Dr Feelgood Saturday 8th February 2003
Strange as it may seems it is only now that I look at today's topics and realise there is a theme here -
some issues we thought we had the answers for that are still struggling to come out of the dark ages .......
Teenage Pregnancies & Abandoned Babies
A Community Issue
Every now and then something appears in the media like " baby abandoned in dumpster" or similar. Immediately debate is sparked and value judgements are made even before the facts are known.
You'd think that by 2003 with in- your- face-media campaign about safe sex, full- on-education about contraceptive options, publicly funded specialist centres promising anonymity-&- your- rights- protected and in the setting of forthright young people who know their rights ......that teenage pregnancy would be a thing of the past. Not so it seems.
So why not ? Ask young people and they'll tell you .......nothings changed.
Oh sure they KNOW the right thing to do but while you can fill a young person with all sorts of knowledge, you cant give them experience .
And while you can also give them heaps of pep talks to boost self confidence - you can't often give them enough fortitude to speak out at potentially humiliating moment.
Sure you can tell a young person how to protect themselves - but how do you give them the confidence to speak up at a crucial moment.
How do you deal with the mixed messages that teen peers give each other - Its uncool not to have sex which is not the same as it being cool to have sex ......but it is certainly a social disaster to get pregnant - only stupid sluts get pregnant ( even when its only their first time)
The issue of teen pregnancies and abandoned babies is an issue for the whole Community - a sad indictment on all of us as parents, educators and as friends of young people.
Sometimes maybe we forget that young people are just that - They are more worried about what their friends will think that anything we might tell them. The things their friend tell them are often self serving or myths.
We in the health care profession are to quick to feel good that we have all our projects, brochures and open access info sessions and we too often pat ourselves on the back for our good work - but too often we preach to the converted.
Today I want to look into what services exist, what works and what problems are yet to be solved -
Dr Shane Higgins is the Director of the delivery Suites at the Royal Women's Hospital in Melbourne - a public maternity and women's health hospital.
Dr
Michael Carr-Gregg is our program Adolescent Psychologist and advocate for
young people
Dr
Robin Sullivan is Queensland's Commissioner for Children and Young people - an independent
organisation which provides research into children's health and welfare as well
as services for young people in Queensland. It was the first of its kind
in Australia and it is a credit to the Queensland Government that similar
organisations are only now being set up in other states.
Julie
Mundy is the CEO of Marie Stopes International Australia - This
quiet organisation has been amazingly active since early last century advocating
Children by Choice for all women.
further reading : -
Click HERE to visit the Queensland Commission for Children and Young People
Click HERE to visit an American site which has some projects tackling the issue of teenage pregnancies
Click HERE to read an interesting article about Teen Pregnancies
Click HERE to read a debate on whether mothers should have access to leaving babies at public hospitals or adoption agencies
Click HERE to read about the innovative Virtual Parenting Project - assigning young people interactive baby dolls to care for.
Click HERE for information on Family Planning Australia Centres in each state
Click HERE for more information on Marie Stopes International - advocates for Children by Choice
Girls and IT
"Geek is Chic"
Women got the vote in Australia in 1902 being the second country in the world following New Zealand. Germaine Greer made her name in the 1970's with her book the female Eunich. Here in Australia we're rather forthright with women's issues .
You might think there are no more barriers to break down in Australia - but some believe there are some more subtle areas that need work. One such area is Information technology.
Robyn Trevaud is a school teacher who wanted to stimulate girls interest in computer technology. She found that Girls generally felt alienated by traditional IT approaches. Studies have identified that girls reject the violence, redundancy and tedium of computer games; and they dislike technically focused programming classes
Robyn felt that a new approach was needed, and so she held a workshop with her students to find a solution – the overwhelming enthusiasm from the girls led to the Geek is Chic Club and then progressed further with the establishment of the Global GuRL Friends Project which now involves other female students around the world.
http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/suffrage.htm click HERE to see the timeline of voting rights for women
Disease of the Week
- Hepatitis C and Harm Reduction -
The word Hepatitis means simply inflammation of the liver and indeed there can be many causes of this - however the term Hepatitis is on common usage to mean Viral Hepatitis - but even this is not accurate because there are actually a collection of viruses that can cause inflammation of the liver.
These viruses have been imaginatively named using letters of the alphabet ! The viruses behave differently, Infection is acquired through different means depending on the Virus, and the clinical course is different depending on which virus it is - in short they are all different diseases - all called hepatitis !! A,B,C D and even E !
A and B have good vaccines. A is usually acquired via contaminated food or water or poor hygeine - B & C are blood borne- sharing injecting needles or maybe toothbrushes. Contaminated blood products. C is less likely to be sexually transmitted than B but it safe sex is the way to go if in doubt. B can be transmitted through close contact involving exchange of body fluids.
D is a bit like B and there is protection from the B vaccine
E is a bit like A but no vaccine -----------read more by clicking on the link to Burnet Centre's fact sheet below
Some of the viruses have stigma surrounding them because they are blood borne or sexually transmitted. Maybe its time to look critically at Heptatitis and clear up a few misconceptions-
Nick Crofts is the director of the Centre for Harm Reduction at the Burnet Institute - This is a very special area of medical science - Nick has an international reputation in hepatitis C epidemiology and research on injecting drug use.
