Information sheets for cardiovascular Aboriginal health

The Heart Foundation has developed a set of information sheets on cardiovascular disease and its risk factors for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Designed for patients and families, these information sheets cover a range of topics including:

• Blood pressure
• Cholesterol
• Coronary heart disease
• Heart attack
• Nutrition
• Obesity
• Physical activity
• Smoking

For these, and other downloadable information sheets for Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders on heart failure and hypertension, click here. 

Sax Institute - new website for research into practice

The new Sax Institute website is a useful resource for anyone interested in the interface between research evidence and health decision making. Researchers using the site can sign up to work with policy makers, learn about the Institute’s research assets or join one of the Institute's collaborative networks.  They plan to improve access to research, generate new research, and develop ways to increase the use of research in practice.

The Sax Instituteis a not-for-profit organisation, independent of any one university or research group. They receive core funding from the NSW Ministry of Health and are supported by other government, non-government, philanthropic and competitive research funding agencies.

Bereavement guidelines for mental health professionals

SANE Australia has developed bereavement guidelines to help mental health professionals support the families and friends of mentally ill people who have died by suicide. The guidelines were created after research revealed that these families and friends were not receiving the support they needed, despite the fact that as a group they are at risk for health problems and suicide themselves.

The guidelines were created for mental health nurses, psychologists, psychiatrists and other mental health workers to use as a consistent approach to assist bereaved families.

Palliative care - online training

The Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association now provides free palliative care online training for all health professionals.  "Whether you work in aged care, acute or primary care, chances are you’ll find yourself at some stage caring for someone with a terminal illness. Every person’s needs are unique and sorting your way through the emotional and social stresses faced by a dying person and their family can be difficult."

The four modules cover screening and assessment, end of life conversations, discussing Advance Care Planning and links to a network of experts for support. 

Patient safety - handover between primary and acute care

The transition of care between different sectors of the health system is a key point in the delivery of health care where adverse events and disruptions in the continuity of care can occur. The interface (or multiple interfaces) between primary and community-based care and acute care present a preventable safety risk to patients and their carers. 

The Integrated Care Working Group (ICWG) of the National Lead Clinicians Group (LCG) commissioned the Australian Primary Health Care Research Institute (APHCRI) to undertake a review of evidence and policy around patients' transitions between the primary and acute sectors. Patient Safety - handover of care between primary and acute care examines clinical and non-clinical issues, cost saving opportunites and experiences both in Australia and overseas.  

Autism Spectrum Disorder

The growing number of children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is an issue of concern both in Australia and overseas.  The NSW Parliamentary Research Service has published a briefing paper on the issue, authored by Lenny Roth.

The NSW and Federal Governments have introduced a number of ASD initiatives, but reports have identified continued gaps in support, including access to timely diagnosis, funding for intensive early interventions and supports in the education system.  In Victoria and the UK, governments have developed specific ASD action plans to guide reforms, and in the US a number of states have ASD Plans.

Incontinence in Australia (AIHW Report)

Incontinence in Australia reports that 316,500 people experienced severe incontinence in 2009, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics' Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers. The number of people who always needed help or supervision with their bladder or bowel control was 144,400. About 96,100 people with disability aged 10 and over living in households (2.7% of the total) and 99,700 people living in cared accommodation (63.2%) used continence aids, irrespective of their level of incontinence.

The report also includes estimates of prevalence rates and total expenditure on incontinence, as well as the number of primary carers of people suffering from the condition.

Maternal and child nutrition - Lancet special series

Maternal and child undernutrition was the subject of a series of papers in The Lancet in 2008. This year the authors re-evaluate the problems of maternal and child undernutrition and also examine the growing problems of overweight and obesity for women and children, and their consequences in low-income and middle-income countries. Many of these countries are said to have the double burden of malnutrition: continued stunting of growth and deficiencies of essential nutrients along with the emerging issue of obesity. The series also assesses national progress in nutrition programs and international efforts toward previous recommendations. 

The Executive Summary is available in full text, individual articles require a log in from here.  Ask your librarian for the full text, or access them via CIAP.

Oral health and dental care in Australia 2012

Oral Health and Dental Care in Australia: key facts and figures 2013, is a report from the AIHW which   presents the most recent information on the oral health and dental care of Australians. Data are presented on tooth decay, tooth loss, dental appearance, dental visits, insurance cover and the dental workforce.  In 2010, around 64% of people aged 5 and over had visited a dentist in the previous year and 54% had some level of private dental insurance.

