More northern suburbs residents will get the mental health support they need, thanks to the new Hospital Outreach Post-suicidal Engagement (HOPE) service at Northern Hospital in Epping this week.

Bronwyn Halfpenny MP, Member for Thomastown, announced the start of the HOPE service at Northern Hospital.

“This new service in Epping means people across the North-Western region who are in crisis can receive care and support in their community,” she said. 

“I have no doubt the new HOPE clinical team will make a real difference to the lives of many people living in our area.”

The HOPE program is a follow-up and aftercare service for people 16 years of age or more who attend a hospital in crisis or following a suicide attempt. It provides a comprehensive program of clinical and community-based support to people who are at risk, helping them to identify and build strategies to prevent suicide.

Delivered by NorthWestern  Mental Health Service, the HOPE service at Northern Hospital Epping provides a 12-week program of clinical and social support tailored to individuals and their support networks including family, friends, carers, community cultural leaders and Elders.

HOPE Program Manager Saron Lont said: “The HOPE service provides a valuable opportunity for people who present to the ED post suicide attempt, to work alongside a community development worker, supported by a clinician and a consultant psychiatrist. The service will assist the person, and their support network, to develop improved coping strategies and linkages.”

Yvette Woodburn, HOPE team leader said it was great to see the program officially launched.

“We have now employed our whole team and are starting to see consumers through the service and look forward to this important work in the community,” Yvette said.

The HOPE service responds to evidence that a previous suicide attempt is one of the strongest predictors of a future attempt, and has been highly successful, with consumers, carers and mental health workers reporting positive experiences and improved participant recovery rates.

Dr Megan Robb, Director Northern Hospital Emergency Department said: “The HOPE programs allow our patients to receive much needed care in the community, with their supports rather than being in a hospital environment. The program enables the patient to be linked into better community supports that addresses all the psychosocial aspects of their distress, rather than having to navigate a complex system with often long waits to receive help and support.”

Emergency Physician, Dr Shu Ooi, has been working with the NWMH team in the planning and development of the service and model of care. He was also the first clinician from the Emergency Department to make a referral to the program.

The state-wide HOPE service expansion was a recommendation from the interim report of the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System,  expanding the HOPE service from 12 to 21 areas throughout Victoria, ensuring greater access to this important service.

 

Featured image (left to right): HOPE team – Sharon Lont , Stephanie Morrell, Elizabeth Hooper, Yvette Woodburn, Bronwyn Halfpenny MP

We are delighted to announce Northern Health’s volunteer and consumer, Emel Huseyin, was awarded Hume Citizen of the Year by Hume City Council.

The council explained their decision, saying, “Emel has been recognised for her passion and drive to create a better community in all facets. Emel is generous with her time, and volunteers for more than 10 community groups in Hume such as; Northern Health Hospitals, Homestead Community Centre, and Centenary of Federation to name a few. No matter what Emel invests her time and energy in, she always promises to leave it in a better place than it was before.”

Emel joined the Northern Health Consumer Network in September 2015.

“She is an active and valued member of the Northern Health Consumer Health Network and the Volunteer Services Team at Northern Health,” said Henni Wade, Manager of Volunteer Services.

As a Northern Health consumer, Emel is involved with staff on committees, with the aim to improve the patient experience through quality improvement work. Emel currently sits on the National Safety & Quality Health Services Standard Five: Northern Health Nutrition & Hydration sub group-clinical improvement committee and the Support Services Cleaning committee.

“I am a passionate advocate for optimising patient meals and meal time experience. As part of my role in the committee, I contributed to the expansion of the range of Halal diet codes offered at Northern Health. The committee was successful in implementing a light Halal diet code. I have also worked on development of the Victorian Paediatric Menu Standards,” she said.

Emel also volunteers at Broadmeadows Hospital. She spends time in the Dialysis Unit and chats to patients and offers refreshments and also visits Turkish patients on the wards.

