Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Mindfullness Meditation


You are invited to Mindfullness Practice. A four week programme commencing on Tuesday 10th November to Tuesday 1st December 2009. Costs: $40.00 to attend the whole program.

Sessions will run from 10.00 am -12.00 noon on:
1.Tuesday 10th November

2.Tuesday 17th November

3.Tuesday 24th November

4.Tuesday 17th December

The sessions will be held at Centacare: 107 Willliam St, Bathurst, NSW. Telephone 63318944.

Ask for Sandy Dengate for more details. The sessions will be run by Margret Wilson who has trained extensively in the Mindfullness Technique.

Mindfulness Meditation is about learning to experience life fully as it unfolds—moment by moment. One popular misconception about meditation is that it is a way to make your mind blank so you can escape from what you are feeling. However, author Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn wants you to understand that meditation is an invitation to wake up, experience the fullness of your life, and transform your relationship with your problems, your fears, and any pain and stress in your life so that they don’t wind up controlling you and eroding the quality of your life and your creativity.

It is not about running away, or manipulating mental states.Through the practice of mindfulness, you can learn to develop greater calmness, clarity and insight in facing and embracing all your life experiences, even life’s trials, and turning them into occasions for learning, growing and deepening your own strength and wisdom.

Friday, October 9, 2009

Motor Neurone Education and Information Day's


The Motor neurone Diseaese Association of NSW have organised 2 really exciting education and information day's on the 13th and 14th October 2009 planned at the Orange Ex- Services Club, 241 Anson st, Orange

The Information Day: On 13th October; for people with MND and their families has been organised as part of our current focus on providing special educational programs for people with MND, and their carers living in regional NSW.
What you will learn:

By the end of the day you will know more
about:

• motor neurone disease
• the role of Community Options Projects and
the MND NSW Family Support Service
• how to access important support services
and benefits
• specialised equipment to help maintain
independence and care at home
• breathing difficulties in MND and how these
can be managed
• gentle massage and its benefits

You will also have the opportunity to:
• ask questions
• share ideas and experiences with others in a
similar situation

MND Directions in Care: has been organised as part of our current focus on providing special educational programs for health and community care professionals in regional NSW.

What you will learn:

By the end of the day you will know more
about:

• MND and recent trends in MND research
• breathing difficulties in MND and how these
are managed
• the role of MND NSW Family Support Service
• specialised equipment to help maintain
independence and care at home
• palliative care and its role in supporting
people with MND
• Community Options Services and
coordination of care for people with MND
• managing speech and swallowing difficulties
in MND

There is no charge for you to attend these program but to reserve your place you will need to to register.

For further information about the program please contact:

Jenny Judd, Regional Advisor
or Gina Svolos, Manager, Family Support
MND NSW.

Phone 1800 777 175 or 8877 0999
jennyj@mndnsw.asn.au
ginas@mndnsw.asn.au

Friday, October 2, 2009

Palliative Care 2009 Perth Conference



Together ! Cultural Connections for quality care at the end of life.

I just got back from the 2009 International Palliative Care Conference held in Perth Thursday 24th -Sunday 27th. The conference combined the 10th Australian Palliative care Conference and the 8th Asia pacific Hospice Conference and there is no doubt that this conference provided a rare opportunity for so many representatives countries to get together and look at Palliative Care from a very broad international perspective. 35 countries were represented with over 1250 delagates attending. I heard that there was over 325 speakers.

The topics discussed represented the broad range of concerns in Palliative Care from the development of national and international standards, policy and economic descision making, symptom control, complementary therapies, psycho social, spiritual concerns, non malignant palliative care, aged care, Carers, HIV/AIDS, paediatric care, models of care, clinical issues, public health, rural Health challenges, grief and bereavement, cultural connections, Indigenous connections, ethics and law, creativity in palliative care and symptom management.

Ggreater Western Area health were well represented in the speakers. Myself (James Daley), Christine Symmington (Palliative Care Nurse specialist Forbes) and Mellissa Cummings (CNC Broken Hill).

I talked about this blog in a talk titled "Expanding Worlds: Creating a Cyber Palliative Community in the Bush.", at the conference I talked alot about this blog and it's potential. The aim of this blog is to try and offset the social isolation experienced by those with a terminal illness and their carers by creating a space on the internet where participants can share their experiences in a supportive space. I also talked about the useful links that are also incorporated into the site. My talk was very well recieved and I found that it connected with other peoples work particularly in Victoria.

Mellissa talked about a case study entitled "Lils" Story which (Mel was given permission by the patient's family to talk about this culturaly sensitive topic ) examined the journey of a 34 year old Indigenous woman, diagnosed with metastatic cancer of the cervix when heavily pregnant with her 7th child. Melissa presented the case using photographic images of the Broken Hill landscape as a visual background to to the verbal presentation. The presentation highlighted the issues that arise for cancer and palliative care patients in rural and remote communities. One of the startling revelations of this talk was the fact that "people living in remote NSW diagnosed with cancer are about 35% more likely to die as a result of their cancer in the first five years, than people in areas with greater access to services" (Jong et al 2004)

Christines presentation was entitled "How do we improve access? Making the Palliative care service more accessible for Indigenous people.  Working from the fact that Indigenous clients are under represented in the referral to Palliative Care service.

In consultation with local Aboriginal health workers strategies were developed to improve understanding and access for Indigenous clients. One of the strategies involved the development of a brochure titled "Palliative Care for Indigenous Australians" which was developed with the assistance of local Aboriginal artists.



I came away from the conference with many ideas I was particularly impressed by the need to develop palliative care's presence in the support of patients with non cancer life threatening illness's, a new value's based approach to education in Palliative Care, the role of community development in extending palliative care services ability to help people in remote and rural areas (which is a public health approach to palliative care), the increasing utilisation of complementary care in supporting palliative patients and their carer's and also the increasing use of the creative arts in helping support patients.

The whole conference experience was quite overwhelming at times, I was struck by the respect that every body showed to each others work and the enthusiasm that participants shared there findings with each other. Listening to speakers from developing countries talk about how they manage to deliver palliative services to huge populations on very little resources reminded me that our committment to each other and those we serve is our greatest resource.