First Aid Training in Canberra. Mental Health First Aid Training is a life saver. Learn the strategies today.

Alarming number of parents cant identify mental health struggles in children

The majority of parents cannot confidently identify whether their child may be suffering from mental health issues, according to a new study.

The Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne polled 2000 Australian parents, and  found only one in three could confidently identify and respond to signs of mental health issues in their kids.

One quarter of parents don’t realise persistent complaints like headaches or tummy aches could be the sign of a mental health problem.

While one of the most frightening statistics revealed a third of parents believe a child’s mental health problems are best left alone to work themselves out over time.

Doctors say this is alarming, and could make mental health issues worse.

“They can become embedded and entrenched and it makes it more difficult to turn those problems around,” Doctor Anthea Rhodes from The Royal Children’s Hospital said.

Mother of three, Cathie Beven, recently found out one of her young daughters suffers anxiety.

Unlike the majority of parents, Mrs Beven was one of the 33 percent able to identify her daughter’s mental health struggle, after the young girl suffered symptoms including poor sleep, headaches and a lack of enthusiasm.

“Children live in quite a rushed world and can have different expectations and pressures on them so I probably wasn’t surprised to be honest,” Mrs Beven said.

“It’s not a big unknown anymore, it’s not a taboo.”

But identifying the issue is only half of the problem.

Fewer than half of the 2000 parents surveyed were confident about knowing where to get professional help.

“It’s about putting away the distractions, which are so present in life, and taking just a few moments to focus on and interact with your child,” Dr Rhodes said.

Experts also suggest GPs, school teachers and counsellors are vital resources to turn to, if you suspect your child may need help.

First Aid Courses in Canberra. Book in to a session at Dickson or Belconnen today. We provide first aid training for all in a relaxed environment.

As the number of mass shootings continues to climb across the United States, emergency medical workers in central Ohio are among those nationwide seeking to arm bystanders with the knowledge, equipment and confidence needed to save lives during bleeding emergencies.

“A person with a severe enough injury to an artery can bleed to death in three to five minutes, so the regular public needs to know how to stop bleeding, whether it’s by applying pressure or a tourniquet” said Jodi Keller, who oversees disaster preparedness for the Central Ohio Area Trauma System.

The network of health-care professionals has been participating in the national Stop the Bleed campaign for about a year, she said. The campaign was launched by the White House in October 2015.

Hundreds of people, including nurses, teachers, police officers, social workers and the general public, have been trained in a 15-county region, Keller said.

The campaign has made bleeding-control kits containing tourniquets available at places where crowds gather, including the Columbus Zoo & Aquarium, local malls, Greater Columbus Convention Center, Hollywood Casino Columbus and John Glenn Columbus International Airport. Tourniquets also are more commonly being stocked in schools and churches.

The Stop the Bleed campaign grew out of the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, said Dr. Lenworth Jacobs, a member of the American College of Surgeons’ board of regents and director of the Trauma Institute at Hartford Hospital in Connecticut.

Following the tragedy, the American College of Surgeons convened a committee with members of the medical community, emergency response groups, government agencies and others with a goal of increasing survivors in mass-casualty events involving a shooter.

The committee recommended that police be trained and equipped to provide hemorrhage control, and emergency medical services be brought closer to mass casualty scenes so responders can more quickly attend to the injured once scenes are secured. It also urged that the public be trained as immediate responders who can control bleeding.

“The person who is going to be helpful is the person right beside you,” Jacobs said. “If you can keep the blood in the body until they get to the hospital, they have a very good chance of survival.”

People who want to equip themselves can purchase tourniquets on Amazon.com, Keller said. Training is available through the trauma system or any number of videos on YouTube, she said.

People also can learn about bleeding control in first-aid courses provided by the Red Cross, said Jordan Tetting, spokeswoman for the organization’s Ohio Buckeye Region. Mass shootings always lead to increased inquiries about how people can brush up on lifesaving skills, she said.

“Our goal at the Red Cross is to prevent communities from having to go through that suffering and prepare our communities for instances where emergency strikes,” she said. “We encourage people to be as ready as possible, to have all the appropriate tools in their back pocket.”

Most of the people who die in mass shootings die from bleeding out, often as emergency workers wait until a scene is secure before they can respond, said Lt. Matt Parrish of the Columbus Division of Fire’s EMS bureau. That could take 20 or 30 minutes. Bystanders, he said, have the power to respond immediately. But it’s crucial that any potential helpers secure their own safety first.

He said Stop the Bleed is akin to “see something, say something,” a national campaign to aid law enforcement’s anti-crime and anti-terrorism efforts, because it asks citizens to be engaged.

