In the Wimmera Southern Mallee region of western Victoria, a higher percentage of children start school 'developmentally vulnerable' compared to children in the city.
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00:00Children in our rural area are starting to score developmentally vulnerable.
00:07Accessing care and services, regardless of where you live, should be a right.
00:12In rural Victoria, you're faced with the tyranny of distance.
00:16To see a paediatrician, they may have to travel over two and a half hours or even longer.
00:21That's not interrupting their day, that's interrupting their week.
00:25There's really good established medical services in the area.
00:30The issue is there's a large gap in waiting times.
00:33Wait times to access a face-to-face paediatrician are in excess of 12 months for an urgent referral.
00:39That's 12 months of progress that we've really lost.
00:42There's a lot of evidence to say that we can get these children up to speed and get them ready for school,
00:47along with all their peers, if we can get that support in.
00:50Without access to paediatric care, the divide just continues.
00:55The problem is real. Families are suffering.
01:03Kovu is our eight-year-old son, our eldest.
01:06He's always been a really busy child.
01:09Then he started school and that's when the challenges started to show.
01:13It wasn't a smooth journey, being on wait lists for years on end.
01:18All research shows that early intervention is the key,
01:21but when you are stuck in the country and you don't have access to early intervention, you're pretty helpless.
01:27I've got families, they may be on paediatric waiting lists for a year, two years, three years, even more.
01:34So for us to be able to link in, within a couple of weeks if necessary, with a paediatrician,
01:39families just can't believe that.
01:42By Five have partnered with the Royal Children's Hospital to support families and children
01:46to access what they need, when they need it, where they live.
01:53So what happens is the child will go to their usual practitioner,
01:58it can be a maternal child health nurse or a GP, and we log on from our end and we run the appointment.
02:03That's it.
02:05We work really closely with the team on the ground in the Wimmera.
02:11Joining them in their rooms in real time, rather than this kind of agonising wait on a waiting list,
02:17not knowing what's happening with your child.
02:19It's really rare to have a multidisciplinary model like this, where it's non-hierarchical.
02:24Everybody's hearing the same information, same time, and things can actually happen straight away.
02:30We've had school teachers, principals, all involved in the consultation,
02:34maternal child nurses all involved in the consultations.
02:37We're in the loop, parents are in the loop, that's brilliant.
02:41To be in a position where you're actually having a co-consult with someone who knows the family really well,
02:46you feel like you're really building the village around the child.
02:50Having the extra support staff involved in the consult, the parents sitting with that
02:55and being able to then trust us and engage with us, knowing that we get it, it goes a long way.
03:01We've picked up some great things as a combined team that families just may not have picked up
03:05until a lot later in life, so the results that we're seeing here are just fabulous.
03:11Kovu has been diagnosed with ADHD and a specific learning disorder similar to dyslexia.
03:18Without By5, we would still be a name on a wait list two, three years down the track without any intervention.
03:27In a rural setting, you're enmeshed in a community.
03:30The joy you get from knowing people and then trusting you and accepting you, I wouldn't trade it for anything.
03:38Meeting some of the local professionals, it's infectious, their care for the community and the kids that they look after.
03:46I live in the community and I want to see our children grow and thrive and develop normally and well and healthy
03:52and give them every opportunity that we can.
03:55Never underestimate the innovation and resourcefulness of rural people
03:59and this was created by local people who are passionate about having better outcomes for the children of their community
04:05and it works.
04:08We're just so grateful that we've been able to access these supports.
04:13If we didn't have By5, we wouldn't have the access, we wouldn't have the knowledge.
04:16I feel like we've improved a lot, as well as Hunter.
04:20By5 has really helped me, just honing my diagnostic skills, my understanding and management of children
04:26with complex behavioural issues and support them in their growth and development.
04:31By5 has changed our practice because it's given us a whole other level of care that we can access for our families.
04:37It's made a huge difference to the outcomes for our children.
04:41Being able to access this paediatric service ensures that our children are getting the care equal to every other child in the state.
04:48We deserve that, our families deserve that.
04:51Daisy, here. Up. Sit. Sit down.
04:59I can pay attention better at school now.
05:03I like maths because I know my numbers good.
05:08And I like my writing because I like to write stories.
05:12By5 has just been the support that we've needed.
05:18He's confident and happy at school, and all reports from his teachers are that he's still cheeky, but he's a delight to teach.
05:27Fair and equitable access to care is one of the pillars for the Children's Hospital, and in fact, our vision is a world where all kids thrive.
05:35We work better when we work together, and I think that's something the By5 project does so well.
05:42By5 gives kids the chance to meet their potential within their own community.
05:49It's just been incredible what we've been able to achieve with what we have right here in the region.
05:54And I hope it keeps going for a long time to come.