The holiday season is meant to be a time of joy, but for many it can be a time of disappointment, stress, anxiety, or loneliness.

Northern Queensland Primary Health Network (NQPHN) has launched its annual Be Kind To Your Mind This Christmas Time social media campaign.

The campaign prompts North Queenslanders to look after their mental health during the Christmas and New Year period and reach out for support when they need it.

Be Kind To Your Mind This Christmas Time provides links to 24-hour crisis support services, counselling and support services, and community service organisations.

These specialised support services are readily available to listen to any concerns and provide support and assistance to develop coping strategies.

NQPHN Chief Executive Officer Robin Whyte said it’s important to remember to be kind to yourself, take some time out, seek help when needed, and check on loved ones throughout the busy holiday season.

“It’s a busy time of year and the holiday season usually comes with high expectations and increased social activity. Some people experience feelings of isolation, financial stresses, or increased family tensions that can make this a very stressful time of year,” Ms Whyte said.

“For those that have recently lost a loved one, it may also be a sad time. For all these people, Christmas can be a time when they need an extra helping hand.

“Stress and anxiety may be heightened with uncertainty remaining around coronavirus. Feelings of uneasiness may occur as people start to travel more, attend social gatherings, and hold larger celebrations with loved ones.

“People with mental ill-health may shy away from social interactions because of stigma, past experiences, or being overwhelmed by the situation.

“Through a simple act of kindness anyone can help others feel as if someone is thinking or caring about them. Those of us who have stable housing, finances, family and friend connections, should think about those who don’t have these things, often through no fault of their own.

The Be Kind To Your Mind This Christmas Time campaign will run on NQPHN’s social media channels including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

For more information, visit www.nqphn.com.au/community-member/be-kind-your-mind-christmas-time

This service will operate seven days a week, 365 days a year (including public holidays), with walk-ins expected from mid January at a new site in Walker Street, Townsville.

Using a community-based co-design process, the service and the building when operational, will enable people to walk in to receive support from a predominately lived experience workforce, who are all local. Having experienced a mental health crisis, our team members understand what those in crisis might be going through. 

Townsville Head to Health is a welcoming, safe, and inclusive way to support community mental health and wellbeing. The service will provide, and connect people to, the right support when and where it is needed, including: 

• immediate support for people in crisis
• timely access to short-term support to meet immediate mental health needs
• help to access local support to meet mental health needs 
• information, navigation, and referral for people seeking mental health support for themselves or others. 

The goal is to collaborate with the local community, clinical, and health services. Working together, a ‘no wrong door’ approach can be offered and provide better access to mental health and wellbeing support.

Head to Health peer wellbeing coaches will be answering calls and providing support during the Christmas and New Year period to ensure that anyone who needs help will receive it during what can be a stressful time.

Referrals are not necessary however a telephone referral can be made to (07) 4766 8444. 

Head to Health are funded as part of the Federal Government’s 2019-20 ‘Prioritising Mental Health’ $2.3 billion budget measure. The first eight funded Head to Health are pilots, with one in each state/territory. Alongside service delivery, they provide an opportunity to learn about the mental health needs of the local community and to deliver new ways of working.

Northern Queensland PHN commissioned Neami National to provide the Head to Health Service and have been working in partnership to deliver this service to meet local needs.

There will be an official site launch in January followed by a series of open mornings during February for anyone to visit and talk to the lived experience teams about the service. More information will be available shortly.

Townsville Head to Health operating hours:

10am – 8pm – Monday to Friday 12pm – 8pm – Saturday, Sunday, and public holidays Phone Number: (07) 4766 8444

Earlier this year, NQPHN invited young, aspiring Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander artists to express their knowledge, understanding, and interpretation of the importance of maintaining and growing a Connection to Country.

The competition welcomed a record number of submissions from talented young Indigenous artists from as far north as the Torres Strait Islands and as far south as Mackay.

NQPHN would like to thank all artists who participated in this year’s competition - your response and artwork was truly inspiring and we encourage you to continue developing, expressing, and sharing your creative talents!

For the first time, this year’s competition was split into two categories – a junior competition for young people aged between 12–14 years and a senior competition for those aged 15-18 years.

In each category, the first-place winner received an Apple iPad Pro and Apple Pencil valued at $1,698, with the second and third place winners receiving gift vouchers for art supplies, valued at $500 and $250 respectively.

Among the many entrants, the well-deserving 2021 winners in each category were:

Junior category (12-14 years old)

Senior category (15-18 years old)

NQPHN Board Chair Nick Loukas led the Board panel of voters and shared his excitement and pride in the competition.

