Womens Health Business Case Report

“I have been a patient of Dr Laura Brien’s at the Coffs Harbour Women’s Health Centre for about a year now. This vital community health service quite literally saved my life. After visiting numerous doctors over countless months for severe symptoms within my female reproductive area and feeling unheard, dismissed and not taken seriously I visited the Coffs Harbour Women’s Health Centre in the desperate hope they would have a better understanding of the symptoms I was experiencing due to their focus on women’s health. With the help and care of Dr Laura Brien, who took the time to listen to me as the person who knows my body best and knowing that something was wrong, we discovered I was suffering from stage 3C Ovarian Cancer. Unfortunately had I been taken more seriously by the previous doctors I’d visited it could have been caught a lot earlier before spreading, been less life threatening and more easily treatable. Unfortunately because of the stage it was found I had to endure 6 months of gruelling chemotherapy, countless hospital stays and procedures and undergo a radical hysterectomy as a 40 year old woman. I’m so incredibly grateful to Dr Brien for helping me not only finally diagnose my symptoms but also help to arrange countless referrals to oncologists, surgeons and other services required for my ongoing treatment. She, along with the team at the clinic, have been a constant support and place of safety and understanding as I went through one of the most terrifying moments of my life. This support played such an enormous role in my healing. This specialised service is vital for women and every community. General health services, especially within regional areas, cannot adequately service or understand the specialised area of women’s health. This has been my direct experience. The level of care and understanding is unique and will save women’s lives, as it did mine. It is crucial that specialised services like this, that care for and protect the women of our community are funded and operated in parallel to more general health services and are accessible and affordable to all women from all backgrounds.”

“Counselling has helped me understand the reasons for my drug abuse and to be able to monitor and minimise my use”.

“Places like this are very valuable, they provide women with the skills for life. Therefore better citizens, more productivity, better families, better human beings. It’s a win win for all”.

“Best service ever!! I never imagined a life without abuse, only one where it is managed. Counselling helped me leave [D&FV] without fear. As a long term (35 years) polysubstance abuser, I have reached a point where only medication is required. I’m happy with what I receive now”.

“I’m hoping to return to volunteer work before paid work after 10 years of PTSD. Years of other treatments did nothing. Here my life has changed significantly in a year”.

“Counselling here has helped me rise above the noise a lifetime of abuse makes, to see myself separately and engage all the skills I already have. Not reinventing the wheel, just rediscovering it. In 35 years of counselling this is the only place which treated me and not just all the problems abuse left me with”.

“Without this service I would have resorted to self-harm….I am grateful”.

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Women’s Health NSW – October 2022