Time to work together

For everyone now the battle for ranks is over, so instead of working to beat each other it is time to work together. The better a school group's overall results in the HSC exam, the better the comparison to the rest of the state. This can be beneficial in the moderating process.

I suggest you work together with a friend or friends who do common subjects. Two heads are better than one, and if you're both committed and motivated you could help each other a lot by sharing resources and testing each other.

For Kellyville kids we will have organised study sessions at school on the following dates:
Wednesday 7th October at 9.30am (in the hols)
Tuesday 27th October at 1.15pm (after Maths)
Wednesday 28th October 9.00am
Thursday 29th October 1.15pm (after Biology)

These dates won't suit everyone, so check your exam timetable carefully to work out which sessions fit your study program best.

By now you should have a reliable and organised study program at home. You should be making topic summaries, practising past papers, doing lots of multiple choice questions and familiarising yourself with the graphs and tables in Australia's Health 2008 that relate to the major causes of sickness and death. I've put the AIHW link on this page for easy access, though I know most of you will have it already.

In particular get plenty of sleep, stay off the grog, eat properly and sacrifice a couple of shifts at work for the next month or two. In short, apply the principles of what you have just studied about diet, psychology, reversibility, overload, recovery and perhaps even technology to IMPROVE YOUR PERFORMANCE.

A seriously broken leg

Sports Medicine is all about sports injuries. Check this one out (if you can cope) and think about how you would treat the injury and plan rehabilitation for return to play.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11Li3NlXe4U

BreastScreen "reorient health services"

Hi all, the trials are over and I hope everyone got through unscathed. The question on plyometrics was tough, but the same for everyone. More to come on that.

I just saw an interesting news item about BreastScreen opening a new branch behind the lingerie section of Myer at Parramatta.

I know, you're wondering why your ageing teacher is interested in lingerie. Well, truth be known, it is the great example of "Reorienting Health Services" that I'm interested in.

Moving a health service like breastscreen mamograms to a discrete area in a retail store frequented by middle aged women is a master stroke! It makes the service more intimate, convenient and accessible. That is exactly what the Ottawa Charter means in this Action Area. Breastscreen is taking its service right to the people who can most benefit from its preventative role and is making its service easier to use. It is likely to reach more women as a result.

Check the link on the list.

Kellyville physios at work

Strapping an ankle is not as easy as it seems. We've all had a go in the last couple of days. Sharon has an interesting approach. Natalie and Tarsha have done well, while Jonno, AJ, Josh and Laura have also done well. The link on this site entitled "strapping an ankle" provides some worthwhile tips and useful graphics to help you improve your technique. See how you go!

Drugs in Sport

Hi all, the issue of drugs in sport is very relevant to our study of ethics in sports medicine. Many drugs or therapies that have been developed to treat illness, help people recover from injury or improve patients' wellbeing can also be used to improve the performance of athletes. Pain killers have been used for centuries to improve people's wellbeing, yet they can also be used to help athletes perform while injured. Steroids and growth hormones can be used to accelerate tissue repair or overcome growth problems. Of course these very effects also benefit athletic strength and performance. Substances or methods used to improve respiratory function in patients with lung or breathing problems will also improve CV endurance.

At which point does the noble cause of treating an ailing patient become the unfair cause of cheating to win gold medals???

Try the link to asada, The Australian Sports Anti-Doping Agency, to get lots of information on prohibited substances, drug testing protocols and athlete education on drug related issues.

Health Insurance

The medicare levy is 1.5% not 1.8% as I suggested. The surcharge is 1%. Reaed all about it at the ATO website. I've added the link as "Medicare". When you get to the page you can follow the links to read about the income thresholds, exemptions etc.

The New Public Health Approach

One of the things you might need to do in your HSC exam is to identify how the new public health approach is applied in health promotion campaigns. You know the characteristics of the new public health are:
- empower individuals
- encourage community participation
- recognise the social determinants of health






EXAMPLE
The website for beyondblue, a national mental health initiative focusing on depression, describes many of its strategies. These strategies can be used as examples of the new public health approach eg

-beyondblue provides an online self-assessment tool for depression. This is an example of EMPOWERING INDIVIDUALS (because it provides individuals with the chance to find out about their own feelings before taking the big step of visiting a doctor, it overcomes the barrier of privacy and it gives individuals greater control over their own health decisions)

-beyondblue runs community meetings to raise awareness about depression. This is an example of COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION (because it provides opportunities for community members to be involved in health promotion action at a local level)

-beyondblue maintains a list of doctors who are interested, trained and willing to see patients who may be suffering from depression or other mental illnesses. This is an example of RECOGNISING THE DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH
(because it is a mechanism for improving access to health services by informing people about where the most appropriate doctors are). Access to health services is a determinant of health.

PRACTICE TASK
Select one of the health promotion initiatives from your list. (You don't really need a list, just visit a few websites for Health Promotion Campaigns).
Read the materials to identify some of the strategies included in the campaign.
Find examples of strategies that use these three characteristics of the NPH Approach.