“I act as a support person particularly to Turkish families, giving information about how the hospital runs and the services available. Through this, I help people navigate the health care system. This helps reduce anxiety patients might have, as it clarifies expectations and processes which may be different to overseas healthcare,” she said.

During COVID-19 lockdowns, face to face volunteering wasn’t possible, but Emel was able to find ways to continue to volunteer from the safety of her home, participating in the mask-making project where over 2,000 hand-made masks were made for our staff to wear on their days off. Masks were also distributed to a target group of vulnerable residents residing within our community.

“Emel will go out of her way to help others and her strong desire to immerse herself into a wide range of community activities is admired. Emel’s desire to be active and involved in her local community is inspirational,” said Henni.

“I am grateful to whomever nominated me. It is a great honour to receive this award. It is wonderful, thank you very much,” Emel added.

Photo: hume.vic.gov.au

The Northern Centre for Health Education & Research (NCHER) Reproductive Health Biobank celebrated a major milestone this month, with the 100th donor recruited to this flagship research project in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

“We have been so encouraged by the overwhelming support from our community for this project,” said co-director of the Biobank, Associate Professor Lisa Hui.

“Over 80 per cent of pregnant women that we approach to donate their blood or placental samples have been happy to contribute, which is a fantastic recruitment rate.”

“The successful launch of our Biobank is due in large part to our wonderful research midwife, Eleanor Johnson, who explains the project to pregnant women at Northern Health and invites them to participate. Even though we had to stop recruitment during most of 2020 due to the pandemic restrictions, we have reached our 100th recruit in just over one year,” says Lisa.

Lisa explains that many serious complications of pregnancy have their origins in abnormal placental development.

“Our patients are very keen to help us make inroads into understanding conditions such as pre-eclampsia and fetal growth restriction,” she said.

University of Melbourne PhD student, Natasha de Alwis, has already used samples from the Biobank to make a novel discovery about the role of a gene (DAAM2) in placental dysfunction. Her work has just been accepted for publication in the prestigious journal, Scientific Reports. Natasha, who is supervised by co-director of the Biobank, Associate Professor Natalie Hannan, also won the 2020 Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences Faculty Early Career Research Award.

“The Biobank has been a really important resource for me to conduct my PhD research. Having these valuable samples collected and stored with state-of-the art methods means that I can quickly answer important questions that arise during my work,” says Natasha.

The Biobank team expressed their gratitude to maternity services, the caesarean midwives, the Broadmeadows Hospital Family Planning Clinic team, Broadmeadows Hospital and Northern Hospital theatre staff and Northern Pathology Victoria.

Says Eleanor, “Without their assistance and support of the Biobank, this achievement would not have been possible.”

More exciting collaborations are planned for 2021, including research into the impact of pregnancy hormones on women’s immune function with NHMRC early career fellow Dr Boris Novakovic from the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute.

The NCHER Biobank is funded by Northern Health and the University of Melbourne, with additional grant funding from the Melbourne Academic Centre for Health, Northern Health Foundation and philanthropic funding.

Featured image shows research midwife Eleanor Johnson

As the first COVID-19 vaccinations begin to be administered across the state, Northern Health is preparing to launch our own vaccination centre for those living in Melbourne’s north.

In partnership with the North Eastern Hub led by Austin Health, Northern Health’s initial focus will be providing vaccinations to residential aged care facilities in our catchment area, along with our frontline staff, commencing early March. Staff vaccinations will take place in the Transit Lounge of the new building.

Debra Bourne, Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer, explained our staff will be notified via email and SMS to make an appointment and book their vaccine, with a link provided.

“Northern Heath is really excited to be opening this vaccination unit in the new building and the role it will play in keeping our staff and community safe. We are proud to have a role to play in this vaccination program over the next few months,” she said.

Northern Health is providing additional specialised training to staff working in the hub, led by Lumnise Gashi, Vaccination Unit Nurse Unit Manager.

