It’s alarming that around 200,000 Australian children aged between 0 and 14 are now living with myopia. Here are some easy ways for parents and caregivers to be more proactive about their child’s eye health in 2024.

Make a date with your optometrist

Early detection is the cornerstone of maintaining good eye health in children.

“Regular eye examinations can uncover conditions such as hyperopia (long-sightedness), astigmatism and eye movement & co-ordination issues, which, if left untreated, may impact a child’s academic performance and overall wellbeing.”

Prioritise green over screen

While technology does play a significant role in the realms of education and entertainment, for the sake of children’s eyesight it’s essential to balance screen time with outdoor activities.

Encourage a balanced diet

Foods like broccoli, oranges, mangos, spinach, carrots, kiwi fruit, strawberries and oil-rich fish like salmon and tuna provide essential nutrients like lutein, zinc, vitamin A, C and E as well as omega-3 fatty acids which all help to boost eye health.

Props for protective eyewear

In Australia, it has been estimated that sports-related eye injuries make up 11% of all paediatric eye injuries with boys twice as likely to sustain a significant eye injury compared to girls.

“Children’s eyes, with their wider pupils and clearer lenses than adults, are particularly susceptible to UV radiation especially before the age of two. By ages nine to 11, approximately 30 percent of young people exhibit UV damage, and by the age of 15, one in three will have developed pterygium or pinguecula.”

Be vigilant about any changes to vision

“Keep an eye out for signs such as squinting, excessive blinking, frequent eye rubbing or “knuckling”, complaining of headaches or eye discomfort or any noticeable changes in their academic performance, especially literacy skills, interest in reading and ability to concentrate on schoolwork generally.”

Federal Member for Riverina Michael McCormack has expressed serious concerns for the health welfare of regional, rural and remote Australians after the Minister for Health, Mark Butler, said Australians should just “ring around” to find a bulk-billing GP in their area.

It comes after the Minister moved the goalposts regarding Distribution Priority Areas for GPs – bringing Newcastle, Wollongong and some suburbs of Sydney into the scheme therefore stripping doctors from the regions – forcing of community pharmacies to pick up the tab for its 60-day medicine dispensing policy – putting services in regional communities under threat.

“The Health Minister, through his own words, has shown a complete disdain of those who live, work and pay taxes in regional, rural and remote Australia,” Mr McCormack said.

“This is cold comfort for those in the Central West who may only have access to one GP or have to travel many kilometres to even see a doctor, let alone have the luxury of choice.

“It is clear the Health Minister is being directed by the Australian Medical Association along with his fellow Labor Ministers who are led by the nose by their union puppet masters.

Western NSW Local Health District (WNSWLHD) is reminding people to be cautious and have a plan to beat the heat during extreme temperatures forecast across the region for the rest of the week and into the weekend. 

Priscilla Stanley, WNSWLHD Public Health Director, said temperatures are expect to reach upward of, and in some areas above, 40 degrees Celsius across the District in the coming days. 

Ms Stanley urged people to understand how heat can affect their health and take precautions, particularly those at greater risk like older people, people with existing medical conditions, pregnant women, babies and young people, outdoor workers and socially-isolated people. 

“This summer is predicted to be very hot. For a lot of our District this appears to be one of the first real tastes of that extreme weather, so I encourage everyone to take the risk of heat-related illness seriously,” Ms Stanley said. 

“Heat can impact anyone and it puts a lot of stress on the body. It causes dehydration, heat stroke and heat exhaustion. These conditions can cause serious illness, hospital admission or even death and extreme heat can make underlying health conditions worse.” 

AGED CARE residents in rural and remote New South Wales will be given the gift of critical COVID-19 vaccinations this Christmas, as figures show just 38% of aged care residents have received a booster shot. 

Life Pharmacy Group (LPG) Pharmacists from Forbes, Parkes, Dubbo, and Bathurst are travelling across the state to deliver, and administer, hundreds of vaccinations to patients in residential aged care facilities. 

The LPG team will visit sites in Balranald, Bourke, Cobar, Condobolin, Gulgong, Kandos, Mudgee, Orange, Parkes, Rylstone, Wellington, and Yeoval, from 5 December travelling by car and aircraft to reach the remote areas. 

It comes as an eighth COVID wave grips NSW, threatening holiday festivities for a third year. 

“We’re going to centres which, quite often, may not have a GP or pharmacy in those towns so our stores are offering outreach services to assist the vulnerable patients in those communities that otherwise don’t have a health professional to assist with vaccinations,” Owner, and Pharmacist in Charge of Orana Mall Pharmacy Dubbo, Lisa Gibson said. 

“Reduced vaccination rates are part of the increase in cases, which means people’s immunity is wearing off from those boosters that most of us have had, either earlier in the year or in previous years. As people come together more frequently towards Christmas and new year, the potential for cluster outbreaks increases.” 

The Australia Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) has recommended all adults aged 75 years and older, should receive an additional COVID-19 booster vaccine dose if six months have passed since their last dose[2]. 

In a similar initiative in June of this year, the LPG team delivered more than 600 vaccines to aged care residents in remote locations across NSW. 

Lifeline and Beyond Blue are linking up under a new partnership to make it easier and more efficient for people to find the support that best suits them. 