Investing in Vision - Fred Hollows Foundation report

Drawing on previous work that estimated the global cost of eliminating avoidable blindness (The Price of Sight), as well as the global economic benefits (The Value of Sight), the Investing in Vision report provides compelling evidence of the cost-effectiveness of additional investments designed to strengthen eye health systems in developing countries.  

This is the final report in the series commissioned by The Fred Hollows Foundation to calculate the costs and benefits of achieving the VISION 2020 goal of eliminating avoidable blindness by the year 2020.   Key findings include the fact that in developing countries, the economic benefits of eliminating avoidable blindness and visual impairment outweigh the costs by a factor of 4 to 1. 

Cervical screening in Australia

Cervical screening in Australia 2010-2011 presents the latest national statistics monitoring the National Cervical Screening Program, which aims to reduce incidence, morbidity and mortality from cervical cancer. Published by the AIHW this report indicates that around 57% of women in the target age group of 20-69 took part in the program, with more than 3.6 million women screened in 2010 and 2011. Cervical cancer incidence in this age group remains at a historical low of 9 new cases per 100,000 women, and deaths are also low, historically and by international standards, at 2 deaths per 100,000 women.

Urogynaecology and female pelvic reconstructive surgery

Now available is the free virtual issue from BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, with the theme Urogynaecology and female pelvic reconstructive surgery. In this free issue there are four papers reporting on pelvic floor symptoms many years after delivery. Other papers available focus on incontinence, prolapse and mesh related complications.

Special Issue: Urogynaecology and female pelvic reconstructive surgery. January 2013, 120( 2)

Mental Health Services in Australia

The following sections of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's Mental Health Services in Australia website have been updated:
1. Psychiatric disability support services
2. Workforce
3. Personal Helpers and Mentors (PHaMs)

Mental Health Services in Australia (MHSA)

Improving Public Hospitals

The COAG Reform Council  has published it's first report on the National Partnership on Improving Public Hospitals. No State or Territory met all of its targets for improving timely care in both elective surgery and emergency departments. 

The report assesses governments’ performance against elective surgery and emergency department targets. The elective surgery targets are for the proportion of patients seen within clinically recommended times, and for reducing average waiting periods that go over those times. Governments are also required to ensure that the 10% of people who have waited the longest beyond the recommended time are seen within a year. The emergency department targets are that patients must be admitted to hospital, referred on or discharged within four hours—all States and Territories have agreed to achieve 90% by 2015.

Read the full report here.

Listening to Patients

This new white paper from 1000 Lives Plus explains how listening to patients and understanding what it feels like to experience care is a key way for NHS Wales can improve its services. Three main concepts of the patient experience were identified;

1. First and lasting impressions, including dignity and respect.

2. Receiving care in a safe, supportive, healing environment.

3. Understanding of and involvement in care.

Download the full document "Improving Healthcare White paper - No. 11"

Lost Labour Force due to Arthritis

Arthritis is a common and costly health condition internationally. The direct medical costs of arthritis are significant, with the condition being the fourth most common reason for seeking general practitioner medical care. Treatment of arthritis in Australia cost around $4 billion (AU) in health system expenditure in 2004–05, the fourth largest cause of health expenditure in the country. However, this figure covers only the direct medical costs, and the indirect costs, are considered to be larger. This article "The personal and national costs of lost labour force participation due to arthritis: an economic study" written by Deborah J Schofield et al appears in the open access journal BMC Public Health. The authors are affiliated with the University of Sydney, or the University of Canberra and/or the University Department of Rural Health (North Coast) -  Lismore, Australia.

Fly-in Fly-out (FIFO) and Drive-in Drive-out (DIDO) Workforce Practices in Regional Australia

The House of Representatives Standing Committee on Regional Australia has released its report on the use of fly-in fly-out (FIFO) and drive-in-drive-out (DIDO) workforce practices in regional Australian, to which the National Rural Health Alliance (NRHA) made a submission and gave evidence. Chapter 6 (PDF 284KB) of the report "Delivery of health services and local training" focuses on the delivery of health services and local training. The Committee has indicated support for two of the NRHA's recommendations. The first of these is for a National Rural Health Plan "that sets strategies and targets for achieving fair access to services for people living in regional and remote areas" (Recommendation 19). The second, for each Regional Development Australia committee, in consultation with Medicare Locals, to have a health focus in its Strategic Plan, is picked up in Recommendation 20. (NRHA eforum 1/3/13)

Immersing Undergraduates into an Interprofessional Longitudinal Rural Placement

The aim of the program was to place students from different health programs together, in a rural environment, for one or two semesters of the academic year to promote interprofessional learning. Student learning experiences can be enhanced through engagement and integration in a rural community context. Interprofessional learning in a rural community placement can increase students' understanding of professionalism, teamwork and collegiality, which are all important components of collaborative practice. This research in outlined in this article in the journal "Rural and Remote Health". It was published in February 2013.

