The Producer
Catherine Crock
Catherine Crock works as a doctor at The Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne. She is the physician in charge of the general anaesthesia list for painful procedures in children with cancer and also conducts clinics in the Centre for Adolescent Health.
Over the past ten years, she has achieved widespread acceptance for the routine use of general anaesthesia for lumbar punctures and other procedures. A large part of Catherine's work has been to minimise the stress and anxiety for families of sick children.
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In 2004 she was awarded The Royal Children's Hospital's Chairman's medal for advocating for families.
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In 2006 she was awarded the Minister's Award for outstanding individual achievement at the Victorian Public Healthcare Awards.
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In 2007 her team in Day Surgery were awarded the Australian Council for Healthcare Standards National award for Clinical Excellence and Patient Safety.
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In 2008 she was invited as a delegate to the Prime Minister's 2020 summit to discuss patient and family centred care.
Her projects include:
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Creating teaching videos for parents, children and staff to view before procedures. -
A trial of a new treatment of painful ulcers in babies with vascular tumours.
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A trial to minimise the severity of lumbar puncture headaches.
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Investigating ways to reduce the pain of blood tests and other procedures in children.
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Investigating period problems in adolescents with chronic fatigue.
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Introducing regular music therapy to day surgery.
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Introducing parent pagers and video phones for patients.
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Introducing a music and information channel to hospital televisions .
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The creation of the Hush Collection www.hush.org.au and Cello Lullaby www.cellolullaby.org.au
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Using these CDs with all children's hospitals in Australia