Today marks the start of ‘Conversations on Mental Wellness’ at Northern Health, with the OHS & Wellbeing team officially launching the week this afternoon across all sites.

Our lives can get busy juggling very fast paced working environments, family, friends and interests outside of work.

That is why we need to stop, take a break and talk about our mental wellness. As an organisation, we started ‘Conversations on Mental Wellness’ last year, and will continue those conversations this year as well.

Additionally, the week will include education around a number of mental health and wellbeing focus areas, and strategies and tools to support mental and physical health to maximise wellbeing.

Events and activities will include guest speakers, a panel discussion, Grand Round, yoga sessions, TREAT rest and recovery sessions, seated massage sessions and seminars on nutrition and mental health.

All events throughout the week are free and will provide a good balance between guest speaker sessions and practical self-care sessions. Check out the full timetable of events below!

For further information on Conversations on Mental Wellness, please click here. 

Featured Image (left to right): Chief Executive, Siva Sivarajah, Executive Director People and Culture, Michelle Fenwick, Director OHS & Wellbeing, Will Halpin and Workplace Wellbeing Coordinator, Alison O’Sullivan 

It’s that time of year again. Our Northern Health Foundation major raffle launched yesterday and this year it’s bigger and better than ever!

This year, funds raised from the raffle will support the purchase of additional emergency accommodation for patient families who travel from rural and regional Victoria to be close to their loved ones receiving treatment at Northern Hospital Epping.

With the amazing support from major partners, Maxxia and Freemason’s Victoria, the Foundation aim to raise $120,000 to support the second emergency accommodation project.

Northern Health Foundation Director, Yvonne Amos, said, “We are excited to be launching this year’s raffle with some amazing prizes on offer including a Hyundai Kona SUV and a trip for two to Cairns. Funds raised support projects that help improve patient care and this year is no exception.”

Those who purchase tickets before 11 October 2019 will also go in the running to win a $500 Coles-Myer Gift Card as part of the early bird draw.

Tickets are just $50 each or 3 for $100 and you have the chance of winning the following great prizes:

First prize: Hyundai Kona including all on road costs. The Kona is a powerful compact SUV with premium interior, six airbags and a rear view camera. You can check out the brand new Hyundai Kona on display in the foyer of Northern Hospital Epping.

Second prize: Helloworld Travel Trip for two to Cairns including five nights’ accommodation, breakfast and airfares.

Third prize: Samsung 50″ 4k UHD Smart LED Television.

Fourth prize: Mantra Epping Voucher including one night accommodation, two course dinner and full buffet breakfast for two people.

Early bird prize: Purchase your tickets before 11 October to enter into the running to win a $500 Coles-Myer Gift Card.

“Our sincere thanks to Maxxia, our major supporter, who have generously donated the Hyundai Kona, and to Freemason’s Victoria who will match funds raised,” Yvonne Amos said.

To purchase your tickets, please click here. Tickets can also be purchased in the Northern Hospital foyer where the Hyundai Kona is on display.

 

 

 

 

 

Role: Director, Department of Infectious Diseases

Title: Prospective Clinical Drug – Drug Interaction Study between Rifampicin and Fusidic Acid

Award: $5,000

 

 

 

 

 

 

---

Name: Dr Sanjeevan Muruganandan

Role: Respiratory & Sleep Physician

Title: Steroid Therapy and Outcome of Parapneumococcal  Pleural Effusion (STOPPE) trial: A pilot multi-centre placebo-controlled randomised study

Award: $5,000

 

 

 

 

 

---

Name: Dr Liam Hannan

Role: Respiratory & Sleep Physician

Title: Pleural Effusion and Symptom Evaluation (PLEASE) – 2 study: Ultrasound to quantify diaphragm function in pleural effusion 

Award: $5,000

 

 

 

 

 

---

Name: Miss Renee Catton

Role: Grade 3 Senior OT

Title: Meaningful Occupational based activity groups designed to improve the overall wellbeing for older patients in a hospital setting

Award: $4,999

 

 

 

 

 

---

Name: Mr Basil D’Souza

Role: Consultant Colorectal Surgeon

Title: The Utility of Pre-Operative Optifast for Laparoscopic Resections in Colorectal Surgery – The PORC Study

Award: $3,388

---

As an organisation, we started the Conversations on Mental Wellness last year, and will be continuing those conversations this year too.

I would like to invite staff to participate in Northern Health’s Conversations on Mental Wellness being held across all sites, commencing Monday, 9 September through to Friday, 13 September 2019.

Northern Health’s ongoing commitment to the safety and wellbeing of our staff is on display during all of next week, with lots of opportunities to have ‘Conversations’ and to provide staff the opportunity to attend and listen to a variety of speaker events, and participate in self-care sessions that focus on the importance of supporting mental health and wellbeing.

We kick off the week on Monday, 9 September at 2 pm, where afternoon teas are being held at all sites and you are invited to drop in for a cup of tea and have a chat with your colleagues.