“When you put that many people in a large venue you can’t put enough EMS and law enforcement providers in that same area to manage everybody. People who are willing and able to get involved, they’re going to make a difference,” he said.

More people, especially law-enforcement officers and medical professionals, are carrying commercial tourniquets as a way of being prepared, Parrish said. “Right next to their Narcan kit, they should have a tourniquet. I think that’s where we’re at right now.”

Advocates hope to raise awareness about bleeding control to the level of awareness surrounding CPR and have tourniquet kits as readily available as automated external defibrillators. Jacobs said he’d like to see tourniquets everywhere, right down to every glove compartment.

Giving people power to save lives could also have an impact on the nation’s psyche amid mass shootings, he said.

“This is a huge country. There are 250 million people you want to get trained and empowered,” Jacobs said. “It’s simple to do it. It’s important to do it. It saves limbs and lives.”

Check out our other office in Sydney if you are in the region, www.simpleinstruction.com.au

First Aid Training in Canberra in a comfortable positive environment. This would be great for the first aid training kit at work.

A NEW and injectable ‘stretchy’ glue that eliminates the need for staples or stitches and heals wounds in 60 seconds could save lives, its creators say.

MeTro is a highly elastic and adhesive surgical glue that quickly seals wounds. Picture: AAP.Source:AAP

AUSTRALIAN and American biomedical engineers have developed a stretchy surgical glue that rapidly heals wounds, a “breakthrough” that has the potential to save lives in emergencies, its designers say.

The injectable glue, MeTro, is based on a naturally occurring protein called tropaelastin. It is applied directly to the wound and is then activated with UV light to form a complete seal, eliminating the need for staples or stitches. Its elasticity means it’s designed to work well on shape-changing internal organs like the lungs and heart.

A study published in journal Science Translational Medicine showed the glue quickly and successfully sealed incisions in the arteries and lungs of rodents and the lungs of pigs.

“The beauty of the MeTro formulation is that, as soon as it comes in contact with tissue surfaces, it solidifies into a gel-like phase without running away,” said lead author Assistant Professor Nasim Annabi from the Department of Chemical Engineering at Northeastern University.

MeTro combines the natural elastic protein technologies developed in collaboration with author and University of Sydney biochemist Professor Anthony Weiss, with light sensitive molecules developed in collaboration with author and director of the Biomaterials Innovation Research Center at Harvard Medical School Professor Ali Khademhosseini.

Prof Weiss likens the glue to that of silicone sealants used around bathroom and kitchen tiles.

“When you watch MeTro, you can see it act like a liquid, filling the gaps and conforming to the shape of the wound.” While much more research is needed — with clinical testing on humans still to occur, Prof Weiss is optimistic about the study findings and the glue’s future impact.

“The potential applications are powerful — from treating serious internal wounds at emergency sites such as following car accidents and in war zones, as well as improving hospital surgeries,” Prof Weiss said.

Check out all of our upcoming courses at www.canberrafirstaid.com

Researchers found that people with asthma who took vitamin D supplements alongside their usual medication were 50 percent less likely to visit the emergency department or require hospital admission as a result of an asthma attack.

What is more, the researchers found that vitamin D supplementation was linked to a reduction in the need for steroid injections or tablets following an asthma attack.

Lead researcher Prof. Adrian Martineau, from Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) in the United Kingdom, and colleagues recently reported their findings in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine.

Asthma is one of the biggest health burdens across the globe, affecting approximately 300 millionchildren and adults. In the United States alone, around 25 million people have asthma, and this number rises every year.

Although there is currently no cure for asthma, there are medications that can help patients to manage the condition and reduce their risk of an asthma attack.

But these medications are not always effective; each year in the U.S., there are around 1.8 million visits to the emergency department for asthma attacks, and the condition causes 10 deaths in the country every day.

As such, researchers are searching for ways to further reduce asthma severity. Could vitamin D be one such strategy?

A review of vitamin D for asthma

Vitamin D is essential for human health. Not only does the vitamin aid calcium absorption, which is vital for healthy bones, but it also helps to strengthen the immune system. It is the latter function that has led researchers to investigate vitamin D as a possible treatment for asthma.

Vitamin D may help to treat sunburn, study suggests

Researchers suggest that taking vitamin D within an hour of sunburn could help to reduce symptoms.

READ NOW

Respiratory infections, such as the common cold or the flu, are known to trigger symptoms of asthma – including airway inflammation, which can bring on an asthma attack.

Some studies have suggested that vitamin D may help to lower the risk of respiratory infection-induced asthma attacks by boosting the immune system.

To gain a better understanding of this association, Prof. Martineau and colleagues conducted a review of seven randomized controlled trials that looked at the effects of vitamin D supplementation on asthma severity.

