Newsletter - March/2022

March 2022 ISSUE 34

NEWSLETTER UMOONA TJUTAGKU WANGKA

8

12

18

SEWB

Clinic

AOD Success

Program

Calendar

Story

UMOONA TJUTAGKU HEALTH SERVICE ABORIGINAL CORPORATION A: PO Box 166, Lot 08 Umoona Road Coober Pedy SA P: (08) 8672 5255 W: www.uths.com.au

F: (08) 8672 3349

Medical: reception@uths.com.au

Admin: umoona@uths.com.au

Contents After Hours Mental Health

04

Grief & Loss

06

Art Contest

07

Social & Emotional Wellbeing

08

Covid-19 Situation

11

Clinic Calendar

12

Alcohol & Other Drugs

16

AOD Success Story

18

Optometrist Visits

21

02

COVID Isolation, Josie’s story As you know as a health worker you do the best you can to support your clients around education and promotion around being CIVID safe.

I too had to experience isolation as I was a close contact with a family member.

My experience was daunting and very unexpected.

My plans just went out the window, it’s hard doing this when you have so many people in your community that you spend time with, then all of a sudden, you’re in lock down and cannot leave your house for 14 days’.

Due to my own chronic condition I’ve had to isolate else where so that positive cases in the home were able to isolate more freely without affecting my own health. So, I moved out and stayed else where for the 14 days.

This also gave me time to spend quality time with my other grandchildren that was negative. We were able to play card games, sharing stories and sitting outside watching the stars.

I made this decision to ensure to keep others safe including the wider community. Being isolated can mean being lonely at times and being away from other family members.

If you didn’t have support at home then the best options were to evacuate to Adelaide or port Augusta medical hotels to keep yourself and other safe from COVID. This on the other hand can also be very hard on yourself and family as you have to stay in the Hotel room for 14 days with no family around. I sit and think myself about being in a hotel room and I almost come to tears, knowing my family at home and they can’t come and see me or anyone else that’s in the Hotel.

So, my message to you all is make better choices when isolating. This means staying home for 14 days and not to go any where that can be detrimental to the wider community. If you have a chronic disease or Drug and Alcohol problems it will be harder for you not having family around you for support. Do the right thing and stay home look after yourself and your community.

Be COVID SAFE, protect your-self and your family.

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After Hours Mental Health Service After hours mental health team has a qualified Mental Health Social Worker and an Aboriginal Health Worker. As this is position is after hours which is an option for the clients if they need help outside of the normal 9-5 working hours. In this role, counselling services are being provided. Clients are being provided with awareness around the mental health and general health especially with covid19.

Clients are being informed about the mental health crisis line 131 465 which they can use if they are facing a crisis situation or mental health issues. During the afterhours, workers visit hospital as well as local police station, where they provide support to the people who are in need. In this position, social worker also provides the client case management which initiates after enrolment. The process begins with first step: the triage assessment followed by client referrals and then enrolment. Social worker closely works with psychiatrist as well as psychologist and regularly follow up the clients who are facing mental health issues.

Generally, client follow ups are done during home visits, phone calls, and/or outreach. The plan is being made with clients by using client centre practices.

Regular follow up with clients and encouragement from staff help clients to be on track. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been extremely hard to provide face to face services to the clients. Most of the client follow ups were done by using phone calls which is not a very convenient way as most of the clients do not have phones. Another main issue is that clients travel between the communities and as they do not have the phones which makes it hard for us to keep in touch with them. Besides this, during the visits of allied health professionals, clients sometimes refuse to receive the services thus it becomes hard to help them and keep things on track.

As a team, we try to perform best as per our capabilities. Health worker helps social worker by introducing the client which is a great help in establishing a rapport with the clients. From thereon, social worker does assessments and help clients appropriately.

We are here to help.

AHMH Staff Phone No: 0437 268 933 04

Taking Care of our community people On February 15th 2022, two clients were tested positive for covid19 and afterhours workers followed them up and made sure that clients have all the basic stuff. Afterhours worked in collaboration with SAPOL to help the clients.

