The Allied Health COVID-19 Navigators Program has started this week, aiming to assist with discharges of COVID-positive patients across Northern Hospital Epping.

Rachel Ellis, Clinical Lead Physiotherapy and Project Co-Lead for the COVID-navigator service, explained the navigators will be working both in the Emergency Department and in the COVID-19 wards, working closely with the disciplinary team to facilitate safe discharge.

“We believe this initiative will improve patient experience, ensuring a safe discharge,” she explained.

Simone Carris, Clinical Lead, Occupational Therapy and Acute and Project Co-Lead for the COVID-navigator service, added that four navigators will be joining the program at this stage – Antigone Koutoulas, Senior Clinician and Elise Hill, Maria Bowman and Devon Iluksooriya as Grade 2 Clinicians, and will be looking the expand the team as the service grows into the new year.

“To our knowledge, all the COVID-navigator positions that have been introduced in health services in Victoria are resourced by Allied Health professionals. It has demonstrated they are well placed to take on these positions, as they have a good knowledge of the discharge planning process. Our medical and nursing forces were really stretched throughout this period and Allied Health are in a position to be able to expand the scope of what we are able to help with,” she explained.

Antigone Koutoulas is one of the navigators, who joined the role to be able to provide great discharge plans for patients in wards and support them in the community.

“I am an occupational therapist, so from the OT perspective, we look at things quite holistically, so being able to support the patients when they go home is our bread and butter. The role of OT and Allied Health fits with this position,” she explained.

Maria Bowman, Social Worker, added: “I am really excited about this program because I think that it’s a challenging time for people living with COVID. There is a lot of information that takes a lot of times to digest, there is also a lot of support available, and we can keep our community informed and healthy together, in the best possible supportive way.”

Yesterday, Northern Health’s Length of Service Awards ceremony for 2021 was held virtually.

More than 400 staff were celebrated for achieving between 10 and 45 years of dedicated service.

Siva Sivarajah, Chief Executive, opened the ceremony, acknowledging all our staff for their great work.

“We thank our hardworking and dedicated staff who are on the frontline each and every day, saving lives and keeping our community safe and healthy, especially during the past two pandemic years,” he said.

“We have over 5,700 staff at Northern Health working across Broadmeadows Hospital, Bundoora Centre, Craigieburn Centre and Northern Hospital Epping – with many providing dedicated service since the days of PANCH. It is great to see how our health service has continued to grow – expanding the range of services we provide to the communities of the northern suburbs.”

“We celebrate the staff who have worked at Northern Health for 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40 and even 45 years – an incredible achievement.”

Eight recipients have been with Northern Health the longest, celebrating 40 and 45 years. We also acknowledged staff who marked 40 years of service in 2020, who were unable to receive their award last year due to the pandemic.

Licia Perillo and Anne Fraser have been with the health service for an incredible 45 years each, with 90 years of service between them!

“Nursing has progressed so rapidly, there’s been so many changes. You always need to be refreshing your knowledge,” says Licia.

Says Anne, “Most of those 45 years I have spent on two units and I have worked with the best team orientated group of not just nurses but doctors and allied health staff that you could ever imagine.”

Receiving an award for 40 years of service was Anne Roast, Sharon Robinson, Ann Maffei, Glenda Levens, Stefan Herodotou and Helen Opasinis.

“On behalf of the Board and Executive, congratulations to all our staff who received awards today. Thank you also to, not only recipients, but all our staff here at Northern Health. I am proud to be part of an organisation with such a rich history and whose staff are so dedicated, passionate and hard working,” said Siva.

To watch the full ceremony, please click here.

Featured image: 45 year recipients Anne Fraser and Licia Perillo

Tya Fry, one of our Occupational Therapists at Northern Health, was announced as the Indigenous Allied Health Professional of the Year at the Annual National Indigenous Allied Health Awards held virtually on Friday, 3 December.

This event was hosted by Indigenous Allied Health Australia (IAHA) where members came together online to celebrate the work of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Allied Health workforce during what has been another challenging year.

Says Tya, “I am truly honoured to be a recipient of this award. I have been a member of IAHA for a few years now, watching and learning from all those involved. There are some truly amazing people in Allied Health completing fantastic work and I am so grateful to now stand beside so many of them. I hope this encourages many young Aboriginal people to consider careers in Allied Health.”

The Allied Health Professional of the Year is awarded to an IAHA full member graduate who has worked in a relevant field for at least five years.

