Thank you to all General Practitioners and Medical Officers for their referrals and support in the project to date. An evaluation of all data captured data will be completed to review the effectiveness and patient outcomes.

Due to the project close date, no further referrals will be accepted into the QCVIPC program, with any future received referrals forwarded onto the patient’s catchment Persistent Pain Management Service.

For all your future persistent pain patients please refer through to your catchment Persistent Pain Management Service (PPMS) for treatment.

North Queensland PPMS 
P: (07) 4433 2218 
Email: NQPPMS-AlliedHealth@health.qld.gov.au and Chad.Jordan@health.qld.gov.au 

Sunshine Coast PPMS 
P: (07) 5470 6785 
Email: SC-persistentpain@health.qld.gov.au  

Gold Coast IPPC
Ph: (07) 5668 6825 
Email: gcpersistentpain@health.qld.gov.au 

In late 2019, Beacon Strategies was commissioned by Northern Queensland Primary Health network (NQPHN) to finalise the development of the Cairns and Hinterland SPCAP. The development of the Plan experienced many disruptions including COVID-19 which suspended the project for six months. 

By mid-2021, a plan was finalised that outlined a community and sector endorsed path forward for coordinated suicide prevention activities across the region. The implementation of this initiative is now underway. 

Beacon Strategies will continue to support NQPHN with the implementation of the SPCAP for the Cairns and Hinterland region.

As a part of the implementation phase of the project, a website, LinkedIn page, and Facebook page have been created to communicate the latest insights, updates, and activities related to the Cairns and Hinterland SPCAP.

Find out more information about the implementation of the Cairns and Hinterland Suicide Prevention Community Action Plan at www.cairnsandhinterlandspcap.com.au/newsfeed

The GP education weekend featured new innovations, workshops in psychiatry, paediatrics, gynaecology, urology, and rehabilitation, plus GP market stalls and speed dating with specialists from all disciplines.

This year’s event included networking opportunities with a number of sponsors, including NQPHN, FNQ HealthPathways, Cipla, QML Pathology, Sullivan Nicolaides, JCU, Tilray, and Edwards Lifesciences.

The conference provided NQPHN with the opportunity to interact with attendees, answering questions on a variety of topics, including Medicare Web Services, My Health Record, Shared Health Summaries, ePrescriptions, QScripts, and QH Viewer.

To do this, they are conducting two surveys, one for organisations and one for Peer Support Workers.

• The survey for organisations can be accessed here.
• The survey for peer support workers can be accessed here.

Surveys close on Sunday 22 August 2021. If you have any questions, or would like any more information, please contact QAMH Project and Policy Officer, Leanne Kelly via email at lkelly@qamh.org.au

The program provides students with the skills and knowledge required to provide foundation chronic disease education, understand the burden of chronic disease and the impact on Australia, identify chronic disease models, and the tools and resources used in managing chronic conditions in the primary health care arena. It also allows the student to build and embed foundational knowledge to allow advancement to further learning workshops. 
 
It is a fully online program consisting of blended learning including knowledge, information, articles, learning videos, and self-reflection activities. The program includes detailed information on the determinants of health, Indigenous health, chronic disease frameworks, the patient journey, health literacy, and chronic conditions. 

Upon successful completion of the program students should have the ability to: 

• understand the burden of chronic disease
• identify priority groups
• understand their role in Close the Gap 
• understand the patient journey and link to coordinated care, cultural safety, health literacy and communications styles 
• identify the need for prevention and the use of prevention tools 
• understand care coordination. 

To learn more, view the registration flyer for the Foundations of Chronic Disease program, and the brochure outlining the new Chronic Disease Learning Pathway.

For further information, please contact us on courses@benchmarquegroup.com.au or 1300 855 568. 

In May 2021, the Medical Services Advisory Committee recommended to government that self-collection be expanded to be offered as a choice to all people eligible for cervical screening: http://www.msac.gov.au/internet/msac/publishing.nsf/Content/1664-public.

A government decision on this recommendation is awaited, but the change could potentially be introduced sometime in 2022. At present, the self-collection pathway is available to under and never screened people aged 30 and over who meet strict eligibility criteria with the test being offered in a consultation by a cervical screening provider. 

We recognise that the implementation of the current self-collection cervical screening pathway has not come without its challenges, and that primary care and the Primary Health Networks are pivotal in the delivery of self-collection. The University of Melbourne (led by A/Prof Julia Brotherton and Dr Claire Nightingale), has been commissioned by the Commonwealth Department of Health to conduct a consultation and develop an implementation plan to guide the potential roll out of this proposed policy change.

Primary care providers are encourage to participate in the short online survey: https://melbourneuni.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1TFtMJwsBHlbAzA 

Participants of the survey have the choice to go into the draw to win one of two $200 Red Balloon Gift Vouchers. 

