Patty Kikos interviews Barbara Ryan, the CEO of Ronald McDonald House Charities Australia about the wonderful ways that RMHC supports families in need, from the house charities, hospital rooms, as well as the learning program that is available for students (and their siblings) who have missed a lot of school time and need help catching up. GUEST: Ronald McDonald House Charities - https://www.rmhc.org.au Contact Number: 1300 307 642 SOCIAL MEDIA: Follow The Benevolent Society on Instagram Follow Carer Gateway on Facebook Follow The Benevolent Society on Facebook CREDITS: Host – Patty Kikos Producers – Patty Kikos and John Hresc Sound Engineer – John Hresc GET IN TOUCH: Carer Gateway is proud to offer emotional and practical services and support for carers with the aim of making your life easier. You can call us on 1800 422 737 to find out more about peer support groups, counselling, coaching, online skills courses, tailored support packages, emergency respite, other government supports, as well as tips and information, or visit our online home at www.carergateway.gov.au Got some questions or thoughts for Patty or the team? Email us at cgconnections@benevolent.org.au and put ‘Attention Patty’ in the subject line. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: The Benevolent Society acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.
Patty Kikos interviews Barbara Ryan, the CEO of Ronald McDonald House Charities Australia about the wonderful ways that RMHC supports families in need, from the house charities, hospital rooms, as well as the learning program that is available for students (and their siblings) who have missed a lot of school time and need help catching up.
GUEST:
Ronald McDonald House Charities - https://www.rmhc.org.au
Contact Number: 1300 307 642
SOCIAL MEDIA:
Follow The Benevolent Society on Instagram
Follow Carer Gateway on Facebook
Follow The Benevolent Society on Facebook
CREDITS:
Host – Patty Kikos
Producers – Patty Kikos and John Hresc
Sound Engineer – John Hresc
GET IN TOUCH:
Carer Gateway is proud to offer emotional and practical services and support for carers with the aim of making your life easier.
You can call us on 1800 422 737 to find out more about peer support groups, counselling, coaching, online skills courses, tailored support packages, emergency respite, other government supports, as well as tips and information, or visit our online home at www.carergateway.gov.au
Got some questions or thoughts for Patty or the team? Email us at cgconnections@benevolent.org.au and put ‘Attention Patty’ in the subject line.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
The Benevolent Society acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.
Patty
Barbara, are there instances where families remain in the house even though the child might have been discharged? Does that ever happen?
Barbara
Of course. So, a child that needs any sort of treatment at the hospital, so they might be an outpatient, or they might be an inpatient, but you can imagine if you are travelling, and some of our families travel thousands of kilometres to come and get the medical care that they need for their child. When the hospital is ready to release or discharge that child. Maybe they don't want them to travel the hundreds or thousands of kilometres back and forth.
Or just back home, they want that family to get comfortable with that care and support they need for that child before they go back home. So, they will come and stay at the Ronald McDonald House while that child continues to receive that outpatient treatment. And we've seen situations where children actually do better by staying in a Ronald McDonald House.
Patty
Yeah because they are in a stable environment. Of course
Barbara
And that’s what we see in a Ronald McDonald house.
---
Billy:
From the Benevolent Society, we welcome you to the Carer Gateway podcast, your host Patty Kikos.
The Care Gateway is the Australian Government national care hub and provides reliable services, support and advice specifically for carers.
This is where we share interviews with guests that have specialised knowledge that will help support carers to look after their emotional, mental and physical well-being.
We are recording on Aboriginal country, on lands which were never ceded. We acknowledge the traditional custodians and cultural knowledge holders of these lands and waters. We pay our respects to Aboriginal elders past, present and emerging.
Always was, always will be.
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Patty
Welcome back to Carer Conversations, and thanks for choosing to subscribe to our precious podcast.
It’s great to be connected again, especially because I’m itching to introduce you to Barbara Ryan who is the CEO of RMHC Australia.