“Our nurses are receiving additional training and will be required to complete this before they commence. To be able to work in the hub, the nurses will complete a Commonwealth and state course to ensure they have the right skills and training to provide safe immunisations. The course is now available through the LMS,” she said.

Lora Davies, Director of Nursing, added that the team has been overwhelmed by people wanting to support this program.

“That is a real indication of our staff, and how dedicated they have been. I am proud of the level of commitment everyone has shown,” she said.

Jier Nguyen, Associate Director, Pharmacy Operations, explained that from the logistics point of view, Pharmacy is ready to receive and store the vaccines.

“Pharmacy is proud to be a part of the vaccination unit, playing a crucial role in logistics and making sure the vaccine is stored appropriately. We had to purchase extra equipment to ensure the maximum amount of doses out of the vial and the team has bought a special fridge for the vaccines to ensure storage at appropriate temperature,” he explained.

A/Prof Craig Aboltins, Director of Infectious Diseases, added that Northern Health’s COVID-19 response was an integral part of the state response, and vaccination is an extension of that.

“Getting a COVID-19 vaccine will help protect you from getting sick from COVID-19, and the vaccines being used in Australia are very effective at preventing serious illness and loss of life. Before vaccines are made available in Australia, they need to pass strict Australian safety standards.”

Featured image (left to right): Luma Gashi, A/Prof Craig Aboltins, Lora Davies, Jier Nguyen

The Northern Health vascular surgery team was pleased to host their fourth annual Complex Venous Workshop last week – but this year the event looked a bit different.

The annual workshops involve procedures on patient cases of complex venous disorders. Northern Hospital is the only hospital in the state that hosts an annual complex venous workshop, and likely the only hospital in the country to host one.

Traditionally, the team would invite international experts and world-renowned surgeons from other parts of Australia and overseas to attend. They would travel to Melbourne not just to watch the procedures, but also take part in them and make comments during the live procedure.

Iman Bayat, Vascular Surgeon and Head of the Northern Health Vascular Surgery Unit said, “Through this interaction, there is education not only for us but also for our guests.”

“Last week, we were able to achieve the same interaction that we would have had with the visitors here live – but on a virtual platform. So when the cases were being done, with complete protection of the patient’s privacy, surgeons from other states and overseas could see us, get a feel of the operation, see the angiograms in real time and make live comments – and we would all be going at the same pace together,” Iman explained.

Iman says one of the benefits of workshops of this nature is that patients with complex venous conditions are able to receive a second and third opinion from international experts in real-time during their procedure here at Northern Hospital Epping.

Among the invited faculty included leading vascular surgeons, Laurencia Vilalba from NSW (pictured above bottom right-hand corner), Patrik Tosenovsky from WA and Stephen Black from London.

“Ultimately, the decision-making is live with the surgeon performing the procedure here at Northern Hospital – but having this input meant shared learnings and feedback,” Iman explained.

The team are now developing this capability so more virtual workshops can be held in the future.

“This is the ground work for future events like this to be held at Northern Health. Now, it’s possible. Previously, we would have to get the person to travel to Melbourne,” Iman said.

The vascular team are already planning to host another workshop in May this year, as well as planning to host a Peripheral Vascular Disease Workshop late-2021.

“I think it’s a pretty significant event that happened last week. These workshops bring much better care to our patients overall,” Iman said.

Orientations are important to anyone entering a new job. This is true also of our new interns, JMOs and HMOs. It is of utmost importance to provide them with information about our ways of working, values and what they need to know in order to provide safe, quality care to our patients.

This year, our orientation for over 200 HMOs and registrars was done completely virtually via MS Teams.

“These groups are very large and it is not possible to provide them with face to face orientation and socially distance at the same time. MS Teams was critical to deliver the sessions,” says Dr Rachael Coutts, Associate Director Medical Education Unit.

