Mission

The Cleft Palate and Lip Society of Western Australia (CleftPALS WA) was established to provide support, reassurance, and knowledge to parents and families of children with a cleft condition.  CleftPALS WA is a voluntary support group consisting of parents of cleft children, cleft affected adults and professionals who care for cleft conditions.  Our motto is ‘The Sharing Helps’.  We provide support to new families as well as advocating for better health services and research.  We understand the difficulties, heartache and sometimes the shock that comes with having a child with a cleft and are here to help you as best we can. This website seeks to complement the work we do and aims to support those regional families who don’t always have the opportunity to come to a morning tea or visit a contact parent to ask for advice. 

CleftPALS WA provide feeding and post-surgery equipment, breast pumps and other items needed to help you feed your baby, as well as providing support for breastfeeding and expressing. 

CleftPALS WA also assists new cleft-affected families through their contact parent program.  This program assigns a family with an experienced committee member which can be extremely beneficial for families who need a little extra support.  If you would like to be assigned a support parent,  email our Initial Contact Coordinator or text  0416 232 156. 

Medical care in Western Australia

Western Australia has two surgeons that specialise in cleft lip and palate surgery.  Dr David Gillett and Dr Vij Vijayasekaran are very experienced and dedicated to cleft lip and palate conditions.  The Perth Cleft Lip and Palate Unit has a long and proud tradition of being best practice and world leading pioneers in this condition with a team of professionals who are committed to maintaining the legacy and giving the best of care.  The unit includes dental specialists, ear nose and throat surgeons, speech pathologists, a feeding team, paediatricians and geneticists. 

History

The Cleft Palate and Lip Unit was formed by Plastic Surgeon Mr Harold McComb in the mid 1950’s at Princess Margaret Hospital, joined later by Orthodontist Dr William Brogan.  It was Dr Brogan who in 1971 suggested the mother of a cleft-affected child begin a support group for all of the other parents of cleft-affected children.  Flyers were put up at Dr Brogan’s private rooms and soon there was enough interest to hold the first CleftPALS meeting at his private residence.  Turnout steadily increased to the point where a hall was hired to cater for all the interested people.   

The CleftPALS motto ‘The Sharing Helps’ can be traced back even further to local GPs who were the forerunners of the formalisation of parent support groups.  Recognising the benefit of sharing and demystifying the medical journey, GPs would connect mothers of children with similar health issues, encouraging them to share and ‘pay it forward’. 

Committee

Please Note

We are volunteers, not medical professionals.  Any medical information provided by this site is of a general nature and cannot substitute for the advice of a medical professional.  All families are asked to check with their surgeon or the clinical team before acting upon any advice and no responsibility is accepted by CleftPALS.