FAMILY ACCOMMODATION INITIATIVE TRANSPLANT HOUSING

Our F.A.I.T.H. housing program has been very valuable to those with chronic disease, in particular the kidney community of Western Australia.

Transplants are critical to the survival of many kidney disease patients. With the average wait for a transplant at approximately four years, living kidney donations are increasing - which is where a healthy person donates a kidney to be implanted into another person with irreversible kidney disease.

F.A.I.T.H. provides furnished accommodation for families who need to travel to Perth for living kidney transplants. Kidney Health Australia has provided many rural families with much needed lengthy stays accommodation, which they could not otherwise afford.

Easing the strain of live donation
Due to the costs involved in living kidney donation, families often incur financial strain due to lost income from time off work, accommodation and travel costs. Kidney transplants are done in city based hospitals which means rural and regional families have no choice but to travel to the city for the operation and follow up treatment. One transplant patient reported he travelled for 8 hours by bus into the city, each time he needed treatment and he then waited in hospital corridors before catching the bus back home, as the cost of accommodation was too high.

Helping to ease the emotional and financial stress of live kidney donation
Prior to our FAITH home, rural families had no affordable furnished accommodation options in Perth for the duration of the transplant operation and after-transplant follow-up (which can be up to 3 months).

In 2006, the Department of Housing and Works (WA) purchased two properties for living donor rural families in the Perth suburb of Morley. A partnership agreement between Kidney Health Australia and Foundation Housing WA was established, with LotteryWest provided a generous grant for a complete fit-out of the houses.

Families involved in living donation and families involved in deceased donation and dialysis education have stayed for periods of one to five months. F.A.I.T.H. has also assisted families from Victoria and Queensland to participate in kidney transplants in WA. We are currently working towards providing F.A.I.T.H. accommodation in all Australian states.

Charges for this service
Two government schemes can assist with accommodation costs, if eligible - Patient Assisted Travel Scheme (PATS) and Live Kidney Donor - Travel Reimbursement Scheme administered through WA Country Health Service (WACHS). KHA will charge the full amount claimable through each of these schemes. Ask your social worker for further info after you read about the WA Patient Assisted Travel Scheme (PATS).