Kelly Family Foundation | Children’s Hospital Westmead
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Children’s Hospital Westmead

About This Project

About the Children’s Hospital Westmead

The Children’s Hospital at Westmead provides comprehensive inpatient and outpatient services to children and adolescents with cystic fibrosis in NSW. Services are provided by a multidisciplinary team including physicians, clinical nurse consultants, dieticians, physiotherapists and social workers.

About Cystic Fibrosis

Cystic Fibrosis is the most common life threatening genetic disease affecting Australian children. Through newborn screening most babies are diagnosed within the first few weeks of life. Advances in treatment have seen improved quality of life and life expectancy for those with CF, but there is no cure. The Children’s Hospital at Westmead is also actively involved in cystic fibrosis research. The service includes:

  • Inpatient services
  • CF Outpatient Treatment Centre
  • New diagnosis education, ongoing management and support
  • Outreach service including school and home visits, community liaison
  • Weekly CF Outpatient Clinic
  • Clinical research
  • Outpatient CF telephone service (office hours) provided by CNC’s
  • Facilitation of CF family support groups
  • Education evenings for families
  • Education of medical and allied health professionals providing care for CF patients

The need for Physiotherapy

As the management of CF patients improves and their life expectancy increases, many secondary complications are emerging that significantly impact on health status and quality of life. Often these complications begin to develop in childhood and adolescence. As a result, physiotherapy management for CF patients now includes airway clearance, inhalation therapy, exercise prescription, musculoskeletal and urinary incontinence screening and management, and adherence strategies. Each aspect requires specialised management and needs to be individualised for each patient.

Kelly Family Foundation Commitment

In various forms, the Kelly Family provided financial support for a CF physiotherapist for over 15 years. From July 2015 to June 2018, the KFF directly funded this full-time position, and we are hopeful that from this solid foundation the hospital can continue to work to improve the lives of children with CF every day.

 

Category
2018, 2019, Past commitments