Our
Health and Age care Director is the Director of
Goondee Nursing home, Strathfield, Ramona Johansson, had over 40 years of experience
as a registered nurse, in Public Hospitals, Age Care facilities, Director of Nursing and Administrator in the
Health and Community sector in the Pacific, Australia and abroad. She has
supported our Pacific Islanders and General communities with placements of senior citizens, employment of Pacific Islanders nurses,
health, forums and community development.
Ramona will run sessions once a fortnight on air and in
person to encourage healthy living and eating. To help reduce the rate of stroke/diabetic/kidney failure/ Cancer training and health issues. She
will be working on community awareness to reduce diseases such as
diabetes that are a real problem in many Pacific Islanders. Pacific
populations have shown a near doubling of stroke incidence, diabetics” Maori and
Pacific people, in particular, strokes are now occurring more
frequently and at a younger age - on average up to 10 and 15 years
earlier than Australian/Europeans people. This is due to the way
Pacific Islanders’ way of tradition, food, cultures and styles and also come
down to the way Pacific Islanders consumed food. "Significant change in
the patterns of stroke/diabetic management were identified over the 20 year
period, however substantial action to improve prevention strategies
must be planned as the local and global burden on the community. She
will be taken care of all Health, Medical and Age Care Facility PISSAM
program with Doctor Patu. Ramona has Samoan, Tongan and German background.
Ramona
believes in life is saving the family and saving the lives of the
whole community. In her experiences working with Community Development, Hospital and Age care
she sees that PREVENTION IS MUCH BETTER THAN CURE is her magic words.
Empowering
Pacific Islanders people, ensuring quality of care for all and
energizing science to find the cures. The Cure may come one day but
as PISSAM's expert on her area of profession she believes that local organizations that are meeting the breast health and
breast cancer needs in our community very badly.
Her supports and emphasis is on funding culturally appropriate programs targeting medically programs that will fill those gaps.
Uninsured or under-insured, low-income, Pacific Islanders women for Early Detection and Education:
Information and Service Center, “Women’s Breast Cancer
Prevention Project”
The Pacific Islanders Women’s Breast Cancer Prevention Project is increasing awareness of breast cancer
and the importance of mammography screening in the Pacific Islanders community, and
providing access to breast cancer screening through educational
workshops, one-on-one outreach, health fairs, and breast cancer
screenings in Campsie and beyond with an interpreter to explain on the screening. A minimum of 50 women will be served a day, and at least 50
women will receive breast cancer screening.
“Outreach and Education to Increase Early
Detection of Breast Cancer in Campsie”
PISSAM Regional Health Network is expanding their current outreach and breast health:
Education in, Pacific Islanders and provide targeted outreach to Pacific Islanders women on air.
This project will reach out to all Pacific Islanders women and can booked once every 3 months.
Family Planning “Honoring Women’s Health Project”
The Honouring Women’s Health Project is working to improve the health and well-being low-income,
uninsured or under-insured, Pacific Islanders minority women living in NSW by
increasing knowledge of and access to breast cancer screening and early
detection. This project will reach all Pacific Islanders medically underserved women
with breast health education and provide access to breast cancer
screening to approximately all Pacific Islanders women.
Program provides with culturally-competent community-based breast health outreach and education and screenings to low-income, limited English proficient Pacific Islanders, living in ACROSS Canterbury. Bilingual
female community advocates promote breast health through one-on-one,
group, and on radio-based outreach and education and also provide on-site
interpretation during breast health screenings, conduct in-language
reminder and follow-up calls for breast cancer screenings. The project
will reach all Pacific Islanders women with breast health education and anticipates
screening of all Pacific Islanders women.
“Breast Health Outreach in Under-served Communities in NSW Pacific Islanders populations. Traditional education/outreach models are not successful with this underserved demographic. Is expanding their peer education program to include comprehensive breast health and early detection and will reach more than 400 women with breast health education and access to screening. “Increasing Breast Cancer Screening Among Pacific Islanders Women in NSW is a way forward Prevention.