SAPOL talked to clients and arranged a place for clients for isolation, while afterhours staff arranged some drinking water for clients. Clients were then escorted by SAPOL to the isolation place. Afterhours staff arranged clean clothes, water, food, and some wound dressing for one of the clients, and delivered it to them. Staff and SAPOL explained to the clients the importance of following isolation procedure to be safe.

- Written by- AHMH Staff.

Barbeque Program

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Grief and Loss Grief is a natural reaction to loss. It is the emotional pain that you experience when taken away something or someone you love. Sometimes the pain of loss can feel unbearable. You can feel all sorts of hard and unpredictable emotions, from shock or indignation to disbelief, remorse, and deep sadness. Pain and grief can also disrupt your physical wellbeing, making it hard to sleep, think or even think straight.

Grief is usually described in 5 stages: 

Denial: “This can’t be happening to me.”



Anger: “Why is this happening? Who is to blame?”



Bargaining: “Make this not happen, and in return I will ____.”



Depression: “I’m too sad to do anything.”



Acceptance: “I’m at peace with what happened

Emotional symptoms of grief 

Shock and disbelief



Sadness



Guilt



Anger



Fear

Physical symptoms of grief 

Fatigue



Nausea



Lowered immunity



Weight loss or weight gain



Aches and pains



Insomnia People in our community can contact Umoona Tjutagku Health Service Aboriginal Corporation, Drug and Alcohol Service at 08 8672 5255 for help.

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(Social Emotional Wellbeing) Social Worker 'Speaking for yourself' SEWB problems include a wide range of issues, such as: ‘grief, loss, trauma, abuse, violence, substance misuse, physical health problems, child development problems, gender identity issues, child removals, incarceration, cultural dislocation, racism and social disadvantage, while mental health problems may include crisis reactions, anxiety, states, depression, posttraumatic stress, self-harm, and psychosis. People who have gone through those issues must need to know their rights and should have clear identification of support they needed. For that, self-advocacy is the best solution as having a voice of your own, is fundamental to both asserting yourself and exploring yourself. This is important because it is directly linked to building confidence and self-esteem. It is important to have the possibility of talking about your life and your experiences so that who you are can be validated by others. In this way having a voice of your own has the power to construct your identity.

This journey of self-education is an ongoing process, as individual needs change over time. There are 10 steps that can be used to becoming an effective self-advocate.

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Current COVID situation and the importance of getting vaccinated.

We currently have a COVID out break with over 100 people having been diagnosed with COVID 19. Some of these people have opted to quarantine either in Port Augusta or Adelaide because of health reason as well as inability to safely quarantine at home.

This has highlighted the importance of vaccination. While 85% of our Indigenous population aged between 12 and 100 have had 2 COVID vaccine doses, only a handful have had three.

For this group, having the third COVID vaccine is really important given that the new strain of COVID 19 is highly infectious or easily caught. The other group that needs their vaccination are children between the ages of 5 and 11 years. Currently half of the positive cases in SA are school aged children and young people. With cases at the local school and children freely playing with one another and visiting one another’s homes, it will soon be the same in Coober Pedy.

Getting those who are eligible vaccinated will protect and save the lives of those who cannot be vaccinated like the very young (0- 4 years old), those with lots of chronic diseases and those who are allergic to components of the vaccines.

Let us all do our part to protect our loved ones, greater family and our community.

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COVID outbreak in Coober Pedy Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by the SARS -CoV-2 virus and is considered as a global pandemic. Most people who fall sick with COVID-19 will experience mild to moderate symptoms and recover without special treatment.

Since the borders opened early this year, there is an increasing number of businesses opened and at the same time people visiting the community like tourists from interstate and indigenous people from surrounding communities like APY lands. Although the COVID-19 protocols were strictly implemented since it started, the number of people being tested for COVID grew for both adults and children alike. In line with this, the services around Coober Pedy as well as the team from SA health, SAPOL, SA pathology is working hand in hand to support the community with their needs whilst the number of people being tested positive escalates.