Asthma events, hospital visits reduced

The review included a total of 955 subjects with asthma, all of whom were receiving standard treatment for the condition.

It was found that vitamin D supplementation reduced the need for asthma-related emergency department visits and hospital admissions by 50 percent when compared with a placebo, with the rate of such events falling from 6 percent to 3 percent.

Also, among adults who did experience an asthma attack, vitamin D supplementation reduced the need for treatment with steroid tablets or injections by 30 percent, from 0.43 events per person per year to 0.30 events per person per year.

From a subgroup analysis, the researchers found that patients whose vitamin D levels were low at study baseline experienced the greatest benefit from vitamin D supplementation; their need for treatment with steroid tablets or injections fell by 55 percent.

Still, they note that the small number of participants in each subgroup makes it difficult to confirm whether or not initial vitamin D levels influence the effect of supplementation on asthma severity.

Further clinical trials underway

Importantly, it was also found that vitamin D supplementation was safe for participants at the doses used, and there were no differences in adverse effects between subjects who took vitamin D and those who took a placebo.

Overall, the researchers believe that their findings indicate that vitamin D supplementation may be an effective way to help reduce asthma severity.

“These results add to the ever growing body of evidence that vitamin D can support immune function as well as bone health.”

Prof. Adrian Martineau

“Vitamin D is safe to take and relatively inexpensive,” adds Prof. Martineau, “so supplementation represents a potentially cost-effective strategy to reduce this problem.”

First study author Dr. David Joliffe, also of QMUL, notes that because the majority of study subjects were adults with mild to moderate asthma, they are currently unable to generalize the findings to children or individuals with more severe asthma.

“Further clinical trials are ongoing internationally,” adds Dr. Joliffe, “and we hope to include data from them in a future analysis to determine whether the promise of today’s results is confirmed in an even larger and more diverse group of patients.”

Updated 26 Sep 2017, 9:57am

PHOTO: Maxine Griffiths says knowing mental health first aid helps break down stigmas. (ABC Radio Hobart: Carol Rääbus)

RELATED STORY: Canberra-born Mental Health First Aid program trains 1 million worldwide

MAP: Hobart 7000

If someone close to you breaks a leg or suffers a burn, you probably know enough basic first aid to help them until medical help arrives.

But what if someone close to you is having a mental health crisis — do you know how to help them?

Mental health first-aid courses are designed to give people the knowledge about how to help someone close to them in need.

The first courses of this kind were developed by Betty Kitchener and Tony Jorm in 2000 in Canberra.

Mental Health First Aid Australia (MHFA) now trains instructors to run the first-aid courses around the country, often in conjunction with organisations such as TAFE or the Red Cross.

Maxine Griffiths from Mental Health Carers Tasmania (MHCTas) said the more people who had mental health first-aid training, the more it would help break down stigmas.

“It’s a difficult topic [but] it’s not as hard as it sounds to provide support to a person,” she said.

“If we just had that little bit of knowledge about how to go about talking to someone and refer them on, I’m sure it’s going to help people feel a whole lot better than if they didn’t have that information.”

Many workplaces and community organisations require someone on the team to have a current physical first-aid certificate, and Ms Griffiths said this should be the case for mental health first aid as well.

“Mental health is everybody’s responsibility, and the more informed we are, the more we’re able to carry that responsibility,” she said.

“The course helps people work out what to say, what to do, how to refer the person on to more specialised support if that’s what the person wants.

“You’re not trained to diagnose, you’re not trained to be the expert, you’re just trained to know how to broach the subject with someone and how to refer them on.

“It also teaches you to stay calm, what to say and when to say it, and it also helps you get support for you.”

MHCTas offers free courses to people who are in caring roles supporting people with mental health issues to help get them up to speed with the best ways to help someone.

“The reality for many carers and families is that they don’t often get the right information,” Ms Griffiths said.

“There’s an assumption that they might know, but … if there’s a person with a mental illness in our care it doesn’t mean we know all the ins and outs about that particular illness, what to look for, how to provide good support.”

Find a course near you on the Mental Health First Aid Australia website.

First Aid Courses in Canberra are held in Dickson every week. The best first aid provider at the best price. Free first aid manual and CPR face mask.

Brown snake holds family captive

ANITA Johnson couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw a brown snake curled in front of her door, ready to strike.

The Newcastle mother, and her two young sons, were effectively held captive in their house when the deadly reptile refused to move on.

“It was banging its head on the door,” she told Fairfax.

“I am not worried, it can’t get in, but it was aggressive.”

Mrs Johnson said she initially thought the sound was being caused by a magpie she’d seen hanging around the house.