This project will address disparities in breast cancer screenings and breast cancer survival rates for Pacific Islanders women living in NSW. Key activities include:
recruiting, training and coordinating peer-educators from within the target communities; hosting 3 culturally appropriate Womens Health Fairs; providing 10 mammography service
days at Campsie shopping centre. The project will provide breast health
education to all Pacific Islanders women across Canterbury and beyond.
PISSAM
director of Nursing Ramona Johansson said that, “Increasing Education,
Screening and Support Services to Pacific Islander women in the
Community is a must”
The PISSAM program will be improving breast cancer education,
screening and support services to Pacific Islander women communities.
The project promotes culturally sensitive breast cancer education, access to screening and patient navigation to more than Pacific Islanders Women and their families living across Canterbury and beyond. The PISSAM will work with community groups such as schools, churches and cultural and social groups to accomplish their goals.
Put your hand on your heart.
That was easy, wasn’t it?
Now put your hand on your kidneys.
Unless you’re a doctor or a nurse, I bet you had to pause, at least,
before patting yourself vaguely about half way down the back.
The kidneys are the organs we don’t really talk about much – partly
because their main function is waste management, but also because,
unlike the heart, we don’t even really notice they’re there until they
start playing up.
Yet Australia is experiencing an upsurge in kidney disease, as I have reason to know.
It was late November of 1994 when a close friend of mine's kidneys just stopped working altogether.
It was not a good day, not least because her immune system had gone
haywire and she had begun vomiting and coughing up large quantities of
blood.
Frightening as that was, her life was, if anything, even more threatened by the failure of both kidneys.
In simple terms, she filled up with fluid. Her legs swelled up to
elephantine proportions, and most dangerously her lungs filled up with
liquid.
she had to sit upright at all times, including during sleep. If she
leaned backwards, even a few degrees, she began to drown in her own fluid.
Because the space in her lungs was mostly filled with liquid, very little oxygen could get into her bloodstream.
she hovered like this between life and death for nearly two weeks.
Imagine flying endlessly around the world in the economy class of a
very bad airline on which the seat-recline button was out of order,
with the added discomfort of tubes and wires being regularly inserted
and removed from various parts of your anatomy.
In her case, the ordeal had an end.
Savage quantities of powerful immune-suppressant drugs eventually brought her body under control.
But it left her with damaged kidneys for life, and a window into the problem Australia is currently facing.
Kidney disease is bad for your blood pressure, it makes you
vulnerable to dehydration, it makes you tired, it makes your limbs
swell up.
And as it gets worse, you can end up spending hours every week attached to a large machine.
Overall, even with treatment, it’s likely to shorten your life.
It’s a silent disease, too, in the sense that your kidneys can be
very badly damaged before you or your doctor realise anything’s wrong.
Have a look at the statistics for chronic kidney disease
or CKD for last year, put out by Kidney Health Australia. They come
from the Australian and New Zealand Dialysis & Transplant Registry,
but these are the figures for Australia.
In 2008, there was a 7.1 per cent increase compared to the previous
year. What that meant was almost seven new patients requiring dialysis
or transplantation each and every day of the year.
That represents a heavy cost to the Australian economy – and to state health budgets.
Dialysis machines are expensive - $65,000 a year per patient on
average. The hospital facilities and staff needed to support them are
in short supply.
The result is a cost to the country which is also growing fast.
The last figures available show that spending on kidney disease rose by 33 per cent in the four years to 2005.
So what’s the source of this growing problem?
To some extent, the growth in numbers is fed by the relatively good
news that fewer people are dying of heart disease, and some of those
people are living on to become kidney patients.
But the largest single cause is diabetes, and that’s gone up at a startling rate.
Dr Tim Mathew of Kidney Health Australia tells us: “In the 1980s the
percentage of people getting kidney disease from diabetes was around 6
per cent. Now it’s 34 per cent."
