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SICK PARADE - Handbook with bite
By Hugh McKenzie
Volume 49, No. 16, September 06, 2007 |
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SNAKE CHARMER: FLGOFF Skye Smith gets acquainted with a python while in Townsville recently for Exercise Talisman Saber.
Photo by LACW Melina Mancuso |
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Air Defence Centre for Occupational Health (DCOH) has published a manual to better inform ADF personnel about the nation’s venomous creatures and poisonous plants.
Bruce Billson, Minister Assisting the Defence Minister, launched the Defence Manual of Envenomation and Poisoning – Australian Fauna and Flora in Canberra on August 15.
Mr Billson said ADF personnel “go places many other people don’t [and] operate in environments that present mysteries and challenges, and are often inherently dangerous”.
“Being bitten by a venomous snake or a spider, brushing against vegetation that causes great irritation, being stung by wasps or ants or jellyfish; these are all hazards that can lead to very serious consequences,” he said. “We need to know how to deal with an event that places the health of our people at risk; this is what is so important about this publication.”
The manual, which contains the latest medical and scientific advice, is a reference handbook for medical officers, nurses, medics, Defence health centres and key personnel in environmental health, preventive medicine, health support and health planning.
Mr Billson said it would enable personnel to identify hazards and conduct risk assessments, and then manage those risks and work with commanders to minimise or eliminate them.
Head Defence Health Services AVM Tony Austin said that, in his experience, snakebite was a problem in Australia’s northern training areas. “As a clinician I have been in a situation where for want of robust, valid academic information it has been difficult to manage my patients,” AVM Austin said. “Being able to have definitive documents which are easily accessible takes us a long way.”
Until now there has not been a publication which brings together this information in a complete form for the ADF.
The manual is the culmination of 15 years of research by the author, LTCOL Geoff Newman-Martin. His work at DCOH involves both toxicology – the science of poisