Kate Castledine

Kate Castledine has been involved with Children’s Health for 18 years. She initially trained as a registered nurse at Princess Margaret Hospital for Children, then worked for 10 years presenting and later coordinating the AWCH WA Hospital Familiarisation Program. For the last 3 years she has been an AWCH WA committee member.

In 2008 Kate took the Hospital Familiarisation Program to the children of Tjukula remote school in the far North East of Western Australia where a fellow AWCH WA committee member was teaching. This wonderful opportunity to prepare a small group of mainly indigenous children for the possibility of hospitalisation raised Kate’s awareness of the unique challenges facing indigenous children and their families when they need to access health care or be hospitalised hundreds of kilometres away from their family and community. As a result the AWCH WA committee is in the process of making a film to prepare rural indigenous children for the possibility of hospitalisation.

As an AWCH WA committee member Kate continues to offer her support and encouragement to the presenters and coordinator of the Hospital Familiarisation Program and gives presentations about the program to early childhood teacher trainees at local universities.

Kate lives in Perth with her husband and two teenage children and remains committed to raising awareness of and advocating for the social and emotional needs of children in healthcare.