The Victorian Continence Resource Centre is a service of the Continence Foundation of Australia, Victoria, a not for profit organsiation. The Centre receives HACC funding to support its statewide services that include: raising awareness about bladder and bowel control problems and ways to prevent them: provision of community education and resources to consumers, carers, health professionals and service providers. In addition the Centre regularly presents seminars for health and community workers.
Background
The centre was established in 1993 when incontinence was emerging as a health issue. There were few resources around to get the message out and few specialist continence services.
At that time awareness about continence problems was poor and there was general acceptance that little could be done to prevent problems and management was focused on mopping up the incontinence or having surgery. Incontinence was not seen as a health problem that could be treated or managed.
Incontinence was a taboo subject - people did not talk about it and health professionals did not ask!
In the intervening 15 or so years much has changed. Victoria now has a well established network of continence services offering treatment and management from a team of health professionals.
In 2000, a specific continence support service for children with a disability program commenced. The focus of this program is to provide support to parents and carers of children with a disability with toilet training and continence management programs.
Nationally the Continence Helpline was established in 1999 as part of the National Continence Management Strategy. Resources and awareness programs have been a key emphasis of this strategy.
The Centre has changed over the years as the needs of the community and health sector have changed. Health promotion has become the guiding framework of the Centre with the focus being on health education health information and resource development.
Vision
The vision of the centre is 'to be a leader' in continence promotion and the prevention of incontinence and to be a centre of excellence that provides education, advice and information to people with bladder and/or bowel problems their families, carers, health professionals and special needs groups.
Strategic Goals
- To strengthen and broaden our health promotion activities
- To provide evidence based and best practice health education and information programs
- To work in partnership with others to raise community awareness about this major health issue
- To develop accessible consumer and carer support mechanisms
- To build capacity within the workforce to better manage continence issues
Membership
Members of the Continence Foundation of Australia, from the state of Victoria make up the membership of the CFA Victorian Branch. There is currently over 350 members of the state branch. Members receive quarterly newsletters from the VCRC and other updates on activities that the VCRC is undertaking.
Donations
VCRC welcomes any donations that assists us to continue to provide our services. The centre holds both charitable and deductible gift recipient status. Donations may be monetary or in kind.
Volunteering
VCRC has opportunities for volunteers to assist us with the services and activities we provide. Most activities involve assistance with office administration tasks. If you are interested in offering assistance with volunteering please contact us on 9816 8266.
