Community group will use harvest to hand out health and wellbeing information packs to operators and drivers
By Brad Gardner | November 8, 2010
A NSW community group will use this year’s harvest to hand out information packs to truck operators and drivers detailing health tips and services available to them.
Ron Westbrook from the Riverina Community Rural Network at Cootamundra says hundreds of packs are being put together to hand out at grain silos.
Westbrook says about 30 silos will be visited during the harvest and while dates have not been confirmed he expects staff to begin handing out packs later this month.
As well as informing drivers and operators about maintaining good health and seeking help, the packs will also contain business cards and contacts for accessing services such as Centrelink.
“It’s not just health. It’s raising awareness of all the services available,” Westbrook says of the packs.
He says the Riverina Community Rural Network is working with the driver support group Trans-Help. Westbrook says initiatives like the packs are important due to the lack of information in rural communities compared to cities.
“In rural communities more often that not people don’t know,” he says.
Westbrook is still contacting grain handlers to organise for the community group to hand out the packs. He says the group will cover areas within a two-hour radius of Wagga Wagga.