So Australia’s rising obesity levels – combined with an aging
population – seem almost certain to make the problem get worse and
worse over the coming decades.
The solutions are simple, even if in Australia at the moment they also seem very difficult to put into practice.
People need to eat less, and better, food, and to take more exercise.
Doctors need to identify the problem early.
There’s also a strong argument for a better co-ordinated national
strategy for treating the larger numbers who have developed chronic
kidney disease.
Kidney specialists would like to see more dialysis patients treat
themselves at home. Home dialysis costs around half as much as dialysis
in a hospital – yet the use of home dialysis differs wildly around the
country.
In NSW, says Kidney Health Australia’s Dr Tim Mathew, about 14 per
cent of dialysis patients use and maintain their own machines at home.
In South Australia, the figure is just 1 per cent. Both of them can’t
be right.
A national Kidney Czar, like the one they have in the UK, might help us sort these things out.
The kidney disease my friend have was not preventable; most kidney disease is.
The kidney clinic where she go to be treated, at Sydney’s Prince of
Wales Hospital, is always full; the doctors and nurses do a brilliant
job, but they’re overworked.
If you don’t want your kids to end up there, or somewhere similar,
in a few years, take it from me: get them to exercise and don’t let
them eat so much fatty, sugary food or soft drinks.
The alternative – dialysis three times a week, or the lottery of the transplant list – is really not attractive.
Ramona Johansson.
Director of Nursing
_______________________________________________________________
Meals on Wheels Directory locally
This directory was created to make it easier to find the
meals on wheels service in your local area. NSW
Meals on Wheels Major Sponsor
Locality - Name Phone
Fax
Ashfield - Ashfield Municipal Meals on Wheels 02 9716 1851 02
9716 1856
PO Box 1145 Ashfield NSW 2131 - mowashfield@optusnet.com.au Fix
Auburn - Meals on Wheels Auburn 02 9897 3832 02
9637 0531
NSW Auburn 2144 0 Fix
Bankstown - Bankstown Council Meals on Wheels 02 9707 9646 02 9707 9586
PO Box 8 Bankstown NSW 1885 - pridep@bankstown.nsw.gov.au Fix
Baulkham Hills - Baulkham Hills Food Service 02 9639 4361 02 9639 3585
PO Box 880 Baulkham Hills NSW 1755 -
apaterso@bhsc.nsw.gov.au Fix
Bexley - Rockdale Meals Service 02 9502 3198 02
9554 3313
PO Box 64 Bexley NSW 2207 -
pdarasferrier@rockdale.nsw.gov.au Fix
Blacktown - Blacktown Meals On Wheels Service Inc 02 9622 6183 02 9676 8260
PO Box 947 Blacktown NSW 2148 - blacktownmow@viper.com.au Fix
Bondi Junction - Waverley Council Meals on Wheels 02 9389 9506 02 9389 2612
PO Box 9 Bondi Junction NSW 2022 - mow@waverley.nsw.gov.au Fix
bigpond.com Fix
Burwood - Burwood Food Services 02 9744 1866 02
9744 0886
70 Gaskill Street Burwood NSW 2804 Fix
Camden - Camden Meals on Wheels Inc 02 4655 6822 02
4655 6822
PO Box 8 Camden NSW 2804 Fix
Campbelltown - City of Campbelltown Meals on Wheels &
Housebound Resource Service Inc 02
4645 4523 02 4645 4426
PO Box 685 Campbelltown NSW 2560 - cmow@ispdr.net.au Fix
Campsie - Canterbury Meals on Wheels 02 9718 3093 02
