HealthInsite Newsletter
 IN THIS ISSUE Volume 3, Issue 5
Editorial
Hello and welcome to another edition of our HealthInsite newsletter. This month the newsletter passed another major milestone, with over 2,000 people now subscribing! We’d like to extend an especially warm welcome to our newest subscribers and hope that you’ll find our newsletters a source of useful as well as topical information. Don’t forget that you can access all the previous editions of the Newsletter on the site by following the link from our homepage.
The Review of HealthInsite that I mentioned last month is now well underway and we are excited by the ideas that are being generated through this process that will undoubtedly improve our ability to meet your information needs. We would especially like to thank all of our readers who generously contributed their time and experience to this Review – your comments are greatly appreciated and will form a critical part of the HealthInsite picture.
It's never to late to provide feedback on our services, so if you have any comments, questions or general remarks on how we are going, email us at:
healthinsite.feedback@health.gov.au
As we become older we are greater risk of new challenges to our health. In this edition of the Newsletter, we will be looking at the topic of how to maintain a healthy and active lifestyle into our later years. We’ll also be looking at the services that are available that can help us live a full and more comfortable life.
On a personal note, this will be my last Newsletter after almost three years. I'll be moving on to another job and will leave the Newsletter in the capable hands of the HealthInsite team. I'm sure the Newsletter will go from strength to strength.
Thank you for all your support, suggestions, compliments and feedback. Best wishes, Denise
Healthy Ageing
We all look forward to retirement, or so we say. Even though we are likely to live longer than our grandparents did, we expect to have reasonable quality of life so that we can enjoy our well-earned break from the workforce. However, the later years can often be marred by chronic health conditions, such as osteoporosis, that take away from our enjoyment of life. Many of these health conditions can be a result of lifestyle risks, such as lack of exercise and there are things that we can do to reduce some of our risk factors. HealthInsite has a number of resources that can help you find out how you can enjoy physical and emotional well-being as you age.
You can also browse for more information on the topic of healthy ageing at the Australia Government’s Seniors Portal at http://www.seniors.gov.au
Ageing
http://www.healthinsite.gov.au/topics/Ageing
Eating Well for Older People
http://www.healthinsite.gov.au/topics/Eating_Well_for_Older_People
Exercise for Older People
http://www.healthinsite.gov.au/topics/Exercise_for_Older_People
Falls Prevention
http://www.healthinsite.gov.au/topics/Falls_Prevention
Mental Health of Older People
http://www.healthinsite.gov.au/topics/Mental_Health_of_Older_People
Sex in Later Year
http://www.healthinsite.gov.au/topics/Sex_in_Later_Years
Ageing well
http://www.jeanhailes.org.au/issues/ls_ageing_well.htm
Foot health and ageing
http://www.mydr.com.au/default.asp?article=2388
Getting older no longer an excuse for health problems
http://mhcs.health.nsw.gov.au/health-public-affairs/mhcs/publications/3330.html
Food for the young at heart
http://www.health.qld.gov.au/brochure/young_heart.asp
Fitness for the over 50s
http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Fitness_for_the_over_50s
Services for Seniors
Seniors in our community have many different types of needs, and so there are a wide range of services available to choose from. Some of us may just require a little help to continue living in our own home, whereas others may need round-the-clock care in an accredited aged care facility. Carers of older Australians also need help, and there are a broad range of services aimed specifically at supporting carers in their role. You might find some of the following HealthInsite information resources on aged care services useful.
