PENINSULA ONLINE

Issue 3
Tuesday, 7 April 2009

Ambulances for Asthma goes national

A potentially life saving asthma intervention program developed for regional and rural Victoria is set to be nationalised after overwhelming success of the initiative.

The Ambulances for Asthma  project was developed by Emergency Health lecturer Ms  Leanne Boyd with a $105,000 funding grant from the Asthma Foundations of Australia.

The project is aimed at increasing people's use of ambulance services for asthma incidents in regional and rural Victoria.

According to Lee previous studies revealed an alarmingly high rate of people driving themselves to hospital with severe asthma instead of calling an ambulance.

"Some of the reasons people did not call an ambulance included a distrust of the ‘000’ system, concerns that the paramedics would be unable to locate their rural property, underestimating asthma severity and not considering asthma as warranting ambulance paramedic assistance," Lee explained.

In addition, some health professionals did not advise patients to use ambulance services if they needed them, and did not know what an ambulance paramedic could do for a patient with asthma.

The Ambulances for Asthma project uses a multimedia package to inform people about the course of action to take in the case of an asthma attack including when to call an ambulance and what to expect during the call out process.

Following the introduction of the program in regional and rural Victoria, Lee found that 64 per cent of participants stated they were more likely to call an ambulance as a result of the project.

"We also discovered a significant increase in ambulance utilisation for asthma within the project regions compared to comparison regions."

Based on the success of the initial project, Asthma Foundations of Australia has provided a further $66,000 for the program to be nationalised.

The initiative will again be developed using a multimedia approach with targeted information relevant the each state.

"As there is no national emergency response service, this is particularly important for people who may be moving to another state or who are travelling and taking holidays," Lee explained.

Information will include relevant resources and emergency contact details for specific areas like the Royal Flying Doctor's Service and Nurse on Call.

The online service will include images of paramedics and emergency transport vehicles as these vary in look from state to state, as well as specific call out protocols for each state and what to do in particularly remote areas where a triple zero service is not available.

Peninsula enhances community opportunities

The Peninsula campus continues to offer unique opportunities for local communities to explore the campus and its offerings through a range of programs and activities.

Power up for VCE Revision lectures

Now in the sixth year, the VCE Revision lectures provide an important opportunity for students from the local area to gain valuable support in their studies prior to exams.

The mid year series will be held at the campus on Saturday, 23 May. VCE Revision Lectures coordinator, Ms Tanya O'Brien, explained that the series had gone from strength to strength since they commenced.

"The teachers from the local community value to opportunity that their students get to enhance their learning opportunities," she explained. "And the students not only get first class revision advice, they get to visit the campus and experience a lecture style environment."

The fact that the lectures are close to home and are run on a not for profit basis means schools can send whole classes for the event. However the success and reputation of the campus's lecturers has also attracted students from outside the local Frankston and Mornington Peninsula areas with many bayside schools and students from northern and western suburbs attending the series.

"While the key aim of these lectures is to enhance the VCE learning experience, we would also hope that the students attending would develop a connection with the campus and the university and when it came time to select a university course, their first choice would be Monash," Tanya said.

Returning to Study-Pathways evening

A second program aimed at mature age and non school leaver students is also being run on Tuesday 19 May from 7 pm at the the Peninsula campus.

The campus has a significant number of mature age students undertaking courses and this evening is aimed at giving them the opportunity to investigate their options for study at Peninsula.

This year, close to 50% of the campus's new students were non school leavers who had undertaken prior study or come from an area other than the VCE system. The Returning to Study-Pathways evening is aimed at people who may have been working for a period of time and have been out of the education sector, and would like to upgrade or formalise their skills or change career direction.

The event will also be relevant to those people who are looking at transferring from a current TAFE or university course, and VCE students who may wish to keep their options open or who think they may not get the ENTER to meet course entry requirements.

Event coordinator Julie Baxter explains that this group of prospective students sometimes find it difficult to get the information relevant to their situation and can often get confused about the application process and how their current circumstances can be used to apply.

"Issues that will be covered during the evening include pathway options, applying, recognition of prior learning, mid year entry options, costs associated with tertiary study and credit transfer for study already undertaken," she said.

Representatives from the Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre (VTAC), Centrelink and Chisholm Institute will be in attendance as well as staff from the academic areas based at Peninsula. Information and registrations are online.

VCE Physical Education enrichment program

Monash Sport together with Sport and Outdoor Recreation at Peninsula is offering a VCE Physical Education enrichment program to support students studying units 3 and 4 in PE.

The program presents a unique opportunity for students to apply understandings of theory and practice using the latest assessment technology available to athletes including light gates, VO2 testing and GPS athlete tracking systems.

The practical component will be supported with theory through lectures covering important VCE physical education topics that will allow students to further investigate and enhance their understanding of the content they have been learning at school.

The program will be run from 14 to 17 July at the Peninsula campus.

Youth encouraged to make good life choices at Peninsula

Making good life choices was the theme of two youth forums hosted by Frankston Police at the George Jenkins Theatre recently.

More than 2000 Year 9 students from Frankston's secondary schools attended the ‘Good choices, Great life’ forums, which was sponsored by the campus and the George Jenkins Theatre.

Also supporting the event were Frankston Council, the Department of Human Services, the Department of Education, YSAS, PENDAP, Chisholm Institute, Headspace Peninsula, Crime Stoppers and the Metropolitan Ambulance Service.

Forum organiser, Youth Resource Officer Senior Constable Renee Bloomfield, said the program was aimed at helping young people make well informed life choices in regards to risk taking behaviour.

"The forums discussed important youth-related issues relvolving around risk taking behaviour and the consequences of partaking in risky behaviour such as drugs, underage drinking, driving and peer pressure," Snr Const Bloomfield said.

"This initiative is all about early intervention and making young people more aware of the consequences of their actions and the choices available to them."

The main message of the forums focussed on positive opportunities for young people, while encouraging students to make informed choices and realise their potential.

Frankston City Council bike scope

Do you ride your bike around the City of Frankston? If so your thoughts about the experience are required as part of the survey being undertaken by Bicycle Victoria and the council.

The survey will provide Council with input directly from residents on Frankston’s cycling environment and aims to identify and prioritise what actions need to be taken to improve facilities and increase cycling in Frankston. This will contribute to the development of the Frankston Bicycle Strategy, which is currently underway and expected to be completed by June 2009.

Further information and access to the survey visit the website.  

Free lunchtime wellbeing seminars

Grab a colleague and come along to one of the upcoming free Wellbeing at Monash lunchtime information seminars for staff.

April

Healthy eating and reading food labels: Learn about the role of nutrients and where they are found, the best food choices for each food group, how to read food labels and an overview of dieting and popular fads and myths.

Presenter: Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences – Nutrition and Dietetics department
Where: Berwick, Clayton and Caulfield campuses

Women’s health: This seminar will cover general health information as well as mental health, and sexual and reproductive health issues.

Presenter: The Monash Women's Health Program
Where: Parkville, Clayton and Caulfield campuses

May

Healthy heart: This seminar aims to provide information that will improve your heart health including: blood pressure and cholesterol, warning signs of heart attack, nutrition and physical activity.

Presenter: Heart Foundation
Where: Berwick, Gippsland, Caulfield, Clayton, Peninsula and Parkville campuses

For more information about these seminars and Wellbeing at Monash click here. Download the monthly Wellbeing at Monash newsletter here