New study reveals high rates of Indigenous dementia

A ground-breaking study, presented at the 15th Alzheimer's Australia Conference in Hobart, has found Aboriginal Australians are three times more likely to suffer dementia than non-Indigenous Australians.

Researchers say risk factors include high blood pressure, obesity, smoking and diabetes, and it is thought the damage to the brain occurs as far back as childhood.

The three-year study into how Aboriginal Australians age, titled Koori Growing Old Well, was conducted across five urban and regional Indigenous communities in New South Wales.

They were La Perouse, Campbelltown, Kempsey, Nambucca and Coffs Harbour and included 336 participants, all over 60 years of age.

http://www.neura.edu.au/aboriginal-ageing Koori Growing Old Well Website

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-05-14/new-study-reveals-high-rates-of-indigenous-dementia/4689168 New study reveals high rates of Indigenous dementia (ABC)

painHEALTH : new website for chronic pain sufferers

http://painhealth.csse.uwa.edu.au/index.html WA Health's new painHEALTH website is the first of its kind in Australia and will help the estimated 700,000 Australians who suffer from chronic musculoskeletal pain.

Chief Medical Officer Dr Gary Geelhoed said the website would benefit anyone who experienced conditions such as low back pain, neck pain, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis and rheumatoid arthritis.

"painHEALTH is the first web resource of its kind to address the problem of chronic musculoskeletal pain from a consumer perspective," Dr Geelhoed said. "Its focus is to provide consumers with evidence-based information and skills to better manage their pain condition.

"The website features short DVD programs in which people with chronic musculoskeletal pain share their real-life stories and offer hope to other sufferers."

According to the National Pain Strategy, musculoskeletal pain is the single largest cause of chronic pain, accounting for about 25 per cent of all cases.


http://www.virtualmedicalcentre.com/news/new-website-to-ease-the-pain-of-chronic-pain-sufferers/18599 About the website

Working with older Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

http://apo.org.au/research/working-older-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-people This Briefing by the Benevolent Society presents evidence from research to guide mainstream community aged care organisations and practitioners on working in a respectful and culturally sensitive manner with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. It aims to help enhance the quality of care by ensuring it is underpinned by reflection, knowledge, understanding and respect. However, this Briefing should not be understood as a universal set of protocols, nor as a prescription for care, as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures are complex and extremely diverse, and accepted protocols vary across communities.

This is the 8th in a series of http://www.benevolent.org.au/think/practice--resources community aged care research to practice briefings. Other topics covered in the series include Supporting the independence of older people ; Supporting older people experiencing mental distress, and Promoting social networks for older people.

Palliative Care PubMed Searches

The links on this CareSearch page provide an easy and reliable way to find the relevant palliative care literature in English. Each link runs an immediate search of PubMed and all searches are automatically updated as new articles are added to the database.

See: www.caresearch.com.au/caresearch/tabid/322/Default.aspx

Bathurst mental health facility to provide more help for local youth

Youth mental health services in the Bathurst region will be greatly
improved following the opening of a state-of-the-art child and
adolescent mental health facility by the Minister for Mental Health,
Kevin Humphries. Housed in the recently refurbished former dental clinic
building on the grounds of the Bathurst Hospital, the *Willows*
youth mental health facility will ensure more help is available for
young people in the Bathurst region with a mental health issue.

*The $250,000 refurbishment and expansion of the existing facility
will ensure more space is available to provide additional support and
activities aimed at improving the social and emotional wellbeing of
children, teenagers and their families,* Mr Humphries said. *The new
service at Willows will offer community based assessment and treatment
options close to home that will aim to intervene as early as possible to
provide the best possible recovery outcomes for young people in the
Bathurst community.*

http://www0.health.nsw.gov.au/news/2013/20130508_00.html Press
release

The Case for Mental Health Reform in Australia

A Nous Group report on Australia*s mental health system, co-authored
with Medibank Health Solutions, has just been released. The Minister for
Mental Health and Ageing, The Hon. Mark Butler, launched the report with
support from Professor Allan Fels AO, Chair of the Australian Mental
Health Commission, and Mr Jeff Kennett, Chairman of beyondblue.

http://www.nousgroup.com.au/about-us/news/report-on-australias-mental-health-system
The Case for Mental Health Reform in Australia: a Review of Expenditure
and System Design, estimates that the true cost to support individuals
with mental illness in Australia is at least $28.6 billion. This figure
far exceeds previous estimates. It is based on the first ever
comprehensive calculation of both health and non-health expenditure. The
figure excludes indirect costs like lost productivity. The report also
clearly documents the fragmented and uncoordinated nature of the overall
mental health system, and reviews domestic and international examples in
which integrated approaches to mental healthcare and social services
deliver better health outcomes and improved cost effectiveness.

http://www.health.gov.au/internet/ministers/publishing.nsf/Content/mr-yr13-mb-mb026.htm
Press release

MindSpot, Australia*s first free online and telephone mental health clin

Parliamentary Secretary for Mental Health, Melissa Parke has launched
www.mindspot.org.au MindSpot, Australia*s first free online and
telephone mental health clinic.

The project has been developed by a team of national and international
experts led by researchers from Macquarie University and Access
Macquarie Limited - the University*s commercial company, and is in
partnership with the Federal Government.