The Awards recognise current and future leaders who have each had significant impact on the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, families, and communities.

The award recognises the recipient’s commitment, dedication and contribution to improving the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander individuals, families and/or communities within their profession.

IAHA leads sector workforce development and support, to improve the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

IAHA supports Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Allied Health students and graduates, value adding to existing professional development, educational and cultural support structures.

Karen Bryant, Senior Aboriginal Liaison Officer, congratulating Tya on her win, says, “Tya strives to influence change and improve culturally responsive action in service delivery for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.”

“Tya is a quiet achiever and Narrun Wilip-giin is proud of her efforts across the Allied Health sector!” says Karen.

Jim Sayer, Director Allied Health, says, “I am truly delighted to see Tya recognised for the outstanding leader that she is. We are very fortunate to have Tya within our Allied Health team at Northern Health.”

Northern Health staff have faced a number of external and internal challenges and restrictions, differing work challenges, state-wide lockdowns and differing emotions, and it can be hard to gauge how we are feeling right now, especially as we are transitioning back into some sort of normality.

Michelle Fenwick, Executive Director People and Culture, explained the organisation acknowledges the need for ongoing support for our staff, as well as to continue to ensure our workplace is safe, rewarding, and one where our staff want to work.

“This is why we are excited to announce the development phase of our own Peer Support Program. This new program puts staff at the centre of support, enabling training to staff to provide brief wellbeing interventions to each other, complementing Northern Health wellbeing initiatives. It will contribute to a culture of care and build a positive work environment for our workforce and in alignment with our safe, kind, together values build Enabled Staff and Empowered Teams,” she explained.

The Peer Supporters act as role models that display the caring and positive behaviour that we want to strengthen across the organisation; normalising how to handle difficult situations and the challenges that are presented as a result of being a front-line worker.

“These programs have been an effective and efficient practice that have assisted healthcare workers (clinical and non-clinical) in handling challenging situations at home and at work, and increasing independence and awareness on the best strategies to implement in the face of adversity. Through feeling supported, our staff are also better able to provide care to our patients and community, and gain fulfillment from working at Northern,” said Stephen Whittaker, Wellbeing Team Lead.

Our Wellbeing Project Psychologist, Casey O’Brien, also speaks to the value of Peer Support Programs. “Whilst external support is crucial, some of us also feel the need to connect and be supported by people with whom we share a common bond – such as a similar working environment or profession.”

The new in-house Peer Support Program will be available for all staff to access by late February into March 2022. Between now and then, we remind staff that there are a wide range of supportive services that are always available to you such as:

• Employee Assistance Program
• THRIVE Wellbeing offerings
• The AMA Peer Support Program on 1300 853 338 between 8 am and 10 pm
• The Hand n Hand Peer Support Program

Emiliano Zucchi has been championing two streams of diversity at Northern Health for the last 15 years; the first as Head of the Transcultural and Language Services (TALS), for cultural and linguistic diversity and the second as the Head of Narrun Wilip-giin, for Aboriginal/Torres Strait Islander diversity. It is a role that safeguards not only equitable access to health services for our culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) and Aboriginal communities, but also staff diversity.

Says Emiliano, “Everything we do at Northern Health should be done by applying a diversity lens; this role covers cultural and First Peoples diversity, but at the same time it intersects with the Disability and LGBTIQA+ spaces.”

Emiliano has achieved a lot in his time here, but the two milestones he cherishes are the exponential growth of TALS from four to over 40 in-house staff, and from four in-house languages to 16; and the development and implementation of Northern Health’s first ever Reconciliation Action Plan.

Reflecting on his time here, Emiliano says, “I think it is fair to say that Northern Health – like many other health services – was a little behind in terms of diversity when I started in 2007. Coming from the university world, it was a bit of a shock for me.”

“It took a few years to ingrain cultural awareness and cultural competence concepts into the day to day operations of the health service; it then took some more time to extend the notion of diversity from cultural and linguistic diversity to disability and gender, and the intersectionality of these.”

“Today, Northern Health is a different place, mainly thanks to the work of the Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Committee,” he says. 

Emiliano can take pride in building teams which became the ‘agents of change’ at Northern Health.

Says Emiliano, “At TALS, Stefania Zen and Yue Hu are assets no other health service has; their tireless work has meant we have made a huge difference in the health outcomes of patients with limited English proficiency. When I started, if you were a patient with limited English proficiency, you would stay in hospital three days longer than an Australian-born patient. Today, we have cut that gap to half a day.”

