Gathering of Kindness

Under the shaded canopy of a Japanese Flowering Cherry we grew a social movement to improve our fractured healthcare system.

In March 2016, Mary Freer and Dr Catherine Crock AM, joined forces and created a Gathering of Kindness. This inspirational event grew out of a recognition that there is a clear and direct link between staff wellbeing and patient wellbeing. Catherine and Mary understood too well that disruptive or intimidating behaviours by staff undermine team effectiveness and create barriers to cooperation.

We created possible futures by carefully selecting 100 unique participants: actors, clinicians, artists, psychiatrists, musicians and innovators helped us create the right atmosphere to work together, through conversation and action to design a better way forward for healthcare.

So many things have come out of our time together, including an entire radio program dedicated to the Gathering of Kindness by Dr. Rachael Kohn from The Spirit of Things on ABC radio’s Radio National. This program was recorded live at the Gathering. Listen to the program here.