COVID-19 vaccine providers in the Hinchinbrook region are the latest to be showcased in a new campaign which highlights the incredible work primary care providers are doing to help protect North Queenslanders during the ongoing pandemic.
Anglicare has secured funding to provide a Hoarding and Squalor ACH program under Commonwealth Home Support Package (CHSP) funding.
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The ACH program will run for 12 months commencing 1 July and will be provided to a small number of clients across each region.
Who is it for ?
People over 65 living at home and people over 50 who are at risk of eviction or homelessness, have hoarding tendencies and/or live in domestic squalor.
Eligibility
Aged 65 years and over
CHSP eligible
Aged 50 years and over
People whose life course such as active military service, homelessness or substance/alcohol abuse, has seen them age prematurely.
Aged 45 year and over
First Nation and Torres Strait Islander people
Enquiries can be made via either My Aged Care on 1800 200 422 or Anglicare SQ on 1300 610 610.
The Queensland Transcultural Mental Health Centre is a specialist state-wide service that works to ensure people from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds receive culturally responsive mental health care and support.
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The Queensland Transcultural Mental Health Centre have recently developed culturally responsive suicide prevention resources and training courses:
Culturally Responsive Suicide Prevention Training for Human Service Workers: an online, free training which consists of four modules. This training teaches non-clinicians how to identify and support people from CALD backgrounds who may be at risk of suicide. Training can be accessed through their website. For support to register, participants can view the iLearn Registration and Course Enrolment Guide.
Communicating about Suicide in the Media: an online training course which aims to upskill media professionals working in CALD media outlet on how to report suicide safely in the media. Training can be accessed through their website. For support to register, participants can view the iLearn Registration and Course Enrolment Guide.
Supporting a person in your community who is suicidal: a suicide prevention community resource. Available in 26 different languages and simple English. This resource can be accessed through their website.
Suicide Prevention Resources Hub: which includes resources for service providers and people from a CALD background and links to organisations and services that can provide mental health, suicide prevention, or multicultural psychosocial supports. This hub can be accessed through their website.
Updated Glossary of Mental Health and Wellbeing Terms for Interpreters, Translators, and Bi-cultural Workers: which is available in 30 different languages and can be accessed through their website.
COVID-19 vaccine providers in Sarina are the first to be showcased in a new campaign which highlights the incredible work primary care providers are doing to help protect North Queenslanders during the ongoing pandemic.
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A patient receives their COVID-19 vaccine at Awal Medical Centre in Sarina
Northern Queensland Primary Health Network’s (NQPHN) Vaccine Works campaign spotlights the region’s vaccinating general practices and pharmacies, and focuses on the primary care sector’s highly-successful role in increasing COVID-19 vaccination rates in North Queensland.
In Sarina, three general practices and two pharmacies are currently vaccinating the local community:
Awal Medical
Sarina Family Practice
Sarina Clinic
Terry White Chemmart Sarina
Sarina Discount Drugstore.
As of today (15 October 2021), these five primary care providers have together delivered more than 7,800 COVID vaccines to the wider Sarina community, which has a population of approximately 7,000 people.
Awal Medical has led the way, administering more than 4,700 doses from its practice since March this year.
Practice Manager Yogita Awal said Awal Medical has been involved in the national COVID vaccination program rollout since day one.
“We felt it was important to us to keep the Sarina community COVID safe,” Yogita said.
“We believe in protecting the community and reducing the burden on the health system. Our message is ‘Get the jab. Vaccine works’.”
Terry White Chemmart Sarina has administered more than 450 vaccines over the past two months after pharmacies joined the vaccination rollout program in August.
Owner Therese Lambert said: “We even opened out of hours last week and did a clinic with over 30 walk-ins.
“I love helping the community by offering them options to get vaccinated to protect themselves and their loved ones.”
Ms Lambert said she is also heading to Australia's largest rail freight operator Aurizon next week at their Jilalan depot to offer vaccination clinics for employees and their families.
Dr Shahanaz Meer, Practice Principal at Sarina Clinic, said her practice had administered more than 2,000 AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines to the Sarina community since March 2021.
NQPHN Chief Executive Officer Robin Whyte praised Sarina’s vaccinating GPs and pharmacies, and said the primary care sector is playing a key role in the ever-increasing rate of COVID-19 vaccinations across North Queensland.