“At Narrun Wilip-giin ASU, with Aunty Karen Bryant – an absolute legend- we have built a team, and put in place changes which have altered, for the better, the perception the Aboriginal community had of Northern Health. As a result, we became a much culturally safer place, and there is some evidence the work done is having a positive impact on health outcomes.”

In the Aboriginal Health space, Emiliano is most proud of the development and implementation of the Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP).

“People may not realise how difficult it is to get a RAP across the line. Within our first RAP, we have met most of our objectives: the team has grown, Aboriginal training has been made mandatory, cadetships have been introduced, an Aboriginal employment strategy was developed, new artwork and acknowledgement plaques were installed outside all wards and departments, we renamed the ASU ‘Narrun Wilip-giin’, opened Jornung Bik, the smoking ceremony garden, developed an Aboriginal patient portal and health scorecard, the MOU with the Victorian Aboriginal Health Service. I think Northern Health can be very proud of its work in this space, and I can tell you the community has noticed,” says Emiliano.

He adds, “I think that, as a health service, we are closer to accepting that diversity is not the exception, but the norm. We are all diverse in some way, and we should be very proud of it.”

“I am very grateful for the professional opportunities I have been given at Northern Health and I am particularly indebted to a few people along the way. I have already thanked them personally.”

Emiliano moves onto a new role as the CEO of Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria (ECCV). He says, “The role at Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria will give me the opportunity to work toward social cohesion, and greater access to services, not just in health, but across the board. I will also advocate for greater diversity in positions of power, because leaders should be representative of society demographics.”

“Northern Health and ECCV have an MOU. I hope we will be able to continue working together in communicating effectively with CALD communities as was the case with the COVID-19 vaccination campaign. We could do the same with the Virtual ED, Wellness initiatives, and much more.”

Briana Baass, executive sponsor for TALS and Narrun Wilip-giin, said of Emiliano, “I am so thankful for my time working with Emiliano. He is extremely knowledgeable and, more importantly, he is generous with sharing his knowledge. I will be sad to see Emiliano go, but it is a credit to his hard work over many years that he has an exciting new chapter ahead of him.”

Please join us in wishing Emiliano the very best in his new role.

Dr Amanda Baric, one of our very own anaesthetists, has been awarded the highest state honour of Mongolia, the Order of the Polar Star, in recognition of her contribution to Mongolia’s healthcare sector.

Ambassador of Mongolia to Australia D.Davaasuren presented the award on 3 December in Canberra.

Previous winners of the Order of the Polar Star include former US President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

Northern Health anaesthetists have a long standing association with Mongolia, starting with Associate Professor David Pescod. He first visited Mongolia in 2001 to attend the Mongolian Society of Anaesthesiologists (MSA) 40th-anniversary meeting. Dr Ganbold Lundeg, then president of the MSA, invited David to return and initiated a collaborative learning model and development of the anaesthesia profession.

Amanda first visited there in 2006, helping David deliver training and initiating conversations about the potential for the advancement of anaesthesia training in Mongolia.

In 2008, the Australian Society of Anaesthetists (ASA) signed an MOU with the Mongolian Government to improve anaesthetic training.

The following year, the MSA first delivered an 18-month training program in Mongolia. The training program was developed by David, Amanda, and other Northern Health anaesthetists in collaboration with the MSA.

Since 2008, a combined MSA/ASA scientific congress has been held annually in Mongolia. Each year, the team includes at least six doctors from Northern Health and some of our nursing and midwifery colleagues.

The “Emergencies in Anaesthesia” course was first delivered in Mongolia by doctors, mainly from Northern Health, in 2012, and from this initiative, the specialty of emergency medicine emerged in Mongolia.

“Part of the attraction of coming to work at Northern Hospital is that it has a worldwide reputation of providing education and service in low to middle-income countries,” says Associate Professor David Pescod.

As for Amanda’s achievement, David says, “There can be only one polar star and that is Mandy!”

Chief Medical Officer A/Prof. Wanda S Stelmach agrees. She says, “Mandy, is Northern Health’s shining star albeit a silent one! Her engagement in so many aspects of our health service is appreciated by all who work with her. She is truly a team leader, leading by example yet acknowledging all these around her. Her work in Mongolia is known to her colleagues but what this has meant to the peoples of Mongolia was never really appreciated us  – a totally well-deserved acknowledgement!”