Negative Attitudes Towards Aboriginal Australians

Racial prejudice, an everyday experience for Aboriginal people in Australia, has detrimental effects on mental and physical health. Negative, prejudicial attitudes among healthcare professionals can increase existing access barriers to services. This study, "Comparative validation of self-report measures of negative attitudes towards Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders", published in April 2013 in "Rural and Remote Health", used three tools to examine negative attitudes towards Aboriginal Australians, and suggests an opportunity to address racial prejudice in undergraduate curricula. (NRHA eforum 12/4/13)

Developing Research in Partnership with Aboriginal Communities - Strategies for Improving Recruitment and Retention

Australian Aboriginal communities in urban, rural and remote areas are continuing to suffer high rates of perinatal mortality and morbidity that will impact on the future health of the community. It has been well documented that Aboriginal women have extreme distrust of mainstream pregnancy-related health care and suggested that late entry into antenatal care is as high as 50% in the Aboriginal population. Although medical and midwifery staff have long discussed strategies to improve uptake of antenatal health care for Aboriginal women, researchers in many areas have found the recruitment of Aboriginal people into scientific studies almost impossible. This article, published in the journal "Rural and Remote Health" in April 2013, seeks to share the strategies that have been developed over a period of time by the authors (K. Rae et al) that have proved useful for recruitment and retention into research. It is anticipated that these strategies would also apply for health practitioners in maintaining their patients for clinical care management. (NCBI)

Drug Promotion in Australia: Policy Contestation and the Tightening of Regulation

While consumers have long been assumed to be in need of protection from drug promotion, it is now accepted that marketing to medical professionals should also be more closely controlled. Public health advocates have effectively highlighted the negative impact of promotion on quality use of medicines. Hans Löfgren and Evan Doran, in this article in the journal Australian Review of Public Affairs April 2013, describe developments in Australia’s regulation of prescription drug marketing and promotion and show that the pharmaceutical industry has proved less capable of shaping the regulation of promotion than other areas of pharmaceutical policy. Government has responded by tightening such regulation but why has it stopped short of ending industry self-regulation? (APO 5/4/13) 

Healthy Communities: Australians' experiences with primary health care in 2010-11

The National Health Performance Authority began operations in 2012 as an independent body to provide locally relevant and nationally consistent information on the performance of hospitals and other health care organisations. This report, the Authority’s second, allows for the first time the public, clinicians and health managers to see results for both use and experience of GP care at a local level. This report examines use, patient experiences and the perceived health of populations living in each Medicare Local area against a range of indicators, including: GP attendances, Measures of patient experiences, Wait times for GP services, After-hours GP service utilisation. All of these data are linked to Medicare Local areas on the basis of where the patient lives, rather than the location where a health service is delivered.

Most data in this report were collected before Medicare Locals were set up. The value of these findings is that they provide a baseline at a lower level of geographic detail. This will be important over time in allowing clinicians and health managers to see what impact they are having in improving health care in their respective areas. (APO 7/3/13)

Self Directed Disability Support (SDDS)

The research project, "Self directed disability support (SDDS): building community capacity through action research", explores how people with disability manage the transition towards self directed disability support. Australian evidence on this critical topic is thin. Information re the impact of self directed options on people requiring support, informal carers and support providers, and, the effectiveness of existing disability support systems is gathered in this project. The Social Policy Research Centre (SPRC), University of New South Wales (UNSW), in collaboration with People With Disability Australia (PWDA) and the Centre for Children and Young People (CCYP), Southern Cross University (SCU), is conducting the project. 

This plan explains the project methodology and management. The authors are: Karen R. Fisher, Sam Cooper, Christiane Purcal, Ngila Bevan and Ariella Meltzer. (APO 15/4/13)