Umoona Tjutagku Health Service (UTHS) help with the vaccination, swabbing, health assessments and chronic disease management to address the needs of the affected clients and coordinates with different agencies to help trace and quarantine contacts, prevent transmission in between persons and protect the vulnerable people. In addition, there are community programs being conducted to maximize the COVID vaccination and swabbing in the community to determine the number of positive cases as well as to provide safe and appropriate care for the affected patients according to the severity of the symptoms. Furthermore, information dissemination is also being conducted continuously to increase the number of people being tested and vaccinated through different platforms such as Facebook and Dusty radio.

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Clinic Calendar MARCH 2022 SUN

6

13

MON

27

WED

THU

FRI

1

2

3

4

(GP)

(GP)

(GP)

(GP)

7

8

9

10

11

(GP), Dentist

(GP), Dentist

(GP), Dentist

(GP), Dentist

(GP), Dentist

Psychologist

Psychologist

Psychologist,

Psychologist, Hepatologist.

Hepatologist.

Hepatologist..

16

17

18

Respiratory Nurse

Respiratory Nurse

Respiratory Nurse

14

20

TUE

15

SAT 5

12

19

21

22

23

24

25

26

(GP),

(GP),

(GP),

Podiatrist

Podiatrist

Podiatrist

Endocrinologist, Hearing

Endocrinologist,

28

29

30

31

(GP)

(GP)

(GP)

(GP)

APRIL 2022 SAT

SUN

MON

TUE

WED

THU

FRI 1 (GP)

2 9

12

3 10

4

5

6

7

8

(GP)

(GP)

(GP)

15

11

12

13

14

(GP), Psychologist

(GP), Psychologist

(GP), Psychologist

(GP)

SAT 16

SUN 17

MON 18

TUE 19

WED 20

THU 21

FRI 22

(GP), Respira- (GP), Respira- (GP), Respiratory Nurse. tory Nurse. tory Nurse.

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

(GP), OT

(GP), OT

(GP), OT

(GP), OT

MAY 2022 SUN 1

8

15

22

29

MON

TUE

WED

THU

FRI

SAT

2

3

4

5

6

(GP),

(GP),

(GP),

(GP),

(GP),

Optometrist.

Optometrist.

Optometrist.

Paediatric Audiologist.

Cardiologist.

9

10

11

12

13

Respiratory Nurse

Respiratory Nurse

Respiratory Nurse

19

20

21

28

16

17

18

(GP)

(GP)

(GP)

23

24

25

26

27

(GP), Endo.

(GP), Endo.

(GP), Endo.

(GP)

(GP)

30

31

(GP)

(GP)

7

14

Call 08 8672 5255 to book an appointment.

Between 8.30am to 4.30pm (Monday to Friday).

Feedback forms are available at Umoona Tjutagku Health Service Aboriginal Corporation Reception (At the main office & the DAS building).

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Respiratory Diseases Lung diseases are some of the most common medical conditions in the world.

Smoking, infections, and genes cause most lung diseases.

Your lungs are part of a complex system, expanding and relaxing thousands of times each day to bring in oxygen and send out carbon dioxide. Lung disease can happen when there are problems in any part of this system.

Common Lung Diseases 

Asthma. Your airways are constantly inflamed and may spasm, causing wheezing and shortness of breath. Allergies, infections, or pollution can trigger asthma symptoms.



Acute bronchitis.This sudden infection of your airways is usually caused by a virus.



Cystic fibrosis. With this condition, you have trouble clearing mucus out of your bronchi. This leads to repeated lung infections.



Pneumonia. An infection of your alveoli, usually by bacteria or viruses, including the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.



Tuberculosis Pneumonia that slowly gets worse, caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

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Lung cancer. It has many forms and may start in any part of your lungs. It most often happens in the main part of your lung, in or near the air sacs.



Pneumoconiosis. This is a category of conditions caused by inhaling something that injures your lungs. Examples include black lung disease from coal dust and asbestosis from asbestos dust.



Pulmonary Hypertension. Many conditions can cause high blood pressure in your pulmonary arteries. This can lead to shortness of breath and chest pain. If your doctor can’t find a cause, they’ll call it idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension.

