Indigenous palliative care web resource now available

A new web resource containing information for people working, studying or interested in palliative care for Indigenous Australians is now available. This web resource includes information about relevant policies and strategies, publications, information about programs and projects (including contact details), relevant health promotion resources and organisations addressing the palliative care needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

The above resource is one of a number of new features on the very useful Australian Indigenous HealthInfonet site. Another interesting new addition is a review of Indigenous kava use

General Practice in Australia, health priorities and policies 1998-2008 (AIHW)

This report looks extensively at changes in the activities of GPs from 1998 to 2008 in the light of numerous government initiatives and changes in the GP workforce and in the population. It shows that GP activity generally correlates well with health policy initiatives and clinical guidelines, notably with Type 2 diabetes and the control of asthma and high blood cholesterol levels. In some areas, however, there is less evidence of an effect so far. The report also raises some potential concerns about the costs from the continued rapid growth in orders for pathology testing and the overall challenge for the GP workforce in dealing with an ageing population with complex needs.
Click on the link to view the media release

2009-10 Federal Budget initiatives

From July 1 ;

- Expansion of the Rural Health Locum program.
- Expansion of the Training for Rural & Remote Procedural General Practitioners program
- Maintaining the existing funding for University Departments of Rural Health and the Dental Training Expanded Placements program.
- Additional funding for the Mental Health Services in Rural & Remote Areas program.
- Extension of the Mental Health Support for Drought Affected Communities program.

Breastfeeding and infants' time use

Being breastfed during infancy is known to improve developmental outcomes,but the pathways by which this occurs remain unclear. One possible yet unexplored mechanism is that breastfed infants may spend their time differently to infants who are not breastfed. This paper analyses infants' time use according to breastfeeding status in order to help inform the debate about how breastfeeding leads to improved child outcomes.

The analysis uses infants' time use data from the first wave (2004) of Growing Up in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC), derived from diaries completed by the parents of almost 3,000 Australian infants aged 3-14 months. It explores how much time infants spend in activities such as being held or cuddled, read or talked to, or crying, using data on whether or not infants were still breastfeeding, and taking into account other child and family characteristics. It also compares time spent in different social contexts. Finally, the paper uses the time use data to analyse which infants were still breastfeeding, and what factors are associated with differences in time spent breastfeeding.

The results show that breastfed infants spend more time being held or cuddled and being read or talked to, and less time sleeping, or eating, drinking or being fed other foods. They also cried slightly more, and watched television slightly less than infants who were not being breastfed. Those who breastfed spent more time with their parents, and in particular, almost one additional hour a day alone with their mother compared to non-breastfeeding infants.

These findings have important implications for how children grow, and show the value of time use data in exploring pathways to development for infants and young children. The possibility that cognitive advantages for breastfed children may arise from their distinct patterns of time use and social contexts during the breastfeeding phase is an important area for future research using survey data such as from LSAC.

Jennifer Baxter and Julie Smith Australian Institute of Family Studies, June 2009, Research paper no. 43

Young Women Talk - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women (DVD)

This DVD highlights 16 diverse stories from young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women from across Australia. It provides unique and personal perspectives that Security4Women (S4W) hope will create greater awareness among Australian government decision makers of the life experiences of young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women. This DVD is part of a broader project, Young Women Talk, designed to provide opportunities for young women aged 18-29 years to share their personal stories of learning and working and their vision for women in Australia.

Young Women Talk was initiated by S4W a national network of non-profit organisations primarily concerned with improving the lifelong economic wellbeing of Australian women and undertaken by Kim Lawler on behalf of S4W over a four month period.

Effective care, not criminalisation

Released last month in Washington by the head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, with new US government drug tsar Gil Kerlikowske, The UN World Drug Report 2009 has direct implications for Australia. The report reveals that a significant shift is occurring in the way the world controls drugs. The ambition of ending drug use through law enforcement is giving way to a sobering realisation that we need to reduce demand for drugs, decrease incarceration of drug users and increase drug treatment programs.

