Grampians Integrated Cancer Services Newsletter
This Edition (www.gics.com.au)
"GICS - 2008 in Summary"
(Volume 1, Issue 4, December 2008)
 A Message From the Manager
I was very fortunate to join GICS as Program Manager in April this year. In the past 8 months I have been hugely energised by the activities and projects GICS has been involved in and I will take this opportunity to mention just a few.
Following on from the 16th Ministerial Rural and Regional Health Forum earlier this year, The Hon Daniel Andrews MP, Minister for Health, made a visit to the region on Friday 12th September as part of the consultative process in regard to the Victorian Cancer Action Plan.
The Grampians Integrated Cancer Service (GICS) hosted representatives from the Health Services in the region and the Minister engaged those present in discussions about the needs of the region in relation to future cancer service provision.
The visit gave health service providers a special opportunity to contribute to the development of policy in relation to the ongoing fight against cancer.
Facilitating multidisciplinary meetings is a huge task but the effort put in has ensured that hundreds of cancer patients in the region have had access to what is considered world’s best practice in cancer care.
Cancer service improvement projects this year have included initiatives across the disciplines - ranging from transport projects to care co-ordination and from exercise-based rehabilitation sessions to chemotherapy documentation streamlining. All of these projects needed the support of GICS to be able to get going and many have already paid a dividend in terms of outcomes for patients.
Last week GICS held a Supportive Care Day Conference in Creswick. This well attended day set the scene for next year’s major project for GICS, which is working with Grampians cancer care services to embed supportive care approaches into care delivery in the region. If the enthusiasm of the speakers and the attendees are anything to go by, supportive care issues will be very much top of mind going forward. Already, as a result of the day, we are hearing lots of ideas on how we can better work together to ensure the availability of all the supportive care services to meet the needs of patients and their carers.
GICS staff and I look forward to new endeavours in 2009 and to working closely with the health care professionals engaged in cancer care in our region. May I wish all our readers the compliments of the season and best wishes for the New Year.
Eleanor Whitehead,
Program Manager, GICS
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GICS Supportive Care Conference
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The GICS Supportive Care Conference held at the Novotel Forest Resort in Creswick on the 28th of November was a resounding success.
Highlights of the day included Jane Jones and Shelia Hirst providing information on the broader state policy and framework for supportive care.
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Dr Greg Mewett and Professor Tony Love provided much food for thought on the practicalities of communicating bad news and screening patients for their psychosocial needs in the cancer context.
The day ended on a high with Doreen Akkerman providing an insight into the importance of sexuality in cancer and breaking down the taboos of raising the issue of sex to cancer patients. None of us will ever look at a Bunnings Hardware store the same way again.
GICS would like to gratefully thank all the presenters and those service providers who facilitated trade displays on the day. We could not have had such a good day without you.
Robyn McIntyre,
Cancer Service Improvement Coordinator,
GICS
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Smoking Cessation Clinic
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GICS have funded an initiative to run a clinic to help smokers to quit. Ballarat Health Services are hosting the clinic which we hope will have direct benefits for the health of their workforce.
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The objective of the project is to give pre-admission patients, inpatients and staff access to a free clinic which supports them to give up smoking.
A combination of individual counselling and pharmacotherapy will be used, with the only cost to participants during the program being for medication and Nicotine Replacement Therapy.
A recent release called “The Big Kill” which was prepared by the Cancer Council, Victoria quoted that 12.2% of avoidable deaths in the Grampians region are caused by smoking, which is above the state average of 11.9%.
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Pictured are: At left, Dr Kate Hamilton - Principal Project Officer, Smoking Cessation
Front, Denise Botheras – participant, and on the right, Garry McDonald - client support.
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Haematology Dinner
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Grampians Integrated Cancer Service supported a Haematology education night at Doherty Ballarat Lodge on the 1st of September. The evening was attended by oncologists, medical registrars, pathologists and a representative of the nurse unit managers.
The topic of the evening was myeloproliferative disease (MPD)
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Dr Geoff Davey gave a presentation on the diagnosis of MPD – in particular the role of Janus kinase in this process.
Dr Andrew Grigg then presented on Chronic Myelocytic Leukaemia and new drug therapies, MPD and the role of JAK kinase, and treatment aspects and clinical trials in haematological malignancies.
GICS would like to thank our speakers, and we look forward to opportunities for ongoing education in 2009.
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Information Racks
GICS has supplied information racks for patients in oncology treatment centres in the Grampians region. The information racks are either of the portable or wall-fixed variety. The information provided in the racks is patient-centred and is specific to a wide variety of types of cancer.
Evidence indicates that good quality information enhances the patient’s psychological well-being resulting in improvements in self-care, decision making, treatment adherence and satisfaction with care. (Supportive Care Implementation Guide, Department of Human Services Victoria, May 2008)
GICS staff will monitor usage of this service into the future.
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MediHotel at BHS
Ballarat Health Services (BHS) is now providing supported overnight accommodation for people who do not require an inpatient admission.
Overnight accommodation may be required:
Parents, carers and partners may also utilise this facility
An overnight non-refundable fee of $30 is required in advance
Treating doctors and nursing staff are able to refer to the MediHotel.
Enquiries on (03) 53 20 6733
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GSSN meetings
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Grampians Support Services Network would like to acknowledge Ballarat Hospice Care Inc. for the use of their conference meeting room for their bi-monthly meetings.
Your generous help is very much appreciated!
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Cancer Learning Website
If you have not yet had a chance to visit the Cancer Learning website, it’s a great resource for professionals to keep their knowledge up-to-date with changes in cancer and cancer policy. The website is run by Cancer Australia and content includes:
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Multidisciplinary Care toolkit
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Frontline Psychosocial tutorial
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Professional development template
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Resources relating to service delivery priorities
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EdCaN – cancer nurse professional development framework
Go to: www.cancerlearning.gov.au
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CML Telephone Forum
The Leukaemia Foundation has announced a telephone forum will be held once a month for people affected by Chronic Myelocytic Leukaemia. In this forum, people can discuss any issues arising from being diagnosed or treated for CML.
Participants need to register, and they will be given a Freecall phone number and a PIN number which is required to join the forum. The forum will be facilitated by Helen Moore – Leukaemia Foundation support service coordinator.
For more information or to join the forum, contact:
Helen Moore: hmoore@leukaemia.org.au
Anthony Steele: asteele@leukaemia.org.au (0402 991 228)
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Last GICS Newsletter
This is the last edition of the GICS newsletter in it’s current format.
In future, we will be dedicating time to keeping our website up to date, so that the bulk of communication from us will be via links to pages of our website which will be emailed regularly and hopefully targeted to your interests.
For those without email / internet access, we will still print a small number of each update as a newsletter, but overall our aim is to become more environmentally friendly.
From the beginning of 2009, it will be easier to keep you all up to date with new GICS initiatives which will be flying thick and fast once the Victorian Cancer Action Plan is released.
We, the team at Grampians Integrated Cancer Service, wish you all a Happy Christmas and safe holiday period and look forward to 2009.
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