Veterans Health
Forum Member Windy Hill sent me the following information from the HMAS Perth Association :- What’s New in Veterans’ Health? 28 May 2007 1. The VVCS - Veterans and Veterans Families Counseling Service can be contacted on 1800 011 046. The Long Tan Bursary is administered by the Australian Veterans’ Children Assistance Trust, contact 1800 620 361 or vvt@accsoft.com.au. Specifically, the VVCS offers group programs for sons and daughters of veterans that include topics such as anger management, assertiveness, communication, problem solving, relationships and prevention of mental health issues. The Long Tan Bursary is designed to assist children of Vietnam veterans to make the transition from secondary schooling to tertiary study, thus improving their health, wellbeing and resilience to the life problems that arise from their parents’ service. Fifty bursaries worth $9000 each are awarded nationally each year. 2. Ms Georgina Denney is the principal office spokesperson in the office of Mr. Richard Bartlett at DVA in Canberra to deal with any veteran hearing aid acquisition problems. The phone numbers listed are in the same office i.e.. 02-62896243 and 02-62896780. Georgina does a brilliant job and I cannot speak too highly of her. So please direct any Veteran’s audiology enquiries to her and she will sort them out, if it is at all possible. I have spoken both to her and Richard. They are happy to provide this assistance to any entitled Veteran. My experience suggests that the majority of difficulties with under usage of this service or failure to receive the best value for service, lies with the individual hearing aid providers of that service and not with the Department itself. I would be the last person to decry business, market place practices but on this occasion the Veteran has, from time to time, been the loser through no fault of DVA. 3. Male Health. Go for a visit to........... www.andrologyaustralia.org to learn more about this very important topic. Read the following information and be truly aware: 1 in 20 men is infertile 1 in 7 men have problems with their prostate 12,000 men in Australia every year are diagnosed with prostate cancer. I was one of them in 2004; are you or a mate one now? 1 in 5 men experience erectile dysfunction. A number of treatments exist if only you will discuss the topic. 1 in 200 men have low testosterone levels. That wouldn’t mean any of you, now would it?? Testicular cancer is the most common cancer in men aged 18-39. 4. Know your ‘07-’08 DVA budget........... health wise. A. Better hospital discharge planning for Vets. “A payment will be made to the hospital to cover a two-week programme that will ensure an effective transfer of care. “The programme will include monitoring the veteran’s health during this period and liaising with their Local Medical Officer (LMO) or general practitioner (GP) and other community- based providers. B. Helping Vets manage their medicines “Assistance will be provided to veterans and war widows who have been identified as having difficulty managing their medicines efficiently. “Patients will be assessed by a medical practitioner and referred to a community pharmacy. They will suggest appropriate medication management strategies and develop a written medication management plan in consultation with the veteran.” The initiative includes $3.8 million to establish a payment system to community pharmacies. The programme will be provided through pharmacies from 1 March 2008. C.DVA capacity to support volunteers and carers increased The Australian Government has allocated $5 million over four years in the 2007-08 Federal Budget to assist ex-service organizations and their volunteers to improve support for veterans throughout Australia. D. Supporting quality of life for veterans $10.4 million to increase fees paid to Veterans’ Home Care service providers to ensure veterans and war widows continue to receive the very best in-home respite care services. Mr. Billson said the Australian Government would also spend $6.7 million over the next four years to continue the Community Care Grants programme. This is not an impressive effort on the government’s part, so much remains yet to be done. 5. MATES programme. Veterans' Medicines Advice and Therapeutics Education Services Go visit http://www.dva.gov.au/health/veteransmates/index.htm and become much better informed. This initial three year program has just been extended for a further two years and is steadily beginning to reduce veteran hospital admissions due to drug related problems. Last year in Australia there were 160,000 hospital admissions for medicine mix up related problems (i.e. wrong drugs, wrong dose, wrong drug combinations etc.) of these 68,000 were veterans. That’s a lot of money being spent by DVA on preventable hospital admissions. We could better use that money else where. 6. ASIST programme. Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training Sadly no DVA web site as yet. This programme can best be sourced in NSW through the site http://www.livingworks.org.au/pages/dates.php here you are able to view planned lectures throughout the whole country. The people to speak to are as follows: 1. Gaynor Hicks M 0401637765 E-mail gaynor@livingworks.org.au 2. Lindy MacGregor M 0412700838 E-mail lindy@livingworks.org.au None of us know when we or others we know will become vulnerable. So please take an interest in this important matter of suicide prevention. 7. MHPE programme. Men’s Peer Health Education This is a programme I hope you are all now familiar with and have chosen to use it from time to time. The principal NSW contact is Wayne Collard in the Sydney DVA office Your Health & Wellbeing Programs will help you take responsibility for your own health and to make lifestyle changes and healthy choices to improve you quality of life. Programs available to help improve your health & wellbeing include: A. Chronic Disease Self-Management B. Men’s Health Peer Education C. Cooking for One or Two D. Living Longer Living Stronger E. Men’s sheds These might all seem a little mundane to some of you but the above ideas have worked well when the effort to plan and execute them has been made by the individual sub-branches. Same old story, you get as much out of them as you put in. No pain no gain. 8. RMA Repatriation Medical Authority This topic is not strictly health related but very closely allied in my mind. Professor Ken Donald the Chairman of the RMA has given up his day job as Professor of Medicine at Queensland University Medical School and is now devoting himself full time to the improvement and renovation of SOPs. As you know they can now be reviewed for only a one factor change and not reviewed in their entirety, which previously was hideously time consuming. 