Community demand for mental health and crisis support rises and resources become increasingly tight, Lifeline and Beyond Blue have designed their new strategic directions to be complementary. 

Lifeline will continue to focus on supporting people in crisis and Beyond Blue will continue to focus on prevention and earlier intervention, supporting people at the first sign of struggle. 

Together, the organisations support millions of people a year with information, advice, online self-help and referrals via telephone, text, webchat and digital platforms. 

Beyond Blue Chair The Hon Julia Gillard AC said: “Australia’s mental health and suicide prevention systems are too often crisis-driven. People often only get support when they’re at breaking point. So Beyond Blue will continue its focus on supporting people early on – helping people to feel better sooner, to get well and to stay well.” 

Lifeline Chair Jacinta Munro said: “Lifeline will continue to focus on crisis support and suicide prevention, supporting Australians in times of crisis and equipping individuals and communities to be suicide safe.” 

“This partnership between Lifeline and Beyond Blue helps to deliver a more integrated system, with more clarity for help seekers, smoother transitions between services and a greater focus on holistic support.” 

Earlier this year, the organisations formalised a three-year collaboration agreement that will build on their long record of working together in operations and advocacy. This year, the Victorian Government engaged Lifeline and Beyond Blue to lead the first stage of a sectorwide co-design to deliver on a Victorian Royal Commission recommendation to create better referral pathways across the state’s helplines. 

Beyond Blue and Lifeline worked closely during the Black Saturday bushfires and the height of the pandemic, including by linking young people to Lifeline’s crisis text service from the Coronavirus Mental Wellbeing Support Service delivered by Beyond Blue. 

Now official, the partnership means Lifeline and Beyond Blue will be better placed to share resources and connect people with the information, advice and support that suits them best, regardless of where their journey begins. 

In the past four years alone, more than 400,000 people have used the app with more than 150,000 safety plans made.

Kerin Health was founded in 2016 by local Rachel Kerin, and currently employs in excess of 25 Allied Health professions, all of which are women. 

Rachel Kerin had a dream to provide a service to rural and remote communities that was a premium standard of healthcare. A dream to have a close knit, multidisciplinary team that truly cared about clients and community. And so she created Kerin Health. It started with Rachel, and one other Physio who took a chance on a small start-up, Jess (who is still with Kerin Health). 

Very quickly, it was clear to Rachel that there was a real need for more access to Allied Health care in the Central West. In no time at all, she started bringing on new members to the team as needs grew in the surrounding areas. 

Kerin Health provides exceptional health care services to the local Parkes and surrounding communities through services such as Physiotherapy, Counselling, Speech Pathology, Occupational Therapy, Early Intervention services, Women’s Health services and more. 

Rachel and the team are currently in the process of a major new building construction (due for completion in November 2023), which will expand their capacity to deliver services to the local community. This new, state of the art facility is the first of its kind in NSW. Some exciting components of this new build are an early learning sensory playground, sensory therapy clinic rooms, copious clinic room space, as well as a large pilates studio audio visual room which is available to hire to the local community. 

The new building will have three clinic rooms for hire to health professionals, “I’d love to get a psychologist here, I’d love to get a gynaecologist here, an obstetrician, so women don’t have to drive to Dubbo and Orange for their healthcare” said Rachel. 

The Heart Foundation has announced the awarding of $13.9 million to support 73 new, groundbreaking research projects that will leverage Australia’s scientific expertise to save more lives from cardiovascular disease. 

This year’s awarded projects will investigate some of the toughest and most insidious unsolved mysteries of cardiovascular disease (CVD), championing the cause for advanced prevention, treatment and management of heart disease, stroke and blood vessel disease. 

A full list of research projects is available online. 

Heart Foundation CEO David Lloyd said that the generosity of donors during the past 12 months had ensured the organisation could continue to help support vital cardiovascular research. 

More than four million Australians are living with a cardiovascular disease and nearly 44,000 deaths are attributed to one, with coronary heart disease continuing to be the leading single cause of disease and death in Australia — accounting for more than 17,300 deaths each year. 

Australian farmers are seeking mental health support at almost twice the rate they were seeking assistance last year, according to trusted rural charity, Rural Aid. 

In the past two months, Rural Aid counsellors have conducted 277 counselling sessions, a 95 per cent increase compared to the same period last year. 

Rural Aid’s counselling helpline is currently fielding an average of 13 calls each day from primary producers. 

Rural Aid’s Manager of Mental Health and Wellbeing, Myf Pitcher, said the range of topics that farmers are worried about has also recently widened. 

“Our farmers have moved from states of stress to states of desperation,” Myf said. 

Sheep and cattle farmer Ron Dooley said the Rural Aid counselling service helped him get through a difficult time after the Black Summer bushfires. 

“I had a bit of a mishap when I was fighting the front of the fire. I couldn’t see where I was going and I ran into a dam wall and stalled the tractor with the flames coming through the bottom of the tractor,” Ron said. 

“After talking with Darren from Rural Aid, he [helped me to make] some decisions on what to do when feeling like that, and it did help,” Ron said. 

Rural Aid counsellors catch up with their farmers where they’re most comfortable; whether it’s on farm, in town, or over the phone. 

Contact Rural Aid’s counselling intake line on 1300 175 594.