The initiative is part of the Australian Government*s mental health
reform package to improve access and expand mental health services in
remote areas across Australia. It provides confidential assistance to
people nationally via the Internet, phone or email.

www.mindspot.org.au The MindSpot Clinic is a free telephone and online
service for Australians with stress, worry, anxiety, low mood or
depression. We provide mental health screening assessments,
therapist-guided treatment courses and referrals to help people recover
and stay well. The online clinic delivers research-based treatment and
operates 7 days a week.

http://www.mq.edu.au/newsroom/2013/05/03/australias-first-free-national-online-mental-health-clinic-launched/
Media Release

Overview of Australian Indigenous health status 2012

Overview of Australian Indigenous health status 2012 provides a comprehensive summary of the most recent indicators of the health of Indigenous people

Research for the report involves the collection, collation, and analysis of a wide range of relevant information, including both published and unpublished material. Sources include government reports, particularly those produced by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), the Australian Health Ministers Advisory Council (AHMAC), and the Steering Committee for the Review of Government Service Provision (SCRGSP).

Health Systems Evidence

Health Systems Evidence
http://www.mcmasterhealthforum.org/healthsystemsevidence-en

"The world's most comprehensive, free access point for evidence to support policymakers, stakeholders and researchers interested in how to strengthen or reform health systems or in how to get cost-effective programs, services and drugs to those who need them.

Health Systems Evidence is a continuously updated repository of syntheses of research evidence about governance, financial and delivery arrangements within health systems, and about implementation strategies that can support change in health systems. Health Systems Evidence also contains a continuously updated repository of economic evaluations in these same domains, descriptions of health system reforms, and descriptions of health systems, as well as a variety of types of complementary content (e.g. World Health Organization documents about health systems)."

WHO documents added to new HSE portal support health system strengthening - 25 April 2013
http://www.mcmasterhealthforum.org/index.php/about-us/new-at-the-forum/1-latest-news/300-new-portal-search-functions-improve-hse

"Health Systems Evidence has expanded its role as a top resource for evidence on strengthening and reforming health systems by adding a beta version of a new portal for World Health Organization documents, and improving the site’s navigation and search functions.
The Intergovernmental Organizations’ Health Systems Documents Portal currently includes a continuously updated repository of policy-relevant WHO documents, and provides ‘one-stop-shopping’ for the many types of documents that can support health systems strengthening by policymakers and stakeholders around the world.
New design elements and search limits will make navigating the site easier and offer more options for how to look for documents in the world’s most comprehensive free access point for evidence to support policymakers, stakeholders and researchers interested in strengthening and reforming health systems."

EndNote Basic free

EndNote Basic launched - free - more limited than the complete EndNote obviously
http://endnote.com/basic

Bibliographic Management: AVAILABLE ONLINE, ANYTIME.

Search, organize and share research, automatically format bibliographies for essays and reports.

• Store up to 50,000 references
• 20 most popular bibliographic styles
• 2GB of files storage
• Online search of the 5 most popular databases

Thomson Reuters Launches Free Online Version of EndNote - InfoDocket - 23 April 2013

National Rural Health Conference releases priority recommendations

The 17 priority recommendations from the 12th National Rural Health Conference held this week in Adelaide cover many of the most important issues facing the rural and remote health sector. Advocates for the people of rural and remote Australia, including the NRHA, will consider all of the proposals and promote their adoption - especially in the lead-up to the September Election.

The 17 recommendations fall into 4 thematic groups. The first 6 relate to physical and soft infrastructure for health and health-related services. The second 6 relate to specific clinical service areas, including child health and aged care. Topics covered include broadband, a national arts and health framework, maternity and early childhood care, telehealth and Indigenous health.

Recommendations & communique

Press release

Making health services adolescent friendly: developing national quality standards for adolescent friendly health services

This guidebook by the World Health Organisation sets out the public health rationale for making it easier for adolescents to obtain the health services that they need to protect and improve their health and well-being, including sexual and reproductive health services.

It defines "adolescent-friendly health services" from the perspective of quality, and provides step-by-step guidance on developing quality standards for health service provision to adolescents. Drawing upon international experience, it is also tailored to national epidemiological, social, cultural and economic realities, and provides guidance on identifying what actions need to be taken to assess whether appropriate standards have been achieved.

Australian hospital statistics 2011-12 & Australia's hospitals 2011-2012 : At a glance (AIHW)

Australian hospital statistics 2011-12 presents a detailed overview of Australia's public and private hospitals. In 2011-12, there were about 9.3 million separations from hospitals, including: 5.5 million same-day acute separations; 3.7 million overnight acute separations; about 423,000 sub-acute and non-acute separations.

There were also 7.8 million non-admitted patient emergency services and more than 45 million outpatient services provided by public hospitals.

Australia's hospitals 2011-12: at a glance report [Summary report with key figures]

Media release

Find Zebra - the search engine for difficult medical cases

Find Zebra - the search engine for difficult medical cases

"The term "zebra" is a medical slang for a surprising diagnosis. Physicians are taught since medical school to concentrate on the more common diseases: "when you hear a gallop, you should think about a horse, not a zebra". FindZebra is designed to help in those cases when the equine turns out to be a zebra.

There are close to 7,000 rare diseases recognized by rare disease organizations. We index over 31,000 documents covering rare and genetic diseases from 10 reputable sources. Given the number of rare diseases and rate of publication, we think FindZebra is a good companion for medical professionals."

FindZebra is also available for downloads to mobiles and androids.

About the development of the search engine :

FindZebra: A search engine for rare diseases Radu Dragusin et al International Journal of Medical Informatics - 23 February 2013
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2013.01.005

The desire to age in place among older Australians - volume 1 - reasons for staying or moving (AIHW)

Over 90% of older Australians intend to stay in their current accommodation rather than move to aged care or move at all, and this intent is strongest among older people who own their own homes, according to a report released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW).

Many older Australians report a desire to age in place. The report, The desire to age in place among older Australians, examines the housing circumstances of older Australians by different tenure type (home owners, mortgagees and renters) and the desire to age there.

Media release