5 June 2025
Dr. Ben Balzer GP from the Sydney Children’s Hospital at Randwick.
Dr Ben thanked Cornucopia for the privilege to be back at Sealevel for the second time enjoying the wonderful luncheon and hospitality.
Dr Balzer’s work encompasses a wide range of patients, working with vulnerable children, adolescents and parents, navigating the feelings of powerlessness, trauma, shame and secrecy around a taboo subject, and frustrations with the system and processes designed to keep children safe which can often be difficult to fulfil.
Thanks to the generous support of the Cornucopia Committee, we run an online parent support group once a month, to provide families with safe and accessible space to connect with and find support. Discussion topics and guided by the parents and the session ends with guided meditation. The group is unique in Australia and with the help of Cornucopia we hope we are able to expand our online support to the rest of Sydney and regional areas, where help is harder to find.
Cornucopia commitment and funding have also helped us purchase a new colposcope, a high tech piece of equipment used for better quality assessments of young people after trauma.
We have also begun a large-scale research program around the groundwork you support. This research allows us to give voices to the vulnerable. One of the mothers said “it is comforting to know that I am not alone” and similarly it is comforting to know that we in the CPU are not alone with such a fantastic group of people like you all supporting us in this important work, so thank you to The Cornucopia Committee.