Her impressive qualifications are in Physiotherapy, a Graduate Diploma in Gerontology, an Associate Diploma in Project Management and a Masters of Health Administration.
She has worked at Ronald McDonald House Charities Australia for over 10 years, initially as the National Program Manager overseeing the growth and development of new programs and since 2015 as the Chief Executive Officer.
Barbara is able to bring her passions to life at RMHC as she is dedicated to helping people in need and one of her personal values is family.
She just told me that by nature, she is by no means a runner, but turned a zero birthday last December, and she has set a goal to run a half marathon this year! Barbara. Hello.
Barbara
Hello, how are you?
Patty
I'm very excited to have you. Um, a marathon?
Barbara
Well.. A half marathon. Let's not go too far.
Patty
I'm still impressed. How are you preparing for this now that you’ve turned *cough* 40?
Barbara
Haha I wish! So, I'm running every second day. Well, I try to and I'm up to running 7 kilometres, so I'm hoping to hit 10 soon. So I keep saying it's not too much past 10 kilometres.
Patty
Hey, even if it doesn't happen, you're still a winner in my eyes. Now Barbara, when you were growing up, did you ever imagine you'd be a CEO of a national organisation?
Barbara
Never, never, never in a million years, although my mother was a great role model and she was a strong woman and really wanted her girls, my sister myself, to be independent, strong women. And I think she had high hopes for both of us. So I I'm hoping that she's proud of me.
Patty
I'm sure she is. I mean, were you the student that was always in leadership roles.
Barbara
I don't know about always, but I was a prefect at school and I did enjoy taking the leadership in some areas, so I think there was a part of me back then. But then I went on and became a physio and I think that started off my real passion for helping people where I could.
Patty
And so you were at the head of a rehab department and then you became the manager of the Physiotherapy department and a Sydney hospital.
Barbara
That's right. That's right. I was a physio and then went up into management. So, I was head of a physio department. And I think I realised early on, as in being in rehab, I was really good at pushing people around, so why not just move into management?
Patty {both laugh}
And then you worked in hospitals, and you gravitated, you said, towards older people. Why is that?
Barbara
Ohh, I really like the wisdom and the knowledge that I think our oldies have to share with us and I think they're undervalued, and I really enjoyed working with the oldies in rehab and really getting them back to having a full and functional life.
Patty
Yeah. The world's so fast and we need to slow down and. They teach us that. Where did your journey take you after your physiotherapy career?
Barbara
Well, as I said, I really enjoyed management and so I went up and started working in medical administration and then I moved over and was Director of Corporate Services at a hospital and then I moved to the NSW Department of Health.
Patty
What even is Director of Corporate Services?
Barbara
So, it looks after all the admin side of a hospital I do security medical records all the things the back of house or the back of office side.
Patty
I understand. And then what prompted the move to the NSW Department of Health.
Barbara
I just wanted to see it from their perspective. I think I'd worked in hospitals, and we could and couldn't do certain things. I wanted to understand that a little bit more.
Patty
And then I am told that you moved into the Royal Flying Doctor Service. How did that come about?
Barbara
I think I was just fortunate. Right place, right time as they say. It was a previous boss that I'd worked with and he came across as the CEO of The Royal Flying Doctor Service, and he approached me, and I went for the job there.
So, I became the National Health Program manager. And I just really fell in love with a not-for-profit space. You know, they've got amazing governance. So, they're well managed, but they've also got an incredible mission and passion and they've got the agility to be able to move, where sometimes in the public health system, it's so large and needs to be, it's slower to move. So therefore, I really enjoyed the not-for-profit.
Patty
Tell me why did you go to Ronald McDonald House charities?
Barbara
Well, I had a lot of friends that had worked in the corporate world, and I saw the things that they were doing and that was very different to public health and when the role came up at Ronald McDonald House Charities, I thought what a great way to almost have a foot in both camps.
I sat on the sidelines, and still do, of a great brand in Australia, McDonalds, and I learn a lot and have learned a lot from them, but I'm still very much rooted in the charity space and I think it was a great juxtaposition of two organisations that I think I could benefit from.
