March 2023
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Get to know: Nicola McKay
#WeAreNothern Meet Nicola McKay, Community Development, Mental Health Support. Q: Firstly, what is your coffee order? A: Latte – no sugar, fat milk. And three for a Sunday brunch. Q: Tell us about your role at Northern Health? A: Community Development is an ideology built around our common humanity. There is a myriad of positive health benefits that the community bestows on us. Humans are social creatures and Community Development is about enabling, encouraging and supporting ways that individuals can build their social connections. The other half of my work is as a Psychiatric Support. I support clinicians by…
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From students to employees: Northern Health welcomes six social workers
The social work team recently welcomed six La Trobe University social work students as new employees of Northern Health. Jessica Grgat, Megan Feain, Gloria Hernandez, Alia Sayegh, Sophie Eccles and Natalie El-Bazouni have completed their student placement and became Northern Health employees in the last 12 months. Northern Health is a proud teaching hospital, contributing to the future of health care and shaping the next generation of health professionals. Social work students have two placements during their studies both consisting of 70 days each (14 full-time weeks). Placements are lengthy to enable consolidation of core skills across learning areas such…
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EMR and Standard 5: Comprehensive Care
On 16 February, the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) team presented on the Comprehensive Care Plan to the Assessment and Care Planning Sub Group Clinical Improvement Committee. Northern Health’s EMR, designed by our clinicians, aims to provide staff with better patient management and documentation, in turn delivering quality care to our patients and community. Current paper forms such as the CARE Record are built into the system where staff will be able to document information such as fall risk, patient’s expressed goals of care and healthcare needs, and will be visible to other clinicians on the care team. This reduces the…
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We Are Northern: This is the Falls and Balance Service team
Northern Health’s Falls and Balance Service (FABS) is located in Bundoora Centre. It provides a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary assessment for people in the community who have experienced falls. The FABS clinic is a diagnostic service and aims to identify the intrinsic and extrinsic factors contributing to a person’s falls. The team advises of appropriate management to further reduce falls and or fear of falls. The clinic has an Allied Health stream of Physiotherapy (PT) and Occupational Therapy (OT), who provide falls assessment and interventions to those clients who do not meet the clinic criteria. The aim of this stream is to…
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Purple Day 2023: Living with Epilepsy
Yesterday, 26 March was Purple Day – a global initiative dedicated to raising epilepsy awareness and shining a light on people living with epilepsy. Purple Day was founded in 2008 by nine-year-old Cassidy Megan of Nova Scotia, Canada. Her own struggle with epilepsy was her primary motivation to get people talking openly about the condition. Cassidy named the day ‘Purple Day’ after the internationally recognised colour for epilepsy, lavender. The 2023 Purple Day campaign theme is “dare to be different”, and on this day, people are encouraged to wear purple to raise awareness for people living with epilepsy. The campaign aims…
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Northern Health celebrates Harmony Day and Cultural Diversity Week
This week, Northern Health celebrated Harmony Day and Cultural Diversity Week. Harmony Day is held every year on 21 March, to coincide with the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The 2023 theme for Harmony Day was ‘Everyone belongs’. On this day, we celebrated Australia’s diversity and paid cultural respect to everyone who calls Australia home. Northern Health services a very culturally diverse community: 47 per cent of Northern Health patients were born in non-English speaking countries, with over 200 countries represented. The top countries of origin are Italy, India, Greece, Iraq and Turkey. Through the…
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ISS wins Operations Performance Award
The Northern Health ISS Facility Services team was recently awarded the ISS Operations Performance Award at the 2022 Pacific Leadership Conference in the Northern Territory. The team was recognised for its successful re-tender of their Northern Health contract, their agile response in all aspects of cleaning and food meeting high standards, establishing methodologies and work instructions to adopt consistency, and for implementing new initiatives in the workplace. Saj Amerasinghe, ISS Key Account Manager, said the team should be very proud of the work they have done over the years. “Winning a Pacific Award is always a great achievement, especially when…
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Northern Health celebrates World Social Work Day 2023
Yesterday, Tuesday 21 March, was World Social Work Day and Northern Health’s social workers have marked the day with an event highlighting this year’s theme, “Respecting Diversity through Joint Social Action”. The afternoon event featured two presentations, each focusing on aspects of diversity. The first presentation showcased the support provided to our local community by the Disability Liaison program at Northern Health for people living with a disability, focusing on intersectionality and marginalised groups. The second presentation focused on family violence in the LGBTQIA+ community. Northern Health Associate Director Allied Health, Penelope Vye says the event provided a great opportunity…