Participating GPs will engage with peers and key opinion leaders to identify and test practical strategies that they can implement to improve the care for their patients with work-related mental health conditions. As part of the study, GPs are asked to:

• recruit seven patients (per practice) with a diagnosed or suspected work-related mental health condition
• complete two data collection activities (15-20 minutes each)

If randomised to the intervention arm:

• participate in a one hour session of academic detailing
• participate in a one hour webinar.

Total time commitment is three hours over nine months.

GPs will receive an $800 payment and 40 CPD points, and each practice will receive a $500 payment to compensate for time spent on the study.

The IMPRovE trial is funded by an NHMRC Partnership Grant, and official partner organisations: Beyond Blue, the Attorney-General’s Department, Comcare, Queensland Government Office of Industrial Relations, State Insurance Regulatory Authority, WorkSafe Victoria, WorkCover WA and iCare.

To register your interest or join this study, click here.

The report draws on data from Mission Australia’s 19th annual Youth Survey of young people aged 15 to 19 years to provide unique insights from responses to the open-text question:  

“In the past year, what is the biggest issue that you have been dealing with? What do you think needs to be done about it?” 

Over 18,400 young people responded to this question with a range of concerns. One of the top three concerns was COVID-19, with many writing about the impacts on their education, being and feeling isolated and mental health. Amplifying young people’s own words, this report provides insights into how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected them and what can be done to help.  
 
For young people 2020 was an especially challenging year. As one survey participant disclosed, “It has been pretty hard to stay motivated in schoolwork and life in general during the pandemic and quarantine…it has a ripple effect on other parts of my life”. At the same time, young people as the experts in their own lives have made a range of suggestions about action that should be taken to better support them. 
 
This report has timely information that we hope will inform policy development at Federal and State and Territory levels.  

Key findings  

Mission Australia’s Youth Survey COVID Report 2020 reveals that young people who said COVID-19 was their biggest issue in 2020 were most concerned about the impact of the pandemic on their education, experience of isolation and mental health. The young people hardest hit by these issues were those living in Victoria, and 17-year-olds were most likely to say their education was severely impacted by COVID-19. 

Impacts on education 

• Young people frequently reported feeling stressed and worried about falling behind in studies, achieving poorer than expected grades or failing and worry about an uncertain future.  
• Learning away from schools and at home was described as a key cause of disruption. 
• COVID-19 created or intensified young people’s experiences of managing competing priorities and maintaining motivation. 

Experiencing isolation 

• Respondents overwhelmingly talked about feeling isolated and being separated from family and friends, with a small number also expressing the same worry for others close to them. 
• Being in lockdown, quarantine and the loss of usual support mechanisms were key issues affecting feelings of isolation. 
• Many young people noted restrictions negatively impacted on their ability to participate in sports, community activities or events. 

Impacts on mental health 

• Young people described feeling stressed about different aspects of their lives and how COVID-19 had either caused or intensified feelings of stress, experiences of anxiety and/or depression and led to poor mental wellbeing.  
• Family related stress was raised around conflicts while confined at home, financial stress, missing families and homes when living away from home, family responsibilities while at home and worry over the wellbeing of loved ones and loss of loved ones. 
• The inability to keep in touch and connected with friends and engaged in social activities was linked to poor mental wellbeing. 
• There were some young people who reported serious mental health issues. A small number had difficulty accessing professional help. 

Solutions offered by young people 

• Supporting young people to help themselves when feeling overwhelmed and stressed with study, when feeling isolated and when experiencing poor mental wellbeing. Young people need resources that help them identify when they might be in need and to seek out formal and social supports in these circumstances. 
• Schools are an important site for wellbeing and study supports and resources. This may come in the form of greater wellbeing (both targeted and universal) resources in schools that use both passive and assertive outreach, schools/service partnerships, as well as teacher and school support of teacher/student and student/student connection. In particular, young people doing final years of school during COVID-19 restrictions might require extra support to achieve educational goals, such as improved communication in online environments, a reduction in pressure and workloads and support and understanding around accessing tertiary education and post-school employment or further training.  
• Government and service provision of mental health wellbeing supports. An increase is needed in the availability of services to support the mental wellbeing of young people. Governments and services should engage in mental health preventative and early intervention delivered in flexible formats to address wellbeing issues that may arise during isolation periods where young people are studying remotely and are less connected with their support networks than they would be under normal circumstances.  

 
The full report is available for download here. To view Mission Australia's Young voices of the pandemic 2021 sub-report infographic, click here.
 
For more information please don’t hesitate to contact us at researchandpolicy@missionaustralia.com.au.