Patty
You sit comfortably on the fence.
Barbara
Well, I sit comfortably in the charity and I steal what I can from the corporate world.
Patty
Like what?
Barbara
Ohh well there's things that they are doing that I hear and see and then try and take and put that into the charity. So, for example, there's a big push on the psychological safety of our staff and volunteers in the charity, and McDonald's is doing a lot of work around that.
So we work with those teams and say, can we lift and shift? Can we look at what you're doing? Can we use your consultants? Can we use them at a better rate? Can we look at your frameworks and your policies and then we pick them up? So, it's saving money for the charity the whole way along, which I think is invaluable.
Patty
I agree. Do you have any experience as a carer?
Barbara
I think recently my mother, since COVID, has suffered a bit of memory loss. Her hearing loss has gotten worse, so she's becoming more socially isolated, so her world is getting smaller and smaller. She used to attend book clubs and charities herself, but that's now gone out the window.
And so, I think she's more on my radar and area of support. So, I do shopping for her and I make sure that we see her enough to get, make sure that she has a social interaction she needs.
Patty
Ronald McDonald House is a federal organisation. Can you explain that in very simple layman's terms for me?
Barbara
Of course! So that means that there are 12 legally separate charities that sit under one brand of Ronald McDonald House Charities, in Australia. So, for example, we've got Ronald McDonald House Charities of WA and Ronald McDonald House Charities Victoria and Tasmania, and there's also Ronald McDonald House Charities Australia.
So those local chapters, we call them, look after everything that happens within that state. For example, WA, they look at the services, they provide the support, they provide the programs under the auspice of Ronald McDonald House Charities, RMHC Australia looks after things such as brand, national fundraising, making sure we've got quality and standards in place.
Patty
Does Ronald McDonald, House Charities Australia oversee the various states, or are they equally one of the 12 separate legal charities?
Barbara
We're equal. We do a different role.
Patty
And what is your role?
Barbara
I'm the Ronald McDonald House Charities Australia CEO or Chief Executive Officer.
Patty
You mentioned McDonald's earlier. So, is this charity related to McDonald's? As in Mickey D for our American listeners or Maccas for our Aussie listeners?
Barbara
So, McDonald's is our founding admission partner. So, there was a Philadelphia Eagles player who had a child, a 5-year-old who was diagnosed with leukemia. And they did some fundraising. The team did some fundraising, and the local hospital said the oncologist there said I'd really like a house to support these families, that that can't go home and staying by their child's bedside.
And they went, went to one of their sponsors, McDonald's. And so, they're from there, McDonald's said, “Sure, we will give you the remaining amount of money to set up the very first Ronald McDonald House in Philadelphia.”
They really are, have stood by us the whole time. We're an independent charity. But they're there to support us.
Patty
They're not just a Big Mac and Quarter Pounder dispenser. How many houses exist around the world?
Barbara
Ohh, around the world. There are almost 400 Ronald McDonald houses now around the world and it's been operating for 50 years this year.
Patty
And are there other programs as well that support seriously ill and injured children and their families.
Barbara
We have a suite of programs so they run from Ronald McDonald Houses, which most people would be aware of, to Ronald McDonald Family Rooms in Australia, we've got Ronald McDonald learning Program, Ronald McDonald Family Retreats and of course we've got our Ronald McDonald Hospitality Carts.
Patty
Ohh, we are going to unpack every single one of those. How does McDonald's support the charity?
Barbara
They do it in a direct way, so we sit so the RHC Australia team actually sit in the McDonald's head office, and we do that for free. So, they get support from all of those departments that help the charity wherever they can.
But of course, through the thousand outlets and McDonald's restaurants right across the country, they put things in place that help us. There's Roundup and donations on the kiosk. There are money boxes through the drive through. And of course, their most infamous campaign McHappy Day now, and that raised last year $6.4 million directly to the charity, which is amazing for us.
Patty
It's incredible.
