Information for kids and teens
What is WA Country Health Service?
If you live anywhere in regional, rural or remote WA, we’re the people that manage the:
- Hospitals
- Community health centres
- Immunisation clinics
- And you may have met a school nurse who works with WA Country Health Service.
When we talk about health, we don’t just mean not being sick. Health is about how we feel in our body, our mind, and even how we get along with other people. We’re here to help you with all of these things.
Click on the boxes below to learn more
Did you know there’s someone at school who’s here to help you stay healthy, happy, and ready to learn? That’s your school health nurse.
Our school health nurses can help you feel healthy, safe and happy. Here’s how they can support you:
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Talk with you about your health, feelings, and growing up
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Give you tips to make healthy and safe choices
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Help with vaccines to keep you safe from certain illnesses
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Check your hearing, vision, and development if needed
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Help you link to other health services if you need them
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Help make a plan if you have a health condition
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Work with you, your teachers and parents to help you feel your best
Whatever your concern, our school health nurse is ready to listen and help.
If you're a young person living in country WA and you're feeling overwhelmed, sad, anxious, angry, or just not yourself — you're not alone and help is available.
Our Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service teams are made up of friendly professionals who work together to support children and teenagers (up to 18 years old) and their families. The teams include people like doctors, psychologists, nurses, social workers, occupational therapists, peer workers, liaison teachers and Aboriginal mental health workers who understand mental health and care about helping young people feel better.
You don’t need to go through tough times by yourself. Here’s how we can help:
- Listen to you
- Talk with you to understand what’s going on
- Work with you and your family and/or important people to you to make a plan that helps
- Offer therapy, practical advice and work out best supports for you
- Help you learn ways to manage your emotions and feel more in control
- Everything you share is treated with respect and privacy. The goal is to help you feel safe, heard and supported.
Hospitals are places where people go when they’re sick, hurt or need help with their health.
From the moment you arrive, a team of health professionals is there to support you. They’ll explain what’s happening, answer your questions and make sure you feel listened to and cared for.
Some people stay in hospital for a few days, while others might just come in for a short visit or check-up. If you live far away, you might be able to talk to the hospital team through a video call. This is called telehealth.
To understand how best to care for you, we’ll start with some health checks and provide treatment if needed. This might include:
- Checking your temperature, heart rate or blood pressure
- Blood tests, x-rays or scans of your body
- Medicine or surgery to help you recover
There are beds and rooms where you can rest and get better, and staff will check on you regularly to make sure you’re okay.
Things to remember:
- You can have a parent, carer or trusted adult with you.
- The team is there to explain things clearly and answer your questions.
- It’s okay to speak up, ask questions and talk about how you’re feeling.
There are many community health centres in country WA where a team of people work together to keep families healthy outside of the hospital.
Our teams help babies, kids, teens and families by visiting homes, schools and community centres. Community health teams ususally have:
- Nurses who do health checks and give vaccinations (needles) to protect people from getting sick. Nurses also visit families at their home when a new baby is born.
- Physiotherapists to help people if their body needs help to move.
- Speech pathologists to help people who find talking or saying words hard.
- Occupational therapists to help people learn everyday skills like getting dressed, holding a pencil or playing.
- Dietitians to teach about tasty foods that help the body grow strong.
These teams, like the hospitals, use telehealth to help people by video and some may even visit places in a bus to teach kids living in far away towns about healthy snacks, handwashing, our feelings and how to stay safe.
You can tell us what you think about our services.
Saying something nice:
- We love hearing good things and we share compliments with our staff. You can speak to a staff member or ask an adult to help.
- You can use our online feedback form, the Care Opinion website or ask for a printed feedback form when you visit us.
Making a complaint:
- Speak to a staff member or ask an adult to help.
- Use our online feedback form, the Care Opinion website or ask for a printed feedback form when you visit us.
- We will listen and try to fix the problem.
- Your complaint is private and won’t affect your care. You can remain anonymous if you wish.
Visit our Provide Feedback page for more information.
Keep an eye out or ask for one of these printed feedback forms when you visit us.
Our commitment to you |
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The artwork used on this page is by local children and young people across country WA:
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