Upgrade to ease response times
Pool’s seasonal opening THE 25 metre Crib Point swimming pool will be open daily until early April. Ceberus ward councillor Kate Roper said the pool “has new and improved facilities that make for a fun and relaxing day out for all family members”. The pool, in Governors Rd, Crib Point, opens 9.30am – 6pm daily (except Christmas Day and Good Friday). Entry: adult $4.90 ($1 if supervising but not swimming); children $3.10; family $12.50; concession $3.30. Call: 5983 9672 or mornpen.vic.gov.au/ cribpointpool
Packs for refugees MEMBERS of the Flinders branch of
Grandmothers’ Against the Detention of Children are filling backpacks with useful items for children being held in detention on Manus Island and Nauru who may be sent to the United States. The federal government has arranged a refugee swap which may see many of the detained asylum seekers accepted by the US, rather than being settled in Australia. The Grandmothers’ Against the Detention of Children group is collecting warm socks, beanies, scarfs, drink bottles, books and back packs for those children whose families may meet the resettlement criteria of the US. On Saturday 10 December the peninsula group will join a march from St Paul’s Cathedral, corner Flinders
and Swanston streets, Melbourne, at 11.45am across Princes Bridge to the Queen Victoria Gardens opposite the arts centre. All 5983 1391 for details of the march and collection points for backpack items.
Crafty Christmas CHILDREN can get crafty and creative next month at Mornington Peninsula Shire’s libraries in time for Christmas. Primary school-aged children will be entertained by A Christmas Story while they make their own Christmas stockings at the after-school workshops, 4-5pm. Details: ourlibrary. mornpen.vic.gov.au
MORNINGTON’S Main St ambulance station will get a $1.4 million upgrade and a new “super response centre” will be built under a $500 million plan to improve the Mornington Peninsula’s ambulance response times. The upgrade is part of a five-year plan which will see Mornington’s station get a new ambulance and be manned round the clock by 14 fulltime paramedics. Ambulance response times on the peninsula have been some of the worst in the metropolitan region, with ambulances meeting the government benchmark of 15 minutes in just 71.7 per cent of cases in 2014, according to the Victorian auditor general’s report. Ambulance Employees Australia Victoria union secretary Steve McGhie said those times had improved in the past two years, with peninsula ambulances now meeting response times 76 per cent of the time. Mr McGhie said the new station was a welcome addition to the “muchneeded” resources in the south east, and should go a long way toward further reducing response times. He said the re-coding of calls in recent month to reduce the number of ambulances being sent to non-urgent cases was also improving ambulance service on the peninsula. “There has been a lot of work done this year to make the system work better,” he said. Ambulance Victoria Metro East
regional director Cath Anderson said the average Code 1 response time on the peninsula was 12.36 minutes in the September quarter, an improvement on the 13.26 minutes this time last year. Frankston MP Paul Edbrooke said the south-eastern “super centre” and the peninsula’s new ambulance station was about putting patients first and giving paramedics the support they need to save lives.
Focus on suicide FREE community workshops on suicide prevention will be held this week at the Fruit Growers Reserve Pavilion, 328 Jones Rd, Somerville, to provide information and support to those affected. They are 4-8pm, Thursday 8 December, and 10am-2pm, Friday 9 December. The workshops are being run by Mornington Peninsula Shire in partnership with Frankston Headspace. A workshop on grief and loss was held last week. Participants will learn to identify the signs of suicide, asking about suicide intent, understanding risk and protective factors and resources to support a person at risk. Local support groups that have helped shape and promote these events are For Kids By Kids and It’s Okay Not To Be Ok. To book visit mornpen.vic.gov.au/ suicidesupport.
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2291 POINT NEPEAN RD, RYE | PH: 5985 3945 Mornington News 6 December 2016
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