Barbara
Look, all their departments support us, so each of the departments in McDonald's Corporate have an objective or a couple of objectives about how they can directly support the charity. And of course there’s the licensees and crew, and the licensees will sit on our boards, they will do local fundraisers in their local restaurants, crew will get behind the charity as well.
So it really permeates every level of McDonalds.
Patty
It sounds like you’ve also got incredible corporate partners, who are they?
Barbara
We do, so it's not just McDonald's we've got, and look, I can't name them all, but a couple of them are like Hyundai. We get a couple of $100,000 dollars from them every year, plus 13 cars that help our local houses.
They are situated at our Ronald McDonald Houses, so any family there we help take them to either appointments or they might need to go to the local grocery store. We know that families, when they get diagnosed or when their child gets diagnosed with this terrible illness or injury, sometimes they leave wet washing in the washing machine. They're literally going from the GP in that rural town straight to a helicopter straight to Sydney.
Patty
To be airlifted to Sydney. Oh, I see, yes.
Barbara
Correct. And so, they're standing in the clothes that they went to the GP in. So, they will need to go to the local grocery store or somewhere.
Patty
Run some errands. And who does that? The volunteers, the workers?
Barbara
Well, the families can do it themselves, but also, we have volunteers. We have corporate groups that come in and cook up meals, have them in the pantry, have them in the fridge so that those families don't need to worry.
Patty
So, you've got Hyundai. Who else are some of your incredible corporate partners?
Barbara
We've got Amart furniture. that provide us with free furniture when we extend the house, when we renovate a house, when we build a new house.
Patty
So, things like couches and beds?
Barbara
Correct bedside tables. All the things that you think of in your own home. That's what we need in a Ronald McDonald House, bedside tables, lamps, etcetera.
We also have Sealy. You know, they replace all the beds in all our Ronald McDonald Houses across the country every couple of years and in our family retreats.
Patty
That's very impressive. You mentioned a suite of programs and one is possibly the most well-known, which is Ronald McDonald House. That's the one that I'm familiar with. Can you share a little about that?
Barbara
We have 18 Ronald McDonald houses across the country, so every single night we're supporting approximately 490 families.
Patty
So, every state in Australia?
Barbara
Every state in Australia. When families need to travel, and their child needs to access medical care and they've got nowhere to stay, we're there, Ronald McDonald House opens their doors to them, and so we don't just provide them with accommodation, which is obviously their basic need. But there is, you know, other families to support them. There are the volunteers, there's the staff, there is food in the pantry, food in the freezer. We're there to support them, we are literally their shoulder to cry on. They're where their family away from home when they're dealing with this terrible situation of having a seriously ill or injured child.
Patty
So last year in 2023, how many families would that charity have been able to accommodate?
Barbara
So just last year is more than 10,000 families in our Ronald McDonald House program alone.
Patty
Wow. Wow. And are there very specific criteria to meet those overwhelming demands for that service?
Barbara
Hmm. So, any family with a child being treated in a hospital in a local hospital or the partner hospital to our Ronald McDonald Houses is eligible to stay, but obviously we can't support that level of demand. So, what we then put on is an eligibility criteria.
So, it's families that are coming from a rural or remote location or families with a really seriously ill child.
Patty
Maybe you can give us some examples or share some stories from the myriad of families that you've met over the past years.
Barbara
Oh absolutely! So, it's any child that's diagnosed with a serious illness or injury. So, I remember I met a lovely young mother, she had 2 little boys, 2 little redheaded little boys, and they were gorgeous, you know, wonderful terrors, as boys should be. Yeah. And then her third child was a beautiful baby girl.
She was born with Down Syndrome and so had some cardiac issues, so she had to spend some time in the NICU in the Neo Natal Intensive Care Unit at the hospital. But because they came from farming, dad couldn't always make it down. So unfortunately, sometimes you can't take little ones into the neonatal intensive care unit so that poor mum was left at times not seeing her baby girl for a couple of days at a time until someone of her family could come down.