Aged Care Services
http://www.healthinsite.gov.au/topics/Aged_Care_Services
Aged Care Assessment Teams
http://www.healthinsite.gov.au/topics/Aged_Care_Assessment_Teams
Aged Care Licensing and Accreditation
http://www.healthinsite.gov.au/topics/Aged_Care_Licensing_and_Accreditation
Home and Community Care for Older People
http://www.healthinsite.gov.au/topics/Home_and_Community_Care_for_Older_People
Residential Care for Older People
http://www.healthinsite.gov.au/topics/Residential_Care_for_Older_People
Respite Care
http://www.healthinsite.gov.au/topics/Respite_Care
Aged care advocacy
http://www.health.gov.au/internet/wcms/publishing.nsf/Content/ageing-publicat-agedadv.htm
Services for rural older Australians
http://www.health.gov.au/internet/wcms/Publishing.nsf/Content/ruralhealth-services-aged.htm
Home and Community Care – contacts
http://www.health.gov.au/internet/wcms/Publishing.nsf/Content/hacc-contact.htm
Residential care services
http://www.health.gov.au/internet/wcms/publishing.nsf/Content/ageing-rescare-index.htm
Your Feedback - Organ Donation
A number of our readers have emailed us wanting to know more about how they can donate their organs. A second chance at life is one of the greatest gifts that we can give to another person. The Australian Organ Donor Register is a way for people to formally register their wish to donate organs after they die. For more information on this topic, please visit Medicare Australia’s webpage and click on the Organ Donor Register link at the top of the page:
http://www.medicareaustralia.gov.au/
Hot off the Press – 5 New Information Partners
We are very excited that the following information partners have just this week joined our HealthInsite family. We will be providing more information about each of these organisations in our next Newsletter and look forward to exploring their online resources. We warmly welcome:
As you probably already know, all of our Information Partners have to go through a very rigorous quality assurance process before they are finally assessed by our independent Editorial Board. If you would like to know a bit more about the process, all the details are available at:
http://www.healthinsite.gov.au/content/internal/page.cfm?ObjID=000DC102-07E1-1D2D-81CF83032BFA006D
If you are associated with an organisation that could contribute to HealthInsite, one of the team would be happy to discuss the process with you. Alternatively, if you know of any organisations that you would like to recommend to us, we will be happy to contact them and invite them to submit an application. Let us know by sending an email to:
healthinsite.feedback@health.gov.au
Partner Spotlight -
Every month we will include a brief overview of one of our information partners. This month we look at Nutrition Australia.
http://www.nutritionaustralia.org/
With all the concern about Australia’s growing obesity problem, especially among young people, there has never been a better time to reassess our eating and exercise habits and to re-examine the nutritional value of the food we eat. While promises of quick, painless weight loss sound enticing, factual information about nutrition and lifestyle is critical to success.
Nutrition Australia is an independent non profit community based organisation with offices in all states and territories. It is Australia's peak community nutrition education body. As an independent body, it aims to provide scientifically based nutrition information to encourage all Australians to achieve good health through a balanced diet and physical activity. Among its resources, the website provides healthy recipes, several weeklong balanced menu plans, lots of ideas for healthy snacks and information about making healthy eating fun.
Latest Resources
The HealthInsite team regularly adds new items to the database including
new information partners, new topic pages and news items. You can
find a list of new and updated material added to the database in the
past month at:
http://www.healthinsite.gov.au/search/newsletter_search.cfm?id=30
Hot Tip - Languages Other Than English
A number of our Information Partners produce material in languages other than English and we are always interested in expanding the number and type of these resources. You can search for material in languages other than English in the HealthInsite database by using the 'languages' search option in our Advanced Search page. Or you can click on ‘Refine Search’ on your search results page and select the non-English resource option. For more information go to our topic page at:
http://www.healthinsite.gov.au/topics/Languages_Other_Than_English
Two of our partner sites are particularly worth noting.
NSW Multicultural Health Communication Service (Multicultural Communication) provides information and services to assist health professionals to communicate with non English speaking communities throughout New South Wales. Partnership with HealthInsite means that these resourses are available beyond the bounds of NSW. You can go directly to their website at:
http://mhcs.health.nsw.gov.au/
The Victorian government's Health Translations Directory is another great source of resources available in languages other than English. This directory links to online multilingual health resources from government departments, peak health bodies, hospitals, community health centres and welfare agencies. Health practitioners who work with culturally and linguistically diverse communities can use this directory to find reliable translated health information. You can search by topic, by language, or both. Your search results will include an English summary of the information, a link to a complete English language version and a link to information in the language you requested. You can go directly to their website at:
http://www.healthtranslations.vic.gov.au/
What's on next month?
Next month we'll be looking at the very popular topic of asthma - what it is, how it's treated and how to live a healthy and active lifestyle with asthma.
That's it for now,
from all of us at HealthInsite.
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