“We also used MS Teams to pre-record a number of the sessions so that they are accessible in the future, and have created an orientation showcase that can be used for any new JMO who comes in during the year.”

“It was really important to have the interns on site as this is their very first job. It is counter intuitive that MS Teams and the new technology in the rooms actually enabled this,” adds Rachael.

Tessa Low, one of our junior doctors and the co-president of the Junior Medical Staff Association (JMSA), says, “I would say that attending HMO Orientation virtually probably allowed more of us to attend the session than we otherwise could, because we were able to tune in whether we were at home or working at one of the other campuses.”

“Attending virtual HMO Orientation was as easy as it could be in the current environment, where congregating in large groups is not possible. The orientation through MS Teams was focused and relevant, and allowed us to ask questions and interact through the online chat. The online chat also allowed us to access and save key information like important email addresses and numbers for future reference. Finally, it was nice to be able to attend from any location and enjoy my morning coffee whilst at induction!” says Saras Mane, another of our junior doctors.

“MS Teams has resolved a number of long standing issues related to delivering education that is not related to COVID-19. By streaming across sites, we can cater for those who are not on site and wish to attend, those who record the session to watch it later and presenters who are not on site, which are some of the issues MS Teams has resolved. It is a huge increase in flexibility for us,” points out Rachael.

“We also had a nice surprise on our first intern education session. We had 100 per cent attendance for the first time ever. It was a hybrid session where we had a cohort in the lecture theatre, some in a conference room and some online. It showed us what is possible in terms of accessibility for the interns,” she adds.

Facilitating all of this was “the creation of a Medical Education Team, which helped centralise communication and allows us to broadcast information to targeted groups/teams,” says Brooke Williams, Project Manager MS Teams.

She adds, “Organisationally, we are experiencing increased attendance at meetings. Feedback from clinicians who work across multiple health services, is that as they can now attend meetings virtually from multiple devices. They can attend from the car whilst in transit if required.”

Looking to the future, Rachael says, “We are piloting the next phase of MS teams with the intern and JMO group. We have set up a Medical Education Team and are using it to provide education and training requirements. This is being steadily expanded.”

“We intend to extend our super user network, provide them with intensive MS Teams training to enable us to progressively offer MS Teams and channels for collaboration to more departments and divisions in coming months,” adds Brooke.

Philip Nesci, ICT Advisor, who worked closely with Brooke and the MS Teams team said, “The staff who rolled out MS Teams did an amazing job and Northern Health has enthusiastically embraced the new collaboration platform.”

Featured image shows from left to right, Brooke Williams and Dr Rachael Coutts.

This week marks the beginning of our Electronic Medical Record (EMR) program journey, following the recruitment of approximately 40 staff members to join the EMR project team.

The majority of the new team members started working with the EMR team this week, as we gear up for a two-year project to successfully implement an EMR at Northern Health. You will see and hear more about the team soon.

Approximately half of the team are from Northern Health, and together bring a wealth of experience.

The EMR will transform the way in which we provide care. Over the coming months, you will see the project team out and about across the health service. We will be working closely with staff from various different departments across Northern Health throughout the implementation.

Trish Aldridge, EMR Program Director, warmly welcomed her new team.

“I am really excited to be at this point, as I have been on the EMR journey for some time, and now we are launching the program with an amazing team of approximately 40. We are a great mix of Northern Health staff and people from varied backgrounds, all of whom are passionate about implementing the EMR for our staff and patients across all our sites,” said Trish.

The EMR project is a project led by clinicians for clinicians. With this in mind, the project requires a team of diverse working backgrounds.

The EMR project will be one of Northern Health’s most significant projects over the next two years. The EMR will replace some of our clinical systems and paper, and will become the new source of truth for patient information when it’s live.

We encourage staff to get involved in the program, share ideas and ask questions. The team want to hear from you, so we can work together to implement the EMR across Northern Health – to ensure our patients receive safe and timely care into the future.