She managed to rein in her horror long enough to record a short video of the snake, which now has hundreds of views on Facebook.

She told the Newcastle Herald that while her one-year-old son was terrified, her five-year-old excitedly wanted to look up the snake in his book.

“You’re a lot calmer than I would have been. It makes my skin crawl just thinking about it,” her friend Kate Van Doesburg commented on Facebook.

“I literally would have died,” agreed Jayde Maree.

“OMG! I heard about this on the radio this afternoon. Just shows how bad this summer is going to be,” said Michelle Earl.

This brown snake was banging on the door of a NSW home. Picture: FacebookSource:Facebook

Last month, snake catcher Lockie Gilding told news.com.au the best thing to do if you spot a reptile in your yard it to leave it alone.

He has seven years of snake-catching experience, and said he only relocates reptiles if there is a high risk to people or pets.

“We only relocate if people are really worried about them,” he said.

“There are a lot of snakes in our area, most people live alongside them and have no idea they’re there. Leave it alone, give it time and they’ll move along on their own.

“For the most part you’re pretty right leaving them to their own devices, but if you’re worried about it absolutely call a snake catcher.”

While Mrs Johnson’s visitor was extremely venomous, Mr Gilding said people often panic about relatively safe snakes.

“Even when we do ID them as harmless for people, a lot of them still want them relocated. It’s just a fear-based thing that a lot of people don’t understand.

“They’re fine to have around if you give them space.”

[email protected]

Book in to one of our first aid sessions in Dickson for a guaranteed good day which includes a nationally recognised certificate. www.canberrafirstaid.com

First Aid Course in Canberra. Hopefully this passes quickly and we can all get better. Book in to first aid course in Canberra now.

A “DOUBLE whammy” of the horror flu outbreak and an early start to hayfever season has left tens of thousands of people short of breath, coughing and spluttering.

Flu season more ‘severe this year’

A “DOUBLE whammy” of the horror flu outbreak and an early start to hayfever season has left tens of thousands of people short of breath, coughing and spluttering.

Hay fever sufferers who have been hit early are now being warned to ensure their “survival plans” are in place, given the peak of the season is still weeks away.

And influenza continues to spread, with more than 9600 people diagnosed in NSW in the past week alone. Asthma Australia chief executive Michele­ Goldman said that people were being hit by a “double whammy” of influenza and hay fever. About 80 per cent of asthma sufferers also have hay fever.

It’s been a shocker of a fly season — coupled with regular hay fever, leaving many coughing and spluttering.Source:News Corp Australia

“If both (flu) virus and pollens­ are a problem for you than this is going to be a pretty miserable time of the year, especially­ with the extension of the flu season,” Ms Goldman said.

Hay fever seriously irritates people’s noses, throats, eyes and ears while asthma and influenza attack their lungs. In serious cases influenza can infects the heart or brain and become deadly.

Allergy & Anaphylaxis Australia president Maria Said said the hay fever season started early in the last weeks of August. “We have had people already complaining about severe hay fever,” she said.

The “double whammy” of hay fever and flu is a dangerous combo.Source:Supplied

More than three million Australians suffer from hay fever and more than 137,566 people have been diagnosed with influenza in the current outbreak — more than half in NSW, where nearly 70,000 people have been sick during the worst flu season on record.

“There are still people coming­ down with the flu and there are people who have got terrible hay fever — especially with the wind we’ve had in recent weeks their hay fever is just out of control,” Ms Said said.

More than three million Australians suffer from hay fever and more than 137,566 people have been diagnosed with influenza in the latest flu outbreak.Source:News Corp Australia

She said that hay fever was a debilitating allergic reaction which can persist for weeks and in severe cases cause chest tightness and breathing difficulties. “You are thinking through a fog — it does affect your quality of life, your sleep, you don’t feel like socialising, you feel pretty awful and are constantly blowing your nose to clear your head,” she said.

Campbelltown Hospital immunology­ and allergy unit head Dr Connie Katelaris warned hay fever season would worsen as grass pollen increases over coming weeks.

“We haven’t hit the peak of the grass pollen, which is when majority of people are affected,” she said. “If people are starting now it just primes them and they will be worse as the season progresses.”

The hay fever season typical starts as temperatures ramp up and grasses flower in late September­, with the peak in late October. Dr Katelaris warned the season may have a “long tail” with late flowering extending the season.

Dr Katelaris runs the state’s only pollen monitoring system which sends out daily warnings on the levels and type of pollen sufferers can expect.

She said while this season won’t be as bad as 2016, sufferers should not ignore any symptoms: “When not handled well you end up in difficult problems if we have an unusual or rare weather event.”

Originally published as Influenza and hayfever ‘double whammy’