9 CMVH Centre for Military and Veterans’ Health This two and a half year old consortium jointly funded by DVA and the Queensland University has produced significant works for both the serving military and ex-service personnel. Currently their most publicised work has been on the Children of Vietnam Veterans Study. Could you urgently distribute to your members / clients / interested parties an invitation to participate in a discussion regarding the health of sons and daughters of Vietnam Veterans. The Centre for Military and Veterans Health (CMVH) is conducting this study. The discussion will be held during the week beginning 28th May 2007 ie commencing today. Should you have any queries regarding this matter, please direct them to CMVH - Dr Ruth McLaughlin 07 3346 4960. This may be a topic of no great concern to yourself, but mightily so to other veterans. 10. AMA concerns In the light of concerns expressed by Dr Dana Wainwright, Chairman of the AMA Federal Council, I have expressed my support to her on your behalf. The AMA is currently fighting against threats of medical registration in Australia being taken over by non-medical organisations, which would bring about lower standards and blurring of lines between the professions. In the most recent edition of the Medical Journal of Australia a UK writer is decrying the changes in UK postgraduate medical education largely derived from political and service imperatives rather than professional or educational concerns. Many former medical tasks are being delivered by new paramedical personnel with new patterns of service delivery emerging. This has been explained away as due to decreasing GP numbers but more accurately can be demonstrated as politicians wanting to produce doctors faster with fewer years training to deliver on election promises and to keep costs under control. In Australia we tend to be only a breath away from our UK medical colleagues, so our veteran community must be on it’s guard against any such trends in this country. We have experienced enough difficulties with foreign medical graduates registration without adding this professional training down grading to the mix. This has nothing to do with others sharing the medical work load but all about maintaining the standard of professional medical training in this country. The first group to feel a drop in medical practice standards will certainly be the ageing veteran population and for this reason, alone, we must be seen to support the profession’s standards of care it requires of itself. Dr Roderick Bain MBBS FRCA FANZCA NSW Central Coast District Councillor Chairman RSL National Advisory Committee on Veterans' Health Tel 02-43237998 Mob. 0417604450
Forum Member Windy Hill sent me the following information from the HMAS Perth Association :- What’s New in Veterans’ Health? 28 May 2007 1. The VVCS - Veterans and Veterans Families Counseling Service can be contacted on 1800 011 046. The Long Tan Bursary is administered by the Australian Veterans’ Children Assistance Trust, contact 1800 620 361 or vvt@accsoft.com.au. Specifically, the VVCS offers group programs for sons and daughters of veterans that include topics such as anger management, assertiveness, communication, problem solving, relationships and prevention of mental health issues. The Long Tan Bursary is designed to assist children of Vietnam veterans to make the transition from secondary schooling to tertiary study, thus improving their health, wellbeing and resilience to the life problems that arise from their parents’ service. Fifty bursaries worth $9000 each are awarded nationally each year. 2. Ms Georgina Denney is the principal office spokesperson in the office of Mr. Richard Bartlett at DVA in Canberra to deal with any veteran hearing aid acquisition problems. The phone numbers listed are in the same office i.e.. 02-62896243 and 02-62896780. Georgina does a brilliant job and I cannot speak too highly of her. So please direct any Veteran’s audiology enquiries to her and she will sort them out, if it is at all possible. I have spoken both to her and Richard. They are happy to provide this assistance to any entitled Veteran. My experience suggests that the majority of difficulties with under usage of this service or failure to receive the best value for service, lies with the individual hearing aid providers of that service and not with the Department itself. I would be the last person to decry business, market place practices but on this occasion the Veteran has, from time to time, been the loser through no fault of DVA. 3. Male Health. Go for a visit to........... www.andrologyaustralia.org to learn more about this very important topic. Read the following information and be truly aware: 1 in 20 men is infertile 1 in 7 men have problems with their prostate 12,000 men in Australia every year are diagnosed with prostate cancer. I was one of them in 2004; are you or a mate one now? 1 in 5 men experience erectile dysfunction. A number of treatments exist if only you will discuss the topic. 1 in 200 men have low testosterone levels. That wouldn’t mean any of you, now would it?? Testicular cancer is the most common cancer in men aged 18-39. 