If you would like further information about the project or have any queries or suggestions, please email Daniella Chapkoun, Nursing Informatics Officer and Benefits Analyst, EMR Program.

Featured Image shows the EMR team (left to right):
Top row: Nicole Hood, Isah Rosal, Mohammed Rahman, Duncan Wellington, Khail Kazi, Daniella Chapkoun. Second row (from the top): Sarai Abel, Ashish Gaidhankar, Prue Poon, Leigh Patterson, Joanne Chia. Third row: Gladys Thomas, Thomas Ko, Stacey Williamson, Catherine Ryder. Fourth row: Leila Massih, Fey Bakar, Harpinder Khalsa, Virginia Grant, Lachie Hayes. Fifth row: Thomas Sheils, Rodney Reader, Lauren Lee, Jeramie Carson. Sixth row: Kenneth Wong, Maddie Leone, Kim Hoo, Jess Hart, Devika Bhaita Bottom row: Vanessa Reid, Elspeth Fink-Jensen, Trish Aldridge

Last year, the maternity team at Northern Health was looking for innovative digital solutions that will enable pregnant women and new mothers to have access to information and assistance when they need it.

Today, we are pleased to announce the launch of Eve, a mobile application designed to enhance the pregnancy and parenting experience for mums in the north by providing them with access to evidence based information relating to pregnancy, birthing and early parenting.

Nicole Carlon, Director of Operations, Women’s and Children’s Services, says Eve came about as a result of, “looking at ways to improve women’s involvement in their own care and improve the quality and timeliness of the information they were seeking regarding pregnancy, birthing and early parenting.”

“This issue became even more apparent when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and we needed another way for women to engage with us, given delayed face to face antenatal care,” says Nicole.

Nicole says there was a need for the service as, “Many women use Google and commercially available apps or ask on forums when they are seeking information. They don’t want to bother the midwives by calling for information and with almost everyone having a smartphone, this is the easiest way for them to get accurate answers.”

“Unfortunately, this often results in misinformation, scaremongering and even sometimes online bullying. Furthermore, commercial applications are often driven by commercial interests and this creates a bias with the information provided.”

Nicole goes onto say that as a midwife, having three young children of her own and having used all of the above methods for information seeking, she was dismayed at the misinformation that was rife. “I also saw on many social media groups that I was part of, women who didn’t want to bother their care providers with questions that were medical in nature that could result in a poor outcome due to the wrong information being provided,” she says.

“When women book in to have their baby at Northern Health, they will receive an SMS inviting them to download the application. This will be linked to their specific booking and their own medical record and will have bank-level encryption to ensure privacy is maintained. Women will receive weekly updates about how their body and baby is growing and have new articles that are relevant to their stage of pregnancy/parenting. They can also search for specific articles or topics that they are interested in.”

“Unlike other pregnancy applications, women will also be able to see their own pregnancy information by accessing their antenatal visit notes and test results within the application. They will also be able to ask questions through the app (to a midwife); have access to a moderated forum; be able to input medical data like blood sugar levels and blood pressure readings for their doctor to see and have access to a variety of tools like a contraction monitor (that we can see in Birth Suite) and baby feeding/nappy changing trackers,” she adds.

The Eve app has practical content such as, ‘Serious pregnancy symptoms you should never ignore’, ‘What is fetal monitoring?’, ‘Tired cues’, ‘Expressing breast milk’, ‘Babies first 24 hours’ and ‘Alcohol, smoking, drugs and medications when breastfeeding’.

Nicole says that, while at the moment Eve is available only in English (aside from some educational content that is also available in other languages), they will continue to build both written and video content in languages other than English to continuously add to and improve the application.

“We are also looking to build content for specific cultural groups that will take in to account their specific cultural practices and beliefs. In addition, we will be collecting feedback from women on what they would like added,” she says.

Featured image shows Nicole Carlon, Director of Operations Women’s and Children’s Services.