And we supported that, that mother and that family. And when her mother came down, so grandma came down or dad came down, we supported them as much as we can. But they're the sort of things that that occur in Ronald McDonald House.
Patty
Barbara, are there instances where families remain in the house even though the child might have been discharged? Does that ever happen?
Barbara
Of course. So, a child that needs any sort of treatment at the hospital, so they might be an outpatient, or they might be an inpatient, but you can imagine if you are travelling, and some of our families travel thousands of kilometres to come and get the medical care that they need for their child. So, when the hospital is ready to release or discharge that child. Maybe they don't want them to travel the hundreds or thousands of kilometres back and forth.
They want that family to get comfortable with that care and support they need for that child before they go back home. So, they will come and stay at the Ronald McDonald House while that child continues to receive that outpatient treatment. And we've seen situations where children actually do better by staying in a Ronald McDonald House.
Patty
Yeah, because they're in a stable environment, of course. I was today years old when I discovered that Ronald McDonald House helps families experiencing a range of illnesses, whereas previously I thought that there had to be a cancer diagnosis. Is there a family that you can think of that has really benefited from this service?
Barbara
Ohh look as I as I said many you know only 10,000 thousand families just last year. But there was a young boy and I think it resonates because I had not a dissimilar situation as far as the trampoline I had for my own children and this young lad, 12, I think he was, was on the trampoline.
He’d done the last flip of the day, and of course, he came down awkwardly, so he unfortunately became a quadriplegic as a consequence of that unfortunate incident. And when he was staying in the hospital when they discharged him, either for a short period during the day, or discharged him and he stayed, and the family continued to stay at Ronald McDonald House, his recovery actually improved because he was surrounded by family. He was surrounded by other families. He was surrounded by children, and that's what we see in a Ronald McDonald House.
Patty
And that would have lifted his spirits as well. Ronald McDonald Family Rooms, how many family rooms exist around the country? Tell us all about them.
Barbara
Well, the family room is a place in a hospital where you can go just to get away from the bedside. So, we have 19 Ronald McDonald Family Rooms across the country. And last year we supported about 45 000 families through the door of our Ronald McDonald Family Rooms. So, they're places that are inside the hospital.
So, they're like, your home away from home and they could have things such as a washing machine, a kitchen, television, a nap room. And, you know, they’re places where people can go to get away.
Patty
And decompress a little bit.
Barbara
Correct. Have a cup of tea for free. You know there'll be volunteers there that have cooked muffins. There'll be a place where you can do your washing. There'll be place you can have a nap, so they're really your home away from home while you're staying and you're inside the hospital and they're available to anyone to anyone with a child in a hospital.
Patty
So many families would potentially be using these family rooms at the same time. Is that correct?
Barbara
Yeah. Yeah. We try and make them as large as we can get the space for. And that means that those families that are going through such traumatic times can connect together.
Patty
So carers can support each other.
Barbara
Correct!
Patty
What's an example of how a family can really make use of this room? And they're obviously located all over Australia. Isn't that right?
Barbara
Correct. All over Australia. Look, it's I think you know appreciating how difficult it is when you have a child in hospital and how it pulls that family apart, doesn't matter whether you're a metropolitan based family or rural based family it's traumatic on that family.
I heard of a family once using the family room where mum or dad, whoever was at home with the remaining children, would bring them into the family room. The mum or dad that was staying bedside would come into the family room. They would have their evening meal together.
They would then shower the children that were going home and put them in their jammies, you know, kiss them goodnight and then mum or dad would take them home. So that sense of normalcy is so important for the family unit and for those other children that feel torn and not seeing their parents by their bedside.
Patty
Especially at that time of day, you know, dinner and bedtime. It's a it's a very precious bonding time of the day. What is the Ronald McDonald Learning program? I've not heard of this, so I'm keen to broadcast this and shout it from the rooftops.
Barbara
I'm with you all the way because I think this is one of our hidden gems. When children go through this traumatic time of having a serious illness or injury, they don't go to school, they're in hospital for weeks, months or even if they're at home, they don't go back to school.
