Christmas should be a heartwarming time of year for families, sharing joy, festivity and hope for the year ahead. Sadly, for the people in our care who cannot afford to travel or celebrate with their loved ones, it can be one of the loneliest holidays.
Mercy Health Foundation is calling for donations to its Compassionate Support Fund to assist our residents, clients, patients and their families who are experiencing social and financial hardship this Christmas season.
Your support means we can continue to help people like Asma* and her baby daughter Sami* by bringing them closer to their families. When Asma was admitted to Mercy Hospital for Women, our social workers identifed that she was suffering from depression and anxiety. She had been living far away from her family, community and everything that was familiar to her. Adjusting to life with a newborn baby can be challenging for any new mother, but for Asma, her limited English, a complicated life in Melbourne and a newborn baby girl, Sami, meant she was even more vulnerable and alone.
Mercy Health, in collaboration with the Department of Health and Human Services, worked to reunite Asma and Sami with their family in Western Australia. By simply assisting Asma with the cost of travel, Asma and Sami could recover and thrive with the comfort of their family and community nearby.
Your donation to the Mercy Health Foundation Compassionate Support Appeal can help bring Christmas joy to families like Asma and Sami, and other people in need in our hospitals, aged care homes or home care services.
*Names have been changed