Some program highlights include:

• Twilight Panel Discussion on Tuesday, 10 September 2019 between 5.30 pm – 7 pm at Lecture Theatre 1 Northern Hospital Epping, discussing ‘What does wellbeing look like? Panelists include Dr Harry Gibbs, a cardiologist who is passionate about mental wellness for clinicians and Cheryl Holmes, Chief Executive Officer for Spiritual Health Association.
• Guest speaker Dr Adam Castricum on Thursday, 12 September 2019 between 8 am – 9 am at Lecture Theatre 1 Northern Hospital Epping. Adam is the Head of the Medical Department at Olympic Park Sports Medicine Centre and is passionate about improving Indigenous, regional, and remote health outcomes, doctors’ mental health and ensuring that specialist sport and exercise medical care is accessible to all members of the community.
• Guest speaker Mr John Payne from Beyond Blue on Thursday, 12 September 2019 between 2 pm – 3 pm at PCW Conference Room at Bundoora Centre, where he is sharing his lived experience with PTSD.

Other events and activities include Grand Round talks, yoga sessions, TREAT ‘rest and recovery sessions’, massages and seminars on nutrition (click here to see the timetable of events, speaker bios and more information).

We look forward to staff attending these events during the week across our campuses and ‘continuing the conversation’ on mental wellness.

Michelle Fenwick

Executive Director, People and Culture

“When you are happy, you enjoy the music, when you are sad, you understand the lyrics.”

Georgia Pitts is a final year music therapy student currently on placement in our Children’s Ward two days a week. She runs nursery rhyme groups twice a week, and solo sessions with patients and families the rest of the time.

Music therapy is the provision of evidenced-based musical interventions that seeks to support social, emotional, physical and/or intellectual health and wellbeing goals for a group or individual.

Here’s what happens when you listen to music – your blood pressure falls (or rises) depending on the speed and type of music you listen to; you perform better on spatial tasks and standardised tests; you are able to work out harder and longer; you form and recall memories due to the release of dopamine; and you actually experience physical sensation on your skin in response to particularly moving music.

Georgia says the family-centred care that is fostered in her nursery rhyme group is supported by research that shows that when one family member falls ill, the systems around the individual are also impacted. Hence, the opportunity for the family to be involved is a means of providing positive social experiences for all those involved.

“The family and patient are encouraged to be active participants, whether that be by singing along to familiar songs, sharing their musical background or playing with percussive instruments that facilitate musical interactions with one another,” Georgia says.

Music therapy provide families with the opportunity for social interaction through playful and positive musical experiences, as well as foster family bonding.

“It can also provide staff and family with the chance to see the healthy and musical self of their child,” Georgia says.

Georgia explains that sessions at bedside differ as they are specific to the patient’s interests and their current wellbeing goals. They support mood management, coping strategies for pain, self-expression or pre-operative anxiety.

Georgia’s contribution is not going unnoticed. Tameeka Robertson from Allied Health Education says, “Georgia is having a really big impact with patients and their families.”

Dr Suzi Nou describes herself as ‘an ordinary person who happens to be an anaesthetist’. She also happens to be the first Cambodian-Australian Chair of the Australian Society of Anaesthetists (ASA) and only the fifth woman to hold this post – besides being the first representative from Northern Health.

Established in 1934, the Australian Society of Anaesthetists (ASA) is the peak not-for-profit representative body of anaesthesia in Australia, with over 3,400 members across Australia. The ASA turns 85 this year.

When we asked what the rewards of this role are, Suzi didn’t hesitate to reply:

“Meeting people. I have met so many talented, passionate, motivated people from all around the world. I have met people that I may not have otherwise met, including some very experienced leaders and great thinkers.”

“It’s also very rewarding, although at times, a little intimidating to be representing Australian anaesthetists on the world stage,” Suzi adds.

This year, the ASA hosts a meeting with the Presidents and CEOs of the anaesthesia societies from the USA, UK, NZ, Canada and South Africa, and, as Suzi points out, many of them are women.

“I prepared an article for the Society’s magazine, Australian Anaesthetist, which involved me also meeting the President of the World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists and the President of the Israel Society of Anaesthesiologists. I recently met the first President of the Anaesthesiologists Society of Namibia. They are all women!”

She identified the wellbeing and mental health of her colleagues as one of her priorities as Chair of the ASA. Suzi says, “Patient safety, cultural safety, psychological safety; so many things are tied to this.”

“I think good governance is something that we, and all organisations, keep striving for. I am keen to also foster leadership along with diversity and inclusion,” Suzi says.

After completing her paediatric fellowship in Melbourne, Suzi moved to Fiji as the Senior Lecturer at the Fiji School of Medicine and became Head of the Department of Anaesthesia and ICU at the Colonial War Memorial Hospital in Suva. She then moved to Cambodia and worked as an anaesthetist and intensivist at the Angkor Hospital for Children. She returned to Australia and completed a Masters of Public Health, with a focus on global health and health systems strengthening.