You know, we've had family stay in a Ronald McDonald House up to 4 years.
Patty
Really?!
Barbara
Yes, a long time. And so, when the child and the family turn around and that child needs to go back to school, they're then faced with the difficulty of navigating this education system and what we do is we can step in and say we can provide free tuition for this child to help that child catch up on that missed education.
So, and we know that, you know that has such a profound impact on that child and the family, because we all know children and they'll be so harsh on themselves, you know, “I'm silly, I'm stupid.”
Patty
“I'm left behind. I might have to repeat. “
Barbara
Correct.
Patty
“My friends don't wanna play with me anymore.”
Barbara
Yeah. Yep, we know that if we provide and we provide it to about 1200 children every year the learning program, and we know from that we save about 45 children from repeating. And about 40 children from dropping out of school. So that really does change their whole life trajectory.
Patty
Yeah. Is there a big criteria in the application process?
Barbara
It really is just a period away from school, so it must be around a term. But it doesn't need to be consecutive periods and they need to be under some sort of tertiary pediatric medical support.
Patty
I wonder if this would also be available to siblings of children that had to go into hospital?
Barbara
That's a really good point, because siblings are often pulled in all sorts of different directions when they've got a sick brother or sister. Yeah, but we have opened the learning program now to siblings. Which is, I think really exciting that we can offer that support to siblings as well as the sick child themselves.
Patty
So, in order to be eligible, must these students have used a Ronald McDonald House or a Ronald McDonald Family Room first?
Barbara
No, all of our programs are independent of each other, if any child that has had a serious illness or injury, and I know I met a young girl once who was in year 6 and then going into Year 7 and she was diagnosed with epilepsy and not sort of a condition that you would think about a child needing level of support, but it's really hard to manage the treatment and the medication regime for these children, and often they will go to school for 2 weeks and then be off for 3 weeks and then go to school for 4 weeks, but then be off for 2 weeks and then go.
Patty
It's a good point.
Barbara
Yes, and it was that child we were able to step in and that horrible transition or that difficult, I shouldn’t say, “horrible”, difficult transition of transitioning to year 7. We were able to step in and help that child not just by getting them across what they've missed, but their self-confidence and you know how they feel about themselves and their well-being I think is so important to their success.
Patty
Yeah. Ohh, how wonderful. You mentioned that Ronald McDonald have family retreats. Let's unpack this a little bit.
Barbara
Well, they’re beautiful places. I want to call them almost a holiday house that's available to these families. So, you know, we've already talked about how traumatic it is for the whole family when you have a seriously ill or injured child, you know, the financial stress of mum and dad, maybe, dropping out of the workforce.
The psychological stress of what that means, the decisions they make about their child and their other children. The emotional stress on the partnership or in that relationship is difficult. So, what we are able to then offer these families is time together, for every member of that family.
Patty
How many retreats do you have in total?
Barbara
We have 7 beautiful, beautiful family retreats across the country like we've got them in resorts in places like Palm Cove, private beaches, down in the southern parts of NSW, resorts in WA, they're just beautiful.
Patty
I can imagine that some families would say that they would never have been able to have a holiday without this program because medical costs are expensive. Having to relinquish your full-time role to care for a loved one is expensive. Bills don't stop coming, do they?
Barbara
Definitely not. And you know, I know one of my colleagues said a mother that rang the office one day seeking support from us and we offered her a family retreat. She cried, you know, because she said my family would never have had this opportunity.
Patty
Well, after the trauma you need the time to process that because you'll never be the same. So, you need to make those small changes and edits when landing back into your old life. Because I can only imagine that there'd be so many aspects of your life that just no longer fit
Barbara
Correct, and I think again, we need to think about the parents, and we need to think about the other children that have missed out so much during that time of caring for a serious ill child. So, to be able to care for and make that family unit resilient, I think is so important for the longevity of that family unit.
Patty
Yeah. I would agree, to be honest, Barbara, I'd hate to be the person responsible for managing those reservations. What kind of experiences can you share from some families?
