Hope Alexander MPH

Posts Tagged ‘national’

Today Hope submitted her abstract for the Australian National Conference on Evidence-Based Clinical Leadership. The title of her paper is “Chasing the rainbow – the difficulties experienced in accessing age and condition-specific programs”. These programs include oral health, hearing services and Enhanced Care Plans. The conference is to be held in Adelaide, one of Hope’s favourite places, in November.

Hope will be attending the National Palliative Care Strategy Update Stakeholder Workshop in Perth, on 18 March 2010.

On the Agenda:

1. Background – Phase 1 Report
2. Framework for Revision
3. Survey responses – emerging themes
4. Draft content for Updated Strategy
5. What’s missing
6. Next steps

Submission to the Commonwealth Government Department of Health and Ageing on the new National Women’s Health Policy 1 July 2009

Hope Alexander MPH, Consumer Representative and Health Educator, Perth, Western Australia.

Introduction

In any proposed new National Women’s Health Policy as submitted by the Australian Women’s Health Network there needs to be a balance struck between research, prevention, and treatment and care.

For all those sick women whose treatment is determined not by gender but by class and economic disadvantage where are their voices in this proposed policy?

Where are the recommendations around Foetal Alcohol syndrome so that Indigenous children can have the best start in life?

The emphasis should show balance, not the middle class mantra of prevention education without the recognition of the suffering of the poor and the marginalised in our health system.

Recommendations

• Breast prosthesis – eligible women to be given a voucher for their prosthesis/es similar to that given eligible people for hearing aids

• A voucher for say $350 per year to attend an accredited gym to undergo an exercise program designed by an exercise physiologist for weight loss and/or weight management

• The New Zealand Green Prescription be implemented nationally

• Programs to address the issue of foetal alcohol syndrome, particularly in Indigenous women

The rationale for the recommendations

• Breast prosthesis – eligible women to be given a voucher for their prosthesis/es similar to that given eligible people for hearing aids.Although the Medicare rebate is a welcome innovation, it still leaves some women with a problem. They do not have the cash to pay upfront for their prostheses. These can cost from between $350 up to $550 each and possibly beyond. For a woman requiring two prostheses, (double mastectomy) this could mean anything up to $1000, perhaps more. For a woman whose only income is the aged pension or other form of income support this outlay is not an option.

• A voucher for say $350 per year to attend an accredited gym to undergo an exercise program designed by an exercise physiologist for weight loss and/or weight management.

For those women who have suffered weight gain and body fat gain from cancer treatments (HEAL study, USA, 1996) and possibly other drug treatments some form of assistance is required. Women on pensions and other low incomes are unable to afford gym memberships, and thus are prevented from gaining access to rehabilitation exercise.

It is recognized that chronic conditions (eg cancer and cardiovascular disease) are becoming a greater burden on the public health purse, and will continue to do so. Rather than have the Federal Government spend around $15,000 per obese person on stomach stapling surgery, a more equitable option would be to invest $350 per year per woman, for those meeting the above criteria: weight gain from cancer and other drug treatments. This is a form of rehabilitation, thus returning these women to a more fully functional and hopefully independent lifestyle.

The costs of the consultations with the exercise physiologist can be met by Medicare, under the Enhanced Care Plan (ECP). Many GPs are reluctant or unwilling to put women on an ECP. The complaint is “it takes too much of my time” and “We don’t get paid enough” (personal communications).

• The New Zealand Green Prescription (1, 2) is a program that works, and has been evaluated. Because the populations of Australia and New Zealand are similar (both having Indigenous peoples and a diversity of cultures) there appears to be no reason why the Green Prescription could not work in Australia. More important, it may well be acceptable to Indigenous women in Australia, as was the “One heart many lives”(3) program acceptable to New Zealand Maori males.
• A national program to address the issue of foetal alcohol syndrome particularly in Indigenous women.

References

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1508188

http://www.sparc.org.nz/getting-active/green-prescription/how-it-works

http://www.oneheartmanylives.co.nz/