“Our Vaccine Works campaign is about showcasing our local primary care providers for all the amazing work they’ve done over the past few months to improve COVID-19 vaccination rates in North Queensland and protect our community,” Ms Whyte said.
“Primary care plays a vital role in the national vaccination rollout program, as it has the capacity to vaccinate in a distributed model by offering place-based solutions in local communities.
“North Queensland, due to its geography, presents unique challenges and opportunities, and the incredible work of general practices and pharmacies in our region will support us to reach our vaccination targets sooner rather than later.”
In North Queensland, there are currently 135 general practices, 115 pharmacies, 10 Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations, and four GP-led Respiratory Clinics administering COVID-19 vaccines (Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and Moderna).
To book a COVID-19 vaccine appointment, including at Queensland Health clinics, people are encouraged to use the Australian Government’s official COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic Finder at https://covid-vaccine.healthdirect.gov.au
The Australian Government is strongly committed to improving access to health services for all Australians.
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Addressing inequities in access to high quality medical care has been a longstanding challenge in Australia and the Government recognises the importance of providing all Australians with timely access to quality, safe, and affordable health care services, no matter where they live.
To assist in attracting and retaining medical professionals in regional, rural, and remote areas, the 2019–20 Budget provided $62.2 million to commence a National Rural Generalist Pathway (the Pathway). Rural Generalists are general practitioners (GPs) who provide primary care services, emergency medicine, and have training in additional skills like obstetrics, anaesthetics, or mental health services. The Pathway recognises the extra requirements and skills of rural generalists and supports them to meet the diverse health needs of regional, rural, and remote communities. Rural Generalists complement and work alongside rural GPs to increase local access to a wider range of specialist medical services.
The Australian Government is working with the state and territory governments and with the GP Colleges to support the implementation of the Pathway.
The Department of Health has worked with the National Rural Health Commissioner, Adjunct Professor Ruth Stewart and with practicing Rural Generalist Dr Preston Cardelli to develop a video to highlight elements of rural practice. We hope the video will provide insight to medical students and junior doctors who might be considering a rural career.
To support the Australian Government's objective to encourage non-English speaking cohorts in the Australian community to the vaccinated against COVID-19, the Translating and Interpreting Service (TIS National) has temporarily extended the Free Interpreting Service to now cover non-Medicare patients receiving the COVID-19 vaccine.
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Further, medical practices can bow book onsite interpreters on weekends for COVID-19 vaccination purposes. Telephone interpretation services continue to be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Pharmacists are able to utilise interpreters from TIS National to assist in their consultations with patients and to ensure informed consent is given for COIVD-19 vaccines.
Medical practices and Pharmacists can use their existing TIS client code to request interpreters for both their Medicare and non-Medicare patients. For those who are not already registered with TIS National, registration can be done online at https://tisonline.tisnational.gov.au/registeragency
General Practitioners (GPs) are critical in supporting long term health and social outcomes for individuals. This includes supporting work participation for people with a disability or health condition.
The Principles guide GPs on how they can empower people to engage in good work. The Principles support the evidence that work is an important social determinant of health and ‘good work’ can be used as part of a patient’s recovery and wellbeing.
GPs are ideally placed to provide advice to patients and other stakeholders on the health and social benefits of participation in good work. The advocacy role of GPs includes understanding a patient’s needs and advocating to ensure they are empowered to choose and control their treatment pathway, recovery, and goals, including engaging in good work.
GPs, employers, and other professionals need to work together as a team to improve work participation rates for people with a health condition or disability.
A one-page snapshot summarising the Principles has been developed to guide the role of the GP in facilitating the health benefits of good work. The snapshot provides a summary of the three key roles for GPs in supporting work participation for people with injury, illness, or disability.
The one-page snapshot on the Principles is available here.
Collaborative project helping to improve the health and wellbeing of patients on the autism spectrum.
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Dr Aaron Kennedy and Toni Simmons have a shared view that arming people with the right information and resources can drastically improve health outcomes for patients, and they have put this belief into practice through the Mackay HealthPathways Autism initiative.
The Mackay HealthPathways Autism initiative is empowering primary health care professionals in the region to improve and support the health and wellbeing, across the lifespan, of individuals on the Autism spectrum.
In a world first, the project was implemented to develop a targeted clinical HealthPathway that could support general practitioners (GPs) and primary health care professionals to link children, adolescents, and adults with autism to the most appropriate health services for their individual needs.