4. Know your ‘07-’08 DVA budget........... health wise. A. Better hospital discharge planning for Vets. “A payment will be made to the hospital to cover a two-week programme that will ensure an effective transfer of care. “The programme will include monitoring the veteran’s health during this period and liaising with their Local Medical Officer (LMO) or general practitioner (GP) and other community- based providers. B. Helping Vets manage their medicines “Assistance will be provided to veterans and war widows who have been identified as having difficulty managing their medicines efficiently. “Patients will be assessed by a medical practitioner and referred to a community pharmacy. They will suggest appropriate medication management strategies and develop a written medication management plan in consultation with the veteran.” The initiative includes $3.8 million to establish a payment system to community pharmacies. The programme will be provided through pharmacies from 1 March 2008. C.DVA capacity to support volunteers and carers increased The Australian Government has allocated $5 million over four years in the 2007-08 Federal Budget to assist ex-service organizations and their volunteers to improve support for veterans throughout Australia. D. Supporting quality of life for veterans $10.4 million to increase fees paid to Veterans’ Home Care service providers to ensure veterans and war widows continue to receive the very best in-home respite care services. Mr. Billson said the Australian Government would also spend $6.7 million over the next four years to continue the Community Care Grants programme. This is not an impressive effort on the government’s part, so much remains yet to be done. 5. MATES programme. Veterans' Medicines Advice and Therapeutics Education Services Go visit http://www.dva.gov.au/health/veteransmates/index.htm and become much better informed. This initial three year program has just been extended for a further two years and is steadily beginning to reduce veteran hospital admissions due to drug related problems. Last year in Australia there were 160,000 hospital admissions for medicine mix up related problems (i.e. wrong drugs, wrong dose, wrong drug combinations etc.) of these 68,000 were veterans. That’s a lot of money being spent by DVA on preventable hospital admissions. We could better use that money else where. 6. ASIST programme. Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training Sadly no DVA web site as yet. This programme can best be sourced in NSW through the site http://www.livingworks.org.au/pages/dates.php here you are able to view planned lectures throughout the whole country. The people to speak to are as follows: 1. Gaynor Hicks M 0401637765 E-mail gaynor@livingworks.org.au 2. Lindy MacGregor M 0412700838 E-mail lindy@livingworks.org.au None of us know when we or others we know will become vulnerable. So please take an interest in this important matter of suicide prevention. 7. MHPE programme. Men’s Peer Health Education This is a programme I hope you are all now familiar with and have chosen to use it from time to time. The principal NSW contact is Wayne Collard in the Sydney DVA office Your Health & Wellbeing Programs will help you take responsibility for your own health and to make lifestyle changes and healthy choices to improve you quality of life. Programs available to help improve your health & wellbeing include: A. Chronic Disease Self-Management B. Men’s Health Peer Education C. Cooking for One or Two D. Living Longer Living Stronger E. Men’s sheds These might all seem a little mundane to some of you but the above ideas have worked well when the effort to plan and execute them has been made by the individual sub-branches. Same old story, you get as much out of them as you put in. No pain no gain. 8. RMA Repatriation Medical Authority This topic is not strictly health related but very closely allied in my mind. Professor Ken Donald the Chairman of the RMA has given up his day job as Professor of Medicine at Queensland University Medical School and is now devoting himself full time to the improvement and renovation of SOPs. As you know they can now be reviewed for only a one factor change and not reviewed in their entirety, which previously was hideously time consuming. 9 CMVH Centre for Military and Veterans’ Health This two and a half year old consortium jointly funded by DVA and the Queensland University has produced significant works for both the serving military and ex-service personnel. Currently their most publicised work has been on the Children of Vietnam Veterans Study. Could you urgently distribute to your members / clients / interested parties an invitation to participate in a discussion regarding the health of sons and daughters of Vietnam Veterans. The Centre for Military and Veterans Health (CMVH) is conducting this study. The discussion will be held during the week beginning 28th May 2007 ie commencing today. Should you have any queries regarding this matter, please direct them to CMVH - Dr Ruth McLaughlin 07 3346 4960. This may be a topic of no great concern to yourself, but mightily so to other veterans. 10. AMA concerns In the light of concerns expressed by Dr Dana Wainwright, Chairman of the AMA Federal Council, I have expressed my support to her on your behalf. The AMA is currently fighting against threats of medical registration in Australia being taken over by non-medical organisations, which would bring about lower standards and blurring of lines between the professions. In the most recent edition of the Medical Journal of Australia a UK writer is decrying the changes in UK postgraduate medical education largely derived from political and service imperatives rather than professional or educational concerns. Many former medical tasks are being delivered by new paramedical personnel with new patterns of service delivery emerging. This has been explained away as due to decreasing GP numbers but more accurately can be demonstrated as politicians wanting to produce doctors faster with fewer years training to deliver on election promises and to keep costs under control. In Australia we tend to be only a breath away from our UK medical colleagues, so our veteran community must be on it’s guard against any such trends in this country. We have experienced enough difficulties with foreign medical graduates registration without adding this professional training down grading to the mix. This has nothing to do with others sharing the medical work load but all about maintaining the standard of professional medical training in this country. The first group to feel a drop in medical practice standards will certainly be the ageing veteran population and for this reason, alone, we must be seen to support the profession’s standards of care it requires of itself. Dr Roderick Bain MBBS FRCA FANZCA NSW Central Coast District Councillor Chairman RSL National Advisory Committee on Veterans' Health Tel 02-43237998 Mob. 0417604450