9718 1883
PO Box 151 Campsie NSW 2675 - hacc@carrathool.nsw.gov.au Fix
Caringbah - Sutherland Food Services Inc 02 9526 6123 02 9526 6121
PO Box 2497 Caringbah NSW 2229 - meals@idx.com.au Fix
PO Box 332 Condobolin NSW 2877 - condomow@westserv.net.au Fix
Crows Nest - The Crows Nest Centre/North Sydney Meals on
Wheels 02 9439 5122 02 9439 8608
NSW Crows Nest 2065 0 Fix
Delegate - Delegate Meals on Wheels Inc 02 6458 8092 na
Double Bay - Woollahra Voluntary Community Service
Incorporated 02 9327 2361 02 9327 7065
512 New South Head Road Double Bay NSW 2028 -
woollahramow@hotmail.com Fix
Drummoyne - Drummoyne Meals on Wheels 02 9713 6057 02 9712
2058
Locked Bag 1470 Drummoyne NSW 1470 -
council@canadabay.nsw.gov.au Fix
Eastwood - Christian Community Aid Service Inc 02 9858 3222 02 9858 4286
12 Lakeside Road Eastwood NSW 2122 - ccas@one.net.au Fix
Fairfield - City of Fairfield Meals on Wheels 02 9728 6939 02 9728 3242
PO Box 261 Fairfield NSW 2165 - ffldmow@bigpond.com Fix
Glebe - St Helens Food Service (Formerly Leichhardt MOW) 02 9367 9222 02 9367 9111
St Helens Community Centre: 1/184 Glebe Point Road Glebe NSW
2037 - leichhardt@lmc.nsw.gov.au
Greenacre - Greenacre Area Neighbourhood Centre Inc 02 9750 7982 02 9750 0850
PO Box 164 Greenacre NSW 2190 - gnc@bcsc.com.au Fix
Homebush - Homebush-Strathfield Community Service Meals on
Wheels 02 9746 7801 02 9746 7801
1B Bates Street Homebush NSW 2140 -
homebushmow@bigpond.com.au Fix
Hornsby - Hornsby Meals on Wheels & Food Services 02 9477 9214 02 9477 9195
36 Palmerston Road Hornsby NSW 2077 -
mlsonwls@speednet.com.au Fix
Hunters Hill - Gladesville Food Services/Gladesville &
District Community Aid Service Inc 02
9817 0101 02 9816 5462
46 Gladesville Road Hunters Hill NSW 2110 -
mealsonwheels@optusnet.com.au Fix
Hurstville - Hurstville Meals on Wheels 02 9579 5253 02
9580 7347
PO Box 545 Hurstville NSW 2220 Fix
Hurstville - St George Community Services Inc 02 9580 9055 02
9585 0227
49A Treacy Street Hurstville NSW 2571 -
stgchris@stgcs.com.au Fix
Kingsford - Randwick Meals on Wheels Inc 02 9398 2731 02 9399 3458
Cnr Anzac Parade & Rainbow Street Kingsford NSW 2032 -
randmow@ipentire.com Fix
Kingswood - Nepean Food Services Inc 02 4733 7200 02 4733
7211
PO Box 605 Kingswood NSW 2747 - nfood@bigpond.com Fix
Kingswood - Warragamba/Silverdale HACC Services 02 4733 7200 02 4733 7211
PO Box 605 Kingswood NSW 2550 - nfood@pnc.com.au Fix
Kogarah - Kogarah Meals on Wheels Service Incorporated 02 9553 7799 02 9553 9020
PO Box 87 Kogarah NSW 2217 - kmow@ihug.com.au Fix
Lane Cove - Lane Cove Community Aid Service 02 9427 6425 02
9427 7933
164 Longueville Road Lane Cove NSW 2066 Fix
Lithgow - Lithgow Information & Neighbourhood Centre Inc
(Linc HACC Services) 02 6352
2077 02 6353 1826
PO Box 289 Lithgow NSW 2790 - dennis@linc.org.au Fix
Liverpool - City of Liverpool Meals on Wheels Inc 02 9821 9393 02 9737 6529
PO Box 637 Liverpool NSW 2170 - livmow@ihig.com.au Fix
Manly - Manly Meals on Wheels - Manly Council na na
PO Box 82 Manly NSW 1655 Fix
Merrylands - Holroyd Meals on Wheels 02 9840 9944 02 9840 9946
PO Box 42 Merrylands NSW 2160 -
mealsonwheels@holroyd.nsw.gov.au Fix
Millers Point - Millers Point Activity Centre 02 9244 3696 02 9244 3697
NSW Millers Point 2000 0 - fscimone@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au Fix
Newtown - Marrickville Food Services 02 9335 2186 02 9550
6832
11-13 Darley Street Newtown NSW 2042 -
cordtf@marrickville.nsw.gov.au Fix
North Strathfield - Concord Community Food Services Inc 02 9747 1135 02 9516 2966
PO Box 145 North Strathfield NSW 2137 - confood@bigpond.com Fix
Parramatta - Parramatta Food Services Meals on Wheels 02 9635 5293 02 9635 6085
PO Box 32 Parramatta NSW 2124 -
mealsonwheels@parracity.nsw.gov.au Fix
Penrith - Penrith Community Aid Service Meals on Wheels 02 4731 1380 na
Shop 3 Penrith 10 H 0 Fix
Picton - Picton/Burragorang Meals on Wheels 02 4677 2524 02
4677 2695
Spit Junction - Mosman Food Services/Municipal Council 02 99784130 02 9978 4137
PO Box 211 Spit Junction NSW 2088 -
c.morley@mosman.nsw.gov.au Fix
St Peters - South Sydney Council Meals on Wheels
Distribution Centre 02 9557 5278 02 9557 5673
Unit 7/8-10 Burrows Road St Peters NSW 2044 Fix
Strawberry Hills - South Sydney City Council Meals on Wheels 02 9557 5278 02
9557 5673
NSW Strawberry Hills 2012 0 - mow@sscc.nsw.gov.au Fix
Surry Hills - Australian Chinese Community Association 02 9281 1377 02
9281 1603
NSW Surry Hills 2010 0 - accacity@kbdnet.net.au Fix
Turramurra - Ku-ring-gai Meals on Wheels 02 9144 2044 02 9983 1659
PO Box 173 Turramurra NSW 2074 - meals@kmow.org.au Web | Fix
Wentworth - Wentworth District Meals on Wheels Assoc Inc 03 5027 3352 03 5027 3352
PO Box 283 Wentworth NSW 2648 - wentmow@iine
_______________________________________________________________________________
PREVENTION IS MUCH BETTER THAN LOOKING FOR CURE WHEN IT IS TOO LATE
Sources ABC NEWS 21/11/2009
408kg man cut from chair, then dies
A US man weighing 408 kilograms, who sat in a chair
for the last eight months of his life, died after medical workers had
to dismantle his mobile home to remove him, local media said.
Daniel Webb, 33, became immobile in March after hurting his knee and
sat in the reclining chair in his South Carolina home for months while
refusing doctor visits because he lacked health insurance, local
WSPA-TV said.
Authorities said Mr Webb's wife Ada called paramedics to their
Greenwood County mobile home on Wednesday after he complained of
intense pain.
They had to cut him from the chair with special tools, after which
they found him with sores over his body and covered in human waste and
then dismantled half of his house to get him to an ambulance.
He died from cardiac arrest on the way to the hospital.
"If he would have had the proper care we tried to get for him back
in March this would have never happened," Mr Webb's wife said.
- AFP
Copyright Statement
The
owner of this website and publication is PISSAM NETWORK,
which is under the umbrella of Canterbury Harmony group Inc. auspice by
Riverwood Community Centre and its working partner. Content may not be
reproduced in any format or changed, sold or used to promote or endorse
any
product or service, inappropriate or misleading context..
Acknowledgment to the
PISSAM NETWORK & Its auspice body Riverwood Community Centre
PISSAM NETWORK MANAGED BY ANNE SIKIMETI LATU