Suzi has instructed and led many courses in anaesthesia across Australia, Asia and the Pacific, and was commissioned into the Royal Australian Air Force in 2012. She is also a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Jake Geertsema, Director of Anaesthesia and Perioperative Medicine at Northern Health said, “Suzi is not only an exceptional anaesthetist, but someone we as a profession are honoured to have as our representative. She is beloved by her patients, respected by her colleagues and recognised for her contribution to anaesthetic care and education across the Asia-Pacific region. We are proud to call her a Northern Anaesthetist!”

In many ways our research capacity and capabilities are growing significantly at Northern Health and it’s important to acknowledge some key recent developments.

NHMRC Grant for Interactive Digital Technologies

Melbourne University, in Collaboration with Northern Health, has received a $2.5 million NHMRC Grant to create research capability in digital population health research and methods that will significantly improve chronic disease outcomes.

This grant is important for Northern Health because it fits with our Staying Well initiative and our strategic goal to keep people well in the community. As an organisation, we are looking forward to finding new ways to tackle chronic disease and engaging with patients to design new technologies.

The Chief Investigator will be Professor Brian Oldenburg, working in collaboration with Northern Health and our patients, with the aim to help people with heart disease, diabetes and other conditions to better manage their health. Congratulations to our Research Lead Professor Peter Brooks for his work on attracting this research funding.

Over the next five years, we are aiming to have 10-12 doctoral students training here, as well as post-doctorates and other research staff working on the project.

Collaboration with Amazon and Swinburne University of Technology

In another significant development, Northern Health recently partnered with Swinburne University of Technology and Amazon Web Services on an innovation challenge to assist people with diabetes.

Northern Health joined the launch of Swinburne University’s Data for Social Good Cloud Innovation Centre. The Centre is one of seven worldwide, and the first of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere. It aims to help solve challenges faced by society – powered by cloud technology. The first innovation challenge involved Swinburne’s Junior Consultants co-designing with Northern Health on the diabetes project and working alongside strategic healthcare advisors.

Melbourne Academic Centre for Health Executive visit

Last week, we hosted Professor Sir John Savill, the new Executive Director Melbourne Academic Centre for Health (MACH), at Northern Hospital Epping.

Professor Sir John Savill is a leading figure in the global medical research community from the University of Edinburgh, where he developed the university’s clinical medical research capacity to where it rivals Britain’s top universities.

He spoke with us about how the MACH will help us with developing partnerships – to become even more involved in translational research to improve the health of our community. Sir John emphasised that health services involved in research and clinical trials have better patient outcomes.

Research Week 2019

I look forward to Northern Health Research Week 7 – 10 October, where we showcase our research and have the opportunity to hear from inspirational speakers. I hope you can participate in many of the sessions.

Have a great week ahead.

Siva Sivarajah

Chief Executive

In partnership with University of Melbourne, Northern Health has received a $2.5 million NHMRC grant for research focused on patient-developed digital technology for treating chronic disease.

Brian Oldenburg is Professor of Non-Communicable Disease Control in the School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne and has been working together with Professor Peter Brooks on the application for this grant.

“This is a new five year grant funded by Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council – Centre for Research Excellence which aims to research and understand more how new technology and digital health programs can improve chronic disease outcomes in Australia,” Professor Oldenburg said.

Together, Northern Health and University of Melbourne are looking to help people with heart disease, diabetes and other conditions to better manage their health.

“We have already been working with Northern Health for a couple of years now, with Professor Peter Brooks and others on this program. We have projects that have already started. Over the next five years, we’ll have 10-12 doctoral students training here, as well as post-doctorates and other research staff,” Professor Oldenburg said.

Professor Peter Brooks, Northern Health Research Lead, said this grant is important for Northern Health because it fits absolutely into the clinical program and the service delivery program that Northern has.

“This will help Northern Health in our Staying Well initiative which keeps people well in the community. Chronic disease is a big burden in the community and the exciting thing about this program that it actually engages with patients to design new technologies,” he said.

For example, researchers will try to co-design a new app that measures blood glucose levels or food intake. They will also work on things like using Telehealth, which means patients would be able to have a virtual consultation with the doctor, rather than coming to hospital.

“That would save so much time for patients. The key thing is that if we want technology to work, we have to design it with the patients, so that we get immediate feedback on what works for them,” he added.

“This is the first really big grant of this type for Northern Health, and the application was co-developed with Melbourne University over the last 3 years. I am really excited to see how the research will impact the health outcomes of the northern population,” he said.

Centre for Research Excellence in Interactive Digital Technology to Transform Australia’s Chronic Disease Outcomes is led by Professor Brian Oldenburg from the University of Melbourne School of Population and Global Health. This centre will optimise user experience, increase integration and produce safety guidelines for interactive digital technologies – mobile apps, chatbots, and wearable devices – to increase the impact and widespread use of technology to reduce the personal, societal and economic costs associated with chronic diseases.

(Featured Image: Professor Peter Brooks and Professor Brian Oldenburg)