Latest news and events for Midwest-Gascoyne health professionals
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Member Update
SEPTEMBER 2024
Welcome to your next jam-packed newsletter from your friendly Midwest-Gascoyne Health Professionals Network. If you haven't already, jump on and join our Facebook group to keep up to date with the latest information, and the ability for YOU to share with other members. Our website is chock full of information and resources including the MWGHPN events calendar, which includes education opportunities being delivered around Australia that are accessible online, face-to-face and are often FREE!
Daria
LATEST HEALTH NEWS
2024 WA Addictions Symposium: Novel psychoactives and the new frontier in addiction
12 October 2024, 9.00am - 4.15pm AWST (online)
Novel psychoactives and the new frontier in addiction, presented by the RANZCP WA Faculty of Addiction Psychiatry
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BreastScreen WA Health Promotion in Practice
BreastScreen WA (BSWA) is seeking your support in promoting awareness in October. This is the 23rd year BSWA has run this activity with GPs.
It is an opportunity for GPs and staff to “be in the pink” for breast cancer, which affects 1 in 7 women in Australia and causes 3000 deaths annually. We suggest practices hold the event for the entire month of October. A gift hamper prize will be awarded to the practice with the most decorative and innovative display that promotes BreastScreen WA and breast cancer screening.
Judges are looking for....
- innovation and creativity
- use of BSWA resources
- message about screening
- overall effort
Photographs of the winners may be published on Facebook, websites and in print media.
Entries must be submitted by 15 November 2024. Please send your photos to breastscreenwa@health.wa.gov.au
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Critical Conversations
A free interactive course for health professionals | Online
As health workers in rural and remote communities, we are on the front line of supporting individuals in the community. Whether at work or off duty, we are in a position of trust. Unfortunately, many health workers do not feel confident in talking with individuals who may need help or are experiencing emotional distress. This free, interactive online course has been designed by remote mental health professionals specifically for the rural and remote health workforce. It guides learners through a 4‑step approach for having a successful conversation and is packed full of practical strategies and real-life scenarios.
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Heart Support Australia (HSA) - Do you have lived experience of a heart event?
If you have had a heart event, talking with someone who has shared the same or similar experience makes it much easier to express your feelings and concerns and recover. Unfortunately, patients with heart disease are often left on their own after their new diagnosis, surgery and cardiac rehabilitation, with lots of questions but no long-term support services other than seeing a GP or cardiologist.
Heart Support Australia (HSA) offers a new era of managing heart disease by educating, supporting, and empowering individuals to gain the ability to manage their condition in the long term.
HSA Peer Support Group facilitators have lived experience of heart disease. Being heard and understood helps to break down feelings of loneliness and isolation. It allows you to come to terms with the emotions, loss, grief and life changes you may be experiencing.
HSA invites guest speakers to speak at drop-in sessions and help members manage their heart condition. By sharing experiences and personal challenges, peer support members gain a sense of belonging, recognition, validation, and value. Peer support can prevent the worsening of physical and mental health and reduce the risk of returning to the hospital.
If you would like to chat about commencing a group in your area, please contact Helen.mclean@heartnet.org.au
MEMBER PROFILE
Meet Dr Katie Milne
GP-Obstetrician
What are your professional interests/specialties?
General Practice with a particular interest in pregnancy care. This encapsulates pre-pregnancy planning, antenatal, birthing and postpartum care. My birthing skillset includes performing instrumentals and caesarean sections if intervention is required. I liaise with our fantastic team of Geraldton midwives, specialist FRANZCOG Obstetricians and Allied Health team.
Tell us, where are you from and how did you get to be a GP-Obstetrician in the Midwest-Gascoyne region?
My childhood was spent between Melbourne and the family farm in Western Victoria. I landed back in Melbourne as an adult for my University and Obstetric training. The metropolitan hospitals and city lifestyle were becoming a bit of a grind, and I wanted to see more of the country, so I applied for General Practice training in WA.
What do you love about the Midwest-Gascoyne?
The beaches, the warm winters, the beautiful sunny mornings, the amazing sunsets, the outdoor lifestyle, flip-flops, space for a backyard, the tight-knit Geraldton community.
Did you always want to be a GP-Obstetrician? Why?
Not at all! I only thought about becoming a doctor towards the end of Secondary School (when we had to start thinking about careers). Obstetrics and Rural General Practice were never on my radar until I sampled them at medical school. I now love being a rural proceduralist.
What are your passions?
I love travel and I love food!
When you aren’t working, where will we find you?
Spending time with my husband, small dog and our latest mini-me edition.
Moving to a new region in WA?
Join your local Health Professionals Network!
Did you know that the Midwest-Gascoyne Health Professionals Network is one of seven networks operating across regional Western Australia? If you're relocating to another region in WA, reach out to your new region's network to build local connections and learn of upcoming education and networking opportunities.
For more information and for links to each region's Health Professionals Network website, visit the Rural Health West website.
The Midwest-Gascoyne Health Professionals Network is brought to you in partnership with the following stakeholder organisations.
You have received this newsletter as a health professional working in the Midwest-Gascoyne region of Western Australia. Email addresses used to disseminate this newsletter were obtained through Rural Health West's databases. Unsubscribing from this newsletter will remove you from the distribution list for all Rural Health West publications. To stop receiving this newsletter only, please email contact@mwhpn.com.au
