volunteer Grants Program.

“In the most recent round, 40 grants were given to well-deserved organisations including $3,550 for Forbes Cancer Patients Assistance Society, $4,750 for Forbes Fins Swimming Club Inc, $4,959 for Forbes Rugby Union Club Inc and $1,500 for the Forbes Toy Library,” Mr McCormack said.

“These grants, which range from $1,000 to $5,000, seem small but they make such a tangible difference for volunteer organisations to be able to continue the invaluable work they do in our communities.”

Last Thursday Phil Donato met with young emerging leaders of the community who travelled to NSW Parliament from seven different schools in the Orange electorate including Red Bend Catholic College, as part of the Student Leadership Program.

During the visit students had the opportunity to ask questions of attending MPs about leadership, making decisions and representation.

“It was wonderful to have Year 12 student leaders from across the Orange electorate spend the day at Parliament and see what happens during a sitting week,” Mr Donato said.

“The Student Leadership Program is a great initiative which aims to inspire and foster the development of student leaders toward post-school leadership in our community,” continued Mr Donato.

Attending on the day were students from Parkes High School, Orange Christian School, Red Bend Catholic College, Canowindra High School, Molong Central School, Yeoval Central School and Peak Hill Central School.