Dr Kennedy, Senior GP Clinical Editor for Mackay HealthPathways, was responsible for compiling existing research and information about autism using HealthPathways, to ensure GPs could access meaningful and evidence-based information in a concise format during a patient consult.
“Autism is a complex condition and GPs feel under prepared, under educated, under resourced, and their systems don’t function very well to allow people on the spectrum to access those systems well,” said Dr Kennedy.
“HealthPathways was designed to provide health professionals with a knowledge base and ready to use resources, that are always available and locally relevant, so the information provided to a patient is relevant to the medicine a GP locally practices.
“I was tasked with utilising the existing structure of the HealthPathways platform to cover assessment, management, local resources, local referral options, and further resources that would help clinicians.”
The initiative was a collaboration, spanning over two-years from research to implementation, between Northern Queensland Primary Health Network (NQPHN), Mackay Hospital and Health Service, Mackay HealthPathways, the Cooperative Research Centre for Living with Autism (Autism CRC), the University of Queensland, Streamliners, and the Queensland Centre for Intellectual and Developmental Disability.
Early consultations with local health care professionals, subject matter experts, and the community showed that existing pathways only focused on early identification and diagnosis, showing a gap in management post diagnosis. The findings captured from local research also matched closely with results from international literature on the topic.
Integrated Health Manager and General Practice Liaison Officer at Mackay Hospital and Health Service Toni Simmons worked closely with Dr Kennedy in the Mackay HealthPathways Team and shared both a professional and personal purpose in driving the initiative.
“What a lot of people forget, Autism is a condition that you have for your whole entire life, so the idea was to develop pathways that cover the whole lifespan,” said Toni.
“From a health professional’s perspective, we had this amazing tool and vehicle to implement change, and not just on a local perspective, but also scale that up across an entire community.
“I also got involved and passionate in this space as I have lived experience with a child that’s on the spectrum. I know and saw firsthand what some of the gaps were after you get the diagnosis—getting information on where to go, on management, and what’s available.
“By equipping our health professionals with the right tools and resources, we can support them in helping their patients live happier, healthier, longer lives.”
The Autism HealthPathways was launched for clinical use in Mackay and introduced to local GPs at a symposium event titled ‘Through their eyes… Through their lives…’. It has since been accessed by primary care professionals across the Mackay region, with further interest in the HealthPathways expressed more broadly.
“Since the launch, utilisation of the pathway has been tracked to ensure continuous quality improvement, so that feedback and improvements are captured and reflected in iterative versions,” said Dr Kennedy.
The Autism HealthPathways can be accessed by other regions within the HealthPathways community, assisting primary health care professionals to better support their patients on the spectrum to receive the right care, in the right place, at the right time across the lifespan.
To learn more about Autism HealthPathways, please contact your local HealthPathways or visit www.healthpathwayscommunity.org
The Mackay Autism HealthPathways launch.
Image (left to right): Dr Michalis Yiallourides – Townsville Hospital Staff Specialist Paediatrics, Dr Aaron Kennedy – Lead GP Clinical Editor Mackay HealthPathways, Dr Katie Brooker – Autism CRC funded postdoctoral research fellow UQ, Toni Simmons – Integrated Health Manager/GPLO, Karin Barron – Executive Director Health System Integration and Innovation Northern Queensland Primary Health Network, Dr James Best – NSW GP and Associate Professor David Harley – Senior Clinician with the Mater Research Institute-UQ and Director to the Queensland Centre for Intellectual and Developmental Disability.
QScript is Queensland’s real time prescriptions monitoring system. It captures information about certain medicines called monitored medicines (all schedule 8 medicines and some schedule 4 medicines).
The Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) has shared that over 14 million original and repeat electronic prescriptions have been issued to date.
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Pharmacy management software Minfos has rolled out Active Script List (ASL), now available to all Minfos customers.
An ASL enables patients to manage their active prescriptions electronically, including repeats, ready to be dispensed without the use of tokens.
As a result, patients can quickly and easily access their active prescriptions at any pharmacy by providing consent to the pharmacy to access their ASL and dispense their medicines.
Patients have control of who can access their ASL and can give temporary or on going access to dispensers.
To learn how to register a patient for ASL in Minfos, watch the video resources by clicking here.