"The Australian" report

Between the Rock and a hard place (Report)

Paul McGeough visited Mutitjulu - the crisis community that precipitated the Northern Territory intervention. He found mayhem and despair, but sparks of hope, too.

Special report.

GWAHS Men's Health Forum report

The 20 page report of the GWAHS Men's Health Network forum held in Dubbo on 16-10-08 and the 2009-11 Action Plan are available from Dubbo Librarian Michael Barnes michael.barnes@gwahs.health.nsw.gov.au

Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage : Key indicators 2009 (Productivity Commission)

Today's Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage Report by the Productivity Commission shows little progress has been made in closing the gap for Indigenous people but provides the strongest argument yet for the need for a new way of working with Indigenous people, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Tom Calma has said.

The comprehensive report examines a wide range of areas including early child development, education, health, home environment, community safety and governance.

Australian Human Rights Commission Press Release

Occupational health and safety : free databases

Two databases you may not know about when you are looking for OH&S information including accident prevention are:

NIOSHTIC-2 (Free version) A free bibliographic database of occupational safety and health publications, documents, grant reports, and other communication products supported in whole or in part by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health part of the CDC.

CISDOC (Free version) CISDOC is the fruit of 30 years of screening the occupational safety and health literature of the world (in many languages) for interesting and useful books, articles and audiovisual materials that occupational safety and health specialists can use in their fight against workplace accidents and diseases. It already guides users to over 62,000 publications, and 2000 more references are added every year.

Reposted from NCAHS Library Clippings

Overcoming indigenous disadvantage : Final report

Final report of the NSW Parliamentary Inquiry into Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage -Dec 08. The Government response of May 2009 is also accessible from this page


Also available : Overcoming indigenous disadvantage : key indicators 2007 which gives statistics on indigenous health and social indicators.

The state of our public hospitals, June 2009 report

The state of our public hospitals, June 2009 report provides a snapshot of public and private hospital activity in 2007-08. The 2009 report is based on data collected in 2007-08.

The 2009 report includes four feature chapters. The first feature is titled "Turning our public hospitals around" and provides information about hospital reform directions agreed between the Commonwealth and all State and Territory Governments. The second, titled "Our maternity services", provides information on the number and type of maternity services provided by hospitals and their associated costs. The third feature titled "Indigenous Australians in hospital" describes Indigenous hospital use compared to that of other Australians. The final feature is titled "State and territory public hospital performance reporting" and includes details of state and territory online hospital reporting.

Developing a NHMRC Strategic Plan - a national strategy for medical research and public health research

The National Health and Medical Research Council Act 1992 requires the NHMRC to present a Strategic Plan to government on a triennial basis. Each Strategic Plan must include a national strategy for medical research and public health research.

In preparation for the next Strategic Plan, which will cover the period January 2010- December 2012, NHMRC has prepared a Consultation Paper setting out a draft strategy for medical research and public health research.

Relative Needs index study, South Australia and New South Wales(AIHW)

The demand for public dental services exceeds the capacity of available resources. Services are therefore rationed by categorising them into those seeking emergency or general dental care and then, most commonly, by chronological queuing. No evidence-based criteria or protocols exist in Australia to assess whether it's reasonable for patients to present for emergency dental care, or to prioritise those seeking general dental care who are placed on waiting lists. This publication investigates rationing dental care on the basis of patients' overall experience including reported symptoms and psychosocial impact of the oral problems. Such approaches help ration both emergency and general dental care as one step in reforming public dental care.

Authored by AIHW Dental Statistics and Research Unit. Dental statistics and research series no. 49

Virtual Clinic

Virtual Clinic is a not-for-profit initiative of the Clinical Research Unit for Anxiety and Depression (CRUfAD) at St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney and the School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales.

VirtualClinic is an Internet-based clinic that aims to develop and provide free education and treatment programs for people with anxiety, social phobia, agoraphobia and depressive disorders who cannot readily access face to face treatment.

Reposted from Health Blog@CSU