Barbara
I know some of our family retreats have wait lists, which is so sad. Yeah, but you know, I spoke to a family once and they took their whole family. So, they had a couple of children, but the little boy was terminally ill and so unfortunately, he passed away after they went to the family retreat, but they were so appreciative because it was the last beautiful memories and photos and stories that they had as a whole family unit.
Patty
Ohh, how precious. You mentioned something that I've never heard of. What is the Ronald McDonald hospitality cart?
Barbara
Well, obviously you're not as old as I am because I remember the tea lady and the tea trolleys in hospitals.
Well, so our hospitality cart is like a trolley. It's like if you imagine a tea trolley, that's what it's like and it's managed by volunteers that take our hospitality cart around to the bedside where the families and carers are sitting there day and night for days or weeks at an end caring for their seriously ill child.
There's so much amazing support in our communities to help others, so we get volunteers that stock supply and then run the hospitality cart around the ward to support the families and they can be. Things like, for example in Mount Isa hospital, you can't drink the water, so we give water out. There'll be toys for the children to keep them occupied. There'll be toiletries for mum, dad or the carers. So, as we know that, as I said before, they could leave home with nothing. And so, a toothbrush, magazine, some food, some snacks.
Patty
Yes of course.
Barbara
All those things are so important.
Patty
Sure, if someone listening realises that they need help as they qualify, or perhaps know someone that does need help, how can they access Ronald McDonald House charities?
Barbara
Well, the best way is to go to our website that has all our details. It's got all our houses, all our programs around the country and that's www.rmhc.org.au and on there, as I said, you'll find all our programs, information and our phone number, which we support 24/7, so if anyone needs to know more information about us, just give us a call.
Patty
I have no choice but to reward you with some rapid fire wrap up questions you've told us so much information. Now we need to know some information about you. What do you think?
Barbara
OK. Go for it!
Patty
What are the three things that you cannot live without?
Barbara
Ohh I think my family. So I'm such a family person. My beautiful husband and my children. And of course I've got 2 gorgeous granddaughters, 4 and 2, and they're just as beautiful and of course my mum.
Patty
Do you like surprises? Type A personality much?
Barbara
No! I almost said to my husband it was almost a prenuptial agreement, but not really only in jest as no surprise parties. So, I'd prefer to be in the know.
Patty
Who do you turn to when you are sad?
Barbara
I think my family very much, particularly my husband. He's my rock that I lean on.
Patty
When you go out to dinner with friends, do you like to share food, or should everyone keep their plates to themselves?
Barbara
Ohh definitely sharing.
Patty
A woman close to my own heart.
It's all about the conversation, not so much about the food in my mind. So, it's food and it's just the catalyst to good friends. And good conversation.
Do you love tapas?
Barbara
Tapas! love tapas! I also love Lebanese food, which is often very similar. So Yep, love that.
Patty
And I loved meeting you today.
Barbara
Thank you. Thank you. It's been a pleasure. Thank you.
Patty
That’s all we have time for today folks. I feel so lucky that I got to meet and introduce you to Barbara as she really is a woman that was always ahead of her time, and she’s just as clever as she is heart centred.
We will of course include the website in the show notes, but if you’re already ready with a pen and poised to write some details down, here they are:
The website for RMHC is https://www.rmhc.org.au and the number to call is 1300 307 642.
If this chat with Barbara touched your heart, or you know of someone that can benefit from hearing it, liking, subscribing or leaving us a 5 star review, really helps us get to the right listening ears.
We’re sending you lots of love from Carer Gateway and until we meet again, please take extra good care of yourself and schedule in the things that help restore your energy.
Billy:
If you are caring for a relative or a friend who has a disability, a mental health condition, a life limiting health or medical condition.
Or they are frail because they're getting older. Please contact us at Carer Gateway on 1800 422 737, or look us up on www.carergateway.gov.au
And if you are a carer, you're allowed to take time to look after yourself. You are just as important as the person you take care of.