“This is the fourth year of competition, and the talent, level of attention and meaning in this years’ artwork submissions and explanations is inspiring,” shared Mr Loukas.

“We are thrilled at the calibre and number of local young Indigenous artists who have risen to the occasion and created artwork illustrating their histories, abilities, and cultures.”

Since the close of the competition, winners received their awards and prizes at school presentations and class ceremonies to celebrate their achievement.

NQPHN’s fourth competition ran as part of the organisation’s commitment to support Indigenous youth, and a meaningful pathway towards inclusion of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

The 2021 winning artworks can be viewed on the Indigenous Youth Art Competition page.

The sessions have allowed both face-to-face and online attendance, with an impressive number of total participants in each region to date:

• Cairns (150+ attendees)
• Townsville (160+ attendees from two sessions)
• Mackay (60 attendees)

The workshops have been a great opportunity for health experts to collaborate on a whole-of-system approach to protect the wider community as borders reopen and international travel resumes. A huge thanks to GPs, pharmacies, and local Hospital and Health Services for taking part in these vital, ongoing discussions.

A significant number of eligible Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander patients have not been correctly registered for the Closing the Gap Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme co-payment program. As of 1 February 2022, these patients will not have the applicable co-payment reduction applied when their prescriptions are being dispensed.

To ensure eligible patients are formally registered for the Program and continue to receive their PBS medicines at the reduced PBS co-payment, health care providers need to review the registration status for any Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander patients. A patient’s registration status can be checked using the Health Professional Online Services (HPOS). If the patient is not formally registered with Services Australia, HPOS will indicate that the person is ‘inactive’. In this case, you will need to contact that patient to arrange to have them assessed by either a PBS prescriber or an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Practitioner.

This issue must be rectified before 31 January 2022 to ensure all eligible Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander patients who have previously received their PBS general schedule medicines under the program can continue to do so.

Information on registering patients for the program can be found on the Department of Health’s website.

For PBS prescribers, if you require information on using HPOS this can be found on the Services Australia website.

Health care providers can register their patients if they’re:

• a PBS prescriber
• an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Health Practitioner registered with both the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) and Medicare.
   

Instructions 

1. Log into your individual PRODA account
2. Navigate to HPOS > Go to Services > My Programs
3. Select the ‘Closing the Gap PBS Co-Payment Register’ tile
4. Select the method you’d like to use to search for your patient – ‘Medicare Card details’ or ‘patients name details’
5. Read and agree to the declaration
6. If successful, your patient will be displayed below the search criteria with their current Close the Gap registration status
7. If the Register button displays as an ‘Inactive’ status, select the ‘register’ button
8. Select save
9. The registration status should change from inactive to active.

First published in 2014, the IPC Standards are designed as a guide to help health professionals and other healthcare staff in the implementation of infection prevention and control procedures. We’re updating the IPC Standards in 2022 to ensure the guidance reflects current evidence and best practice. A technical working group will develop the updated resource and a draft will be provided to members and stakeholders for feedback. At this initial stage, we’re seeking your thoughts on the current IPC Standards. We’re eager to hear from you and your practice teams about how you use the IPC Standards, as well as your thoughts on its content, level of detail and format:

• What areas of the IPC Standards do you find most useful?
• Is there content that needs more detail or prominent focus?
• Is the advice in the IPC Standards presented in the most useful format (ie text and tables)? If not, what format would be more useful to you and your practice?
• What general feedback do you have on the IPC Standards?

It’s important to acknowledge that the IPC Standards are designed for use in office-based practices in the implementation of infection prevention and control procedures. This means general practices are not accredited against IPC Standards, but may refer to them in meeting some criteria set out in the Standards for general practices (5th edition). Please email any feedback on the IPC Standards to standards@racgp.org.au by 7 February 2022.

Free HIV and other STIs testing service RAPID is now offering a services free kits are free to access and mail out to Queensland residents aged 16 years and older (non-Queensland residents are ineligible). The kits can be ordered via an online order form (here) or via the QR codes on the posters.

There is an option to engage with a RAPID peer tester prior testing. This is optional to be sensitive to the needs and preferences of the ‘hard to reach’. Testing follow up and linkage to care is coordinated over the phone by a RAPID peer tester.

The program will be operational over the end of year holiday period. Test kits are available on an ongoing basis until the expiry of funding (Jun 2024). RAPID are unable to provide test kits for secondary distribution.

Further information on the program can be found on RAPID's website at rapid.org.au