The establishment of the Department of Family, Community and Emergency Care (FaCE), a new department in our Faculty is a significant milestone in our story as Faculty. This department merges the expertise of five existing divisions: Family Medicine (FM), Emergency Medicine (EM), Sport and Exercise Medicine (SEM), Interdisciplinary Palliative Care and Medicine (IPCM), and the Primary Health Care Directorate (PHC).
The formation of FaCE is focused around “first contact” clinical care within the district health system and seeks to support and give tangible expression to the renewed vision of the Faculty: “Igniting agency for a just and inclusive society built on health equity”.
The inception of FaCE is rooted in multiple historical threads and recognises the importance of the principles of health equity, health promotion, community engagement, and the social determinants of health. This department, however, has a more specific academic project which brings together an aligned group of partner disciplines and approaches that share an underpinning philosophy revolving around generalist skills, comprehensive person-centredness, and providing coordinated and integrated care across all levels of health services, whilst being grounded in the district health services. Through FaCE, the Faculty will develop a more comprehensive capacity to teach and research in the arena of family, community, and emergency care, which comprise so-called ‘first contact’ disciplines in the health sciences. The health services will gain an academic partner that is more coordinated and responsive to the needs of communities in terms of health promotion, primary and emergency care. The community of this department has already committed to the massive transformative purpose of "Building inclusive communities of care together".