Dr Amanda Baric with her signature modesty, is quick to point out the hard work the Australian volunteers and the members of the MSA have done to make enormous improvements to health care in Mongolia.

“The MSA has been exceptional in its vision and leadership. Without that, we visitors would not have enjoyed the success we have all had together,” she says.

Featured image shows Associate Professor David Pescod, Ambassador Davaasuren and Dr Amanda Baric.

Northern Health Volunteer, Shoukry Sidrak, has been announced as Senior Citizen of the Year in Whittlesea City Council’s 2021 Community Awards!

Shoukry Sidrak has been a Northern Health Volunteer since 2013. His main role has been a volunteer driver until the program was cancelled in 2020.

Shoukry would pick up patients from their home and take them to the hospital for appointments. The trips to the hospitals with Shoukry would often be one of the few social connections these patients would have. While waiting for the patients to finish their appointments, Shoukry would come into the volunteer tea room and join other volunteers doing admin tasks.

Henni Wade, Manager of Volunteer Services commented, “Shoukry is such a kind and friendly person and very generous with his time. His actions are a great example of how our volunteers model our Northern Health values of safe-kind-together.”

Shoukry has spent more than two decades volunteering his time and expertise helping the City of Whittlesea community.

Since settling in Mill Park in 2001, he used his background as an accountant to provide free tax return assistance to low-income earners and has also been a volunteer community visitor.

He is a long-time volunteer with Whittlesea Community Connections and he helps community members in both English and Arabic.

Shoukry and his wife also deliver free sustainability assessments to local residents and businesses.

Plenty Valley Community Health, Whittlesea U3A, the multiphase network and the Jewish Christian Muslim Association of Australia have all benefited from Shoukry’s voluntary contributions and desire to make a difference within his local community.

Congratulations Shoukry, from your Northern Health family.

Today, Northern Health’s third Quarterly Staff Recognition Awards ceremony for 2021, showcasing the brilliant achievements of our dedicated staff, was held online.

More than 110 nominations, for six categories, were submitted by the winner’s colleagues.

Siva Sivarajah, Chief Executive, opened the virtual presentation. He said the awards recognised the “outstanding contributions by our employees and celebrate staff excellence.”

“Northern Health has over 5,700 staff who work across a wide range of areas who are committed to providing great care,” Siva said.

“Through these awards, we recognise staff for their hard work and dedication to our patients, staff and community. Award winners today are staff who exemplify a strong and positive workplace culture and commitment to our patients.”

Nicky Tully and Sue Hull, from the Community Monitoring Program, were awarded the Above and Beyond Award, for going above and beyond to provide care or support to a patient, family or work colleague.

They were nominated by Cassie Bramston, Project Manager, for their hard work on establishing the COVID-19 Community Monitoring Program during the 2020 outbreak.

The Clinical Excellence Award, for a person or team who are generous with knowledge, instil confidence in patients and colleagues, and achieve the best patient experience outcome, was presented to Broadmeadows Surgical Centre team.

They were nominated by Rochelle Sanchez, Clinical Nurse Specialist.

Dr Loren Sher, Head of Paediatric Emergency, won the Innovation Award, for implementing a better way to deliver care or service through a new idea or initiative. In Loren’s case, that was our successful Virtual Emergency Department, established in October last year. Loren was nominated by Dr Michelle Horne, Anaesthetist.

The Excellence in Safety Award was presented to our Rapid Antigen Testing team, for making Northern Health safer for patients, visitors and staff. The team was nominated by Yvonne Hersusianto, Head of Microbiology.

Michelle Brooks, Care Coordinator, won the Patient Experience Award, for making a significant achievement in improving the care experience, including showing kindness and compassion towards a patient, family or work colleague. In Michelle’s absence, the Award was accepted by Johanna Hayes, Divisional Director. Michelle was nominated by Hallie Silver, HARP Team Leader.

And lastly, Nicholas Caruana, Reception Manager, took home the Rising Star Award, for having potential to grow and develop his career at Northern Health. He was nominated by his colleague Elizabeth Anagnostou, Receptionist.

Congratulations to all the award winners!

The Staff Awards are sponsored by BankVic and Northern Health Foundation.

To watch the ceremony recording, please click here.

Featured image: L-R top row: Brylie Willson (accepting the Award on behalf of Broadmeadows Surgical Team), Nicholas Caruana, Johanna Hayes.

L-R bottom row: Nicky Tully and Sue Hull, Vi Nguyen (accepting the Award on behalf of RAT team), Dr Loren Sher.