In-case of any symptoms, please contact us on 08 8672 5255 to book your appointment with a GP. 14

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Alcohol & Other Drugs Programs Why we are doing AOD (Alcohol and Other Drugs) awareness programs?

Prevention is proven and Cost-Effective Evidence-based prevention programs can dramatically reduce rates of substance use. AOD social wor ker s offer information, some through interactive approaches, to help increase knowledge, skills, or awareness, or alter perceptions in or der to reduce har mful dr inking behaviours and outcomes.

What is the purpose of Aboriginal community based AOD programs?

Aboriginal community-Based Treatment refers to a specific integrated care plan for people affected by drug use and dependence in the community which provides a continuum of care from outreach and low threshold services, through detoxification and stabilization to aftercare and integration. It involves the coordination of a number of health, social and other no specialist services, healthy food program that needed to meet the client’s needs. Strong support is also given to the client’s family and the community to address the drug and alcohol problems in their complexity and to ensure efficient and long-term results.

What do we mean by “Aboriginal community-based” treatment?  

   

Located in the Aboriginal community.

Community empowerment: Mobilisation of community resources and participation.

Bio-psycho-social approach.

Primarily outpatient setting.

Continuum of care.

Integrated in community health and AOD social services.

Community Based Treatment services are designed to:



 





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Help clients to develop the skills to manage their drug and alcohol dependence and related problems in the community.

Stop or reduce the use of drugs and alcohol.

Respond to a wide range of individual needs and ensure the best possible outcomes.

Actively involve local organizations, community members and target populations in the establishment of an integrated network of community-based services in a manner that is empowering.

Reduce the need and demand for residential treatment and custodial services for people with drug and alcohol problems.

Model of Aboriginal community-based AOD treatment

Call 08 8672 5580 to book an appointment with AOD staff.

Between 8.30 am to 4.30pm (Monday to Friday)

AOD Team

Chathuri Aberathna Community Worker—AOD

Padmini Rana AOD Worker

Gnanika Chandrasena AOD Worker 17

AOD SUCCESS STORY A staff at Umoona Tjutagku Health Service Aboriginal Corporation referred Max (46), a single man, to the Drug & Alcohol Services (DAS) Centre owing to Max’s alcohol problem. Max is from Coober Pedy, and when he was younger, he had overdosed alcohol, and was frequently physically and mentally assaulted from the community due to his alcohol addiction. No one did not care about Max and he did not gain any respect from the community. He was intoxicated

and roamed here and there all the time.

Max had moved out of his family home due to his alcohol addiction and mental and social anguish, and began to wander around aimlessly. He accustomed to being inebriated. The client had nowhere to sleep after leaving home and had no family. Many times he was in jail due to begging and other reasons. He acquired an eating disorder as a result, as well as a mental imbalance. In terms of his physical, mental, and emotional well-being, his addiction turned his entire life

upside down. He battled addiction as well as sadness.

On the advices of our AOD workers, Max agreed for AOD treatment, and the experience proved transformative. Workers from the AOD took the time to explain the internal and external programmes to him. He'd been a part of DAS alcohol and other programs for over a year, and it sounded good to him to understand how AOD workers help to overcome client's alcohol and other drugs issues.

According to Max, he claimed that he had remained in the AOD programs due of the way of AOD staff approaching to their issues and the way them dealing with AOD clients. The means that not only the approaches that AOD workers used, but also on how they optimistic about clients and their lives, way they looking forwards, and how they encourage their clients to enjoy each day as it comes.

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These were some of positive key factors which were influenced for Max's later

life.

During the case meetings with DAS manager, AOD staff created a platform to share current difficulties and received guidance in relation to Max’s situation.

Finally, the client gave his consent to attend a rehabilitation centre in Port Augusta and arrived in Coober Pedy after having AOD therapies. For Max, the main benefits of the program include seeing others who have gotten over various drugs, getting support in recovery without judgement, becoming a better and calmer person and being able to control himself.