Nick formed the Centre for Harm Reduction in early 1998 to focus his increasing interest in harm reduction, a field in which he is a recognised world leader (in 1998, he received the International Rolleston Award for Harm Reduction). In 2001 Nick was awarded a senior principal research fellowship by Australia's National Health and Medical Research Council.
I admire the work of Nick and his unit - they really do care about people!
Click HERE to visit the Centre for Harm reduction
Click
HERE to Visit the Burnet Centre
Click HERE to read more about Hepatitis from the Burnet Centre
The Macfarlane Burnet Institute
The Burnet Institute is committed to fostering research that benefits human health, by Linking Health Research with Health Action. They integrate basic and applied laboratory research in virology and other communicable diseases with field research and the design, implementation and evaluation of public health programs.
They assist socially marginalized groups by tackling tough problems: HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted infections, hepatitis, and illicit drug use. Our laboratory research is motivated and informed by the direct experience of its researchers on the streets and byways of developed and developing nations.
Australian Science Celebrities
Prof Macfarlane Burnet
Macfarlane Burnet was awarded The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1960 'for discovery of acquired immunological tolerance'' The Burnet Institute is a wonderful memorial to him .
Click HERE to visit Bright Sparcs to read about MacFarlane Bunet
Click HERE to visit the Nobel Prize Home Page and read more about his Achievements
HEALTHY HOLIDAYS
DAINTREE ECO LODGE AND SPA
110
kilometres north of Cairns, and 50 kilometres north of Port Douglas, the gateway
to the Great Barrier Reef. Daintree Eco Lodge & Spa is set in 30 acres of
lush ancient rainforest in the World Heritage Daintree National Park. Talk about
a healthy Holiday !
The Daintree Eco Lodge and Spa won the BEST luxury accommodation AND the BEST Ecotourism Operation categories at the 2002 Queensland Tourism Awards
Terry Maloney Daintree - from the Daintree Eco Lodge & Spa will join us to tell us about this healthy holiday option
Click HERE to find out more information about the Daintree Eco Lodge and Spa
1800
80 80 10
Making decisions when they say there's no hope ......
As a doctor one the hardest things I think we have to do is tell a family who have been waiting in hope to hear that their loved one has made a miraculous recovery from horrific head trauma that their loved one's body is only functioning because pumps and machines have taken over. Their brain function has ceased and there is no hope.
My feelings of it being a hard job is nowhere near as hard as what the family are going through dealing with the thoughts that jump into consciousness - like .......how do I know they are really dead .....how do I know that they aren't just deeply unconscious ....after all I saw something on Jerry Springer ........................how do I know those doctors don't just want my loved one out of their intensive care unit to make way for someone else, how do I know they don't just want their organs ....... ?
I hope you are never in this situation - but believe me its better to have discussed it before hand - and this sort of discussion will not "mozz" you your family.
There is so much emotion happening at times like that. Its not the time to be trying to grapple with clinical facts - that's why I think its important we all have a grasp of what goes on in an intensive care unit and discuss frankly people's fears and explain terms and options.
In Medicine we often use the term "Brain Death" - I have a problem with this term as there is an implication that there are two types of death - brain death and ...real death . In truth there is only ONE type of death - Brain Death. If you brain ceases to function you die. Your body organs may continue to be artificially operated by pumps that circulate blood and deliver nutrients but without the machinery the organ function will cease and we have no way of restarting brain function -this is VERY different from Coma - where the brain is still functioning but conscious awareness is not present .
Assoc Prof David Tuxen is the Director of Intensive Care at The Alfred Hospital and also the Chairman of the Intensive Care Appeal.
Click HERE to find out about the Intensive Care Appeal
Click
HERE to
find out about Organ Donation and please talk more about it with your
family
Sexually Transmitted Debt
From Hepatitis to Hip pocket - it seems infections aren't the only pain that is passed on by lovers ! Nicola Field, is a journalist with the 'Money' magazine and this month she has written a report on sexually transmitted debt ! She will be telling us some findings and tips.
click
HERE to visit the home page of Money Magazine
Australia's Corporate Watch Dog - The Australian Securities and Investment Commission isn't only about for corporate giants ! The ASIC has a webpage with all sorts of consumer advice - one particular area is directed at spouses who sign as directors of companies about which they know little and do less. but if it comes to the crunch may well be responsible for debt or worse ! .........
Dr Michael Dunn is the Director of Consumer Communications with the ASIC and he will have some good advice about responsibilities of company directors and ways to avoid sexually transmitted debt .
Click HERE to visit the ASIC home page
AND ............ONE OTHER ISSUE THAT I HOPE OUR DECISION MAKERS WILL THINK ABOUT ......
War isn't a proper solution for economic issues
People dont deserve to die without understanding the issues they are supposed to fight for
Politicians answer to us - they MUST listen and they MUST disclose their reasons
please Mr Howard if you have good reasons for committing us to war please explain it in terms we can understand ........
click HERE to read an Edited version of David Williamson's Batman Oration on Australia day