Australia's Health 2020: in brief - my focus on suicide.

With October being Mental Health Month I decided to look at Australia's health 2020 available on the Australian Government's site - Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW). When I waved my cursor over reports and data Australia's Health 2020: data insights, caught my eye with 2020 being the year we all say that we'll never forget. Being a Librarian I thought I must order the hard copy book for the library so that we can have all this data on hand for future reference. 

Australia's health 2020: in brief - a short, visual report summarising key findings and concepts looked like a good read for now. It's available in PDF so an easy. 

I wanted to look at mental health related statistics and this is what smacked me in the face.

Source: Australia Institute of Health and Welfare

Suicide was the leading cause of death among 15-44 year old Australians in 2016-18. People with mental illness need to know that they are not alone with self reporting data showing that 1 in 5 Australian have had a mental or behavioural condition in 2017-18. Help is out there!

Suicide rates among Indigenous Australians were almost double that of non-indigenous peoples with 23.7 per 100,000 people compared with 12.3 per 100,000 people. 

Suicidal thoughts? While data are limited, the 2007 National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing shows that at some point in their lives, 1 in 8 (13%) Australians aged 16–85 had serious thoughts about taking their own life, 1 in 25 (4.0%) made a suicide plan and1 in 33 (3.3%) had attempted suicide. This is equivalent to over 2.1 million Australians having thought about taking their own life, over 600,000 making a suicide plan and over 500,000 making a suicide attempt during their lifetime. 

If you or someone you know needs advice or support, these services can help:

Lifeline 13 11 14

Suicide Call Back Service 1300 659 467

Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800

MensLine Australia 1300 78 99 78

Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636

October is Mental Health Month in NSW

 Every year in October we are reminded to think about our mental health and wellbeing. Whether we have experienced mental illness or not it gives us the opportunity to understand the importance of good mental health in our everyday lives and encourages us to reach out for help when we need it. 

Source: http://mentalhealthmonth.wayahead.org.au/

The theme for mental health month this year is "TUNE IN".

Tuning In means being present, being aware of what’s happening within you, and in the world around you.  

Tune In to your senses – what can you sense right now? What can you feel? 

Tune In to your communities – what’s happening that you can be part of, or that you can help others be part of? 

Tune In to stigma – how do attitudes and understandings of mental health and wellbeing impact people’s ability to live the lives they want? 

Taking a moment to Tune In can help still and focus your mind, it can help you understand what’s going on for you and others. Tuning in can help you find a new perspective, and it can help you reflect and be present. 

Tuning In has been shown to help build self-awareness, help make effective choices, reduce the impact of worry, and build positive connections. Tuning In to communities and the impact of mental health stigma can help ensure that people who need support have safe places to talk about their experiences and reach out. 

Tune In to Mental Health Month and help create a world we can all Tune In to. Find out more here.

Especially in these uncertain times NSW Health staff can access qualified trained mental health professionals confidentially through COVID Connection. COVID Connection is an independent and professional wellbeing advice line for health workers. The service offers culturally appropriate support for Aboriginal health workers. 

New MNCLHD Staff Publications

 Congratulations to the following staff members (highlighted) who published recently!

Source: towardsdatascience.com

Campbell, Patricia, Jessica Moss, Maria Mulder, Leesa Roach, Nicole Wilson, Alycia Jacob, and Helen Miles. 2020. 'The effectiveness of complementary and alternative medicine in the symptom management of pruritus in patients with end-stage kidney disease: A systematic review', Renal Society of Australasia Journal, 16: 58-68.

 

Conway, A., P. Collins, K. Chang, S. Mafeld, J. Sutherland, and J. Fingleton. 2019. 'Sequence analysis of capnography waveform abnormalities during nurse-administered procedural sedation and analgesia in the cardiac catheterization laboratory', Sci Rep, 9: 10214.

 

Conway, A., P. Collins, K. Chang, S. Mafeld, J. Sutherland, J. Fingleton, and M. Parotto. 2020. 'Pre-apneic capnography waveform abnormalities during procedural sedation and analgesia', J Clin Monit Comput, 34: 1061-68.

 

Davidson, E. L., and R. L. Ollerton. 2020. 'Partner behaviours improving breastfeeding outcomes: An integrative review', Women Birth, 33: e15-e23.

 

Hui, N., S. Fraser, and P. K. K. Wong. 2020. 'Patients discharged from a fracture liaison service still require follow-up and bone health advice', Arch Osteoporos, 15: 118.

 

Lennard, K., A. Bannan, P. Grant, and J. Post. 2020. 'Potential benefit of combination antifungal therapy in Aspergillus endocarditis', BMJ Case Rep, 13.

 

Lwin, N., and A. Bannan. 2020. 'A retrospective observational study on enterococcal bacteraemia and endocarditis at a regional hospital in New South Wales, Australia', Infect Dis Health.

 

Scott, A., N. Weber, C. Tiley, K. Taylor, J. Taper, S. Harrison, K. L. Chan, R. Stark, C. Lee, K. Morris, P. J. Ho, A. Dodds, S. Ramanathan, R. Ramakrishna, A. M. Watson, B. Auguston, F. Kwok, H. Quach, P. Warburton, P. Rowlings, and P. Mollee. 2018. ''Real-world' Australian experience of pomalidomide for relapsed and refractory myeloma', Leuk Lymphoma, 59: 1514-16.

 

Southey, M., A. Kathirgamalingam, B. Crawford, R. Kaul, J. McNamara, F. John-Leader, J. Heslop, and S. W. Pit. 2020. 'Patterns of ecstasy use amongst live music event attendees and their opinions on pill testing: a cross sectional study', Subst Abuse Treat Prev Policy, 15: 55.

Stathis, A., and J. Gan. 2020. 'Traumatic arteriovenous fistula: a 25-year delay in presentation', J Surg Case Rep, 2020: rjaa042.

 

Sutherland, M., G. Moloney, M. Norton, A. Bowling, and I. Walker. 2020. 'Utilizing a Hospital-based Setting to Increase Organ Donor Registrations', Transplantation, 104: 1210-14.

 

Sutherland, R., A. Brown, N. Nathan, L. Janssen, R. Reynolds, A. Walton, N. Hudson, A. Chooi, S. Yoong, J. Wiggers, A. Bailey, N. Evans, K. Gillham, C. Oldmeadow, A. Searles, P. Reeves, C. Rissel, M. Davies, K. Reilly, B. Cohen, T. McCallum, and L. Wolfenden. 2019. 'Protocol for an effectiveness- implementation hybrid trial to assess the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of an m-health intervention to decrease the consumption of discretionary foods packed in school lunchboxes: the 'SWAP IT' trial', BMC Public Health, 19: 1510.

 

Tong, J. Y., H. P. Dunn, and C. Hopley. 2020. 'Yamane technique modification for intrascleral haptic extrusion', Clin Exp Ophthalmol, 48: 847-48.

 

Tracy, M., L. Ryan, H. Samarasekara, M. Leroi, A. Polkinghorne, and J. Branley. 2020. 'Removal of sinks and bathing changes to control multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria in a neonatal intensive care unit: a retrospective investigation', J Hosp Infect, 104: 508-10.

 

Whiteford, G. E. 2019. 'Sylvia docker memorial lecture: Together we go further-Service co-design, knowledge co-production and radical solidarity', Australian Occupational Therapy Journal, 66: 682-89.