Max has been off the alcohol, and he knows why it is important to keep distance from drinking alcohol and using drugs. Now the client does not require alcohol and other drugs to spend his time. Umoona Tjutagku Health Service Aboriginal Corporation has encouraged Max to be employed and it is glad to see that Max continues the positive behaviour. This story is one of the recent examples that how AOD workers helped our clients to overcome their AOD challenges.

- AOD Workers

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Cardiologist Visits Overview Heart disease describes a range of conditions that affect your heart. Heart diseases include: 

Blood vessel disease, such as coronary artery disease.



Heart rhythm problems (arrhythmias).



Heart defects you're born with (congenital heart defects).



Heart valve disease.



Disease of the heart muscle.



Heart infection.

Symptoms Heart disease symptoms depend on what type of heart disease you have. Most common symptoms are. 

Chest pain, chest tightness, chest pressure and chest discomfort (angina).



Shortness of breath.



Pain, numbness, weakness or coldness in your legs or arms if the blood vessels in those parts of your body are narrowed.



Pain in the neck, jaw, throat, upper abdomen or back.

Few Important Factors Which Can Cause Heart Diseases

∙ High Blood Pressure ∙ Unhealthy Eating (Cholesterol) ∙ Being Over-Weight ∙ Not Exercising ∙ Smoking ∙ Consuming Alcohol ∙ Not Getting Enough Sleep In-case of any symptoms, please contact us on 08 8672 5255 to book your appointment with a cardiologist.

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Optometrist Visits Eye diseases or disorders are of a wide variety. Cataract, glaucoma, refractive errors are major causes of visual impairment and preventable blindness. Cataract is the leading cause of blindness , few other factors are refractive error and glaucoma.

Common Eye Problems 

Eyestrain (tiredness in the eyes).



Refractive Errors (short-sightedness, farsightedness, distorted vision).



Night Blindness (Difficulty to see in low light).



Eye floaters - Spots (str ings, r ings, cobwebs in the vision).



Cataract (A cataract is an opacity within the clear lens of the eye).



Glaucoma (It is a condition where increased intraocular pressure may result in damage to the optic nerve).

Symptoms that demands immediate consultation include 

Severe eye pain.



Change or sudden loss of vision.



Floaters.



Blurred vision.



Watery and red eyes.



The foreign body inside the eye and trauma to the eye.

In-case of any symptoms, please contact us on 08 8672 5255 to book your appointment with a optometrist.

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Come and attend the Women’s program where women will be able to do some Arts & Crafts, painting and basket weaving, food will also be available during the program.

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Programs are currently closed due to COVID-19, Please call (08) 8672 5580 to check if program is opened again.

Few benefits from Art & Crafts to Aboriginal people 

Personal development and self-esteem.



Financial independence and empowerment within their communities.



Connect young people to their Aboriginal identity and emphasise cultural maintenance.



Health benefits, Art has been used for healing Indigenous patients suffering from a range of physical and mental ailments.



Art programs in prisons and detention centres often provide an avenue for Indigenous prisoners to achieve better appreciation of their own culture through the arts and to develop a means of employment when they leave the prison system.



Visual arts are also used as a form of expression for Indigenous people with disabilities.

Source https://www.aph.gov.au

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DIVERSITY STATEMENT Umoona Tjutagku Health Service Aboriginal Corporation (UTHSAC) will strive to: Inform, educate, perform, model and lead to ensure diversity is reflected throughout UTHSAC. Create & sustain an environment that actively embraces diversity and inclusion by recognising value in the uniqueness of all individuals

Hold all people associated to UTHSAC accountable for their actions and decisions impacting the achievements of UTHSAC Diversity mission statement.

Utilise the success in diversity to assist UTHSAC becoming a provider and the employer of choice as we lead our community to improve health We respect all our Community and all who walk through our doors and expect the same in return from Community Members and Clients.

VISION STATEMENT Innovative, responsive and culturally appropriate health services are accessible to Aboriginal people living in the Coober Pedy and surrounding region.

MISSION STATEMENT To provide a holistic health care service that achieves positive health outcomes through primary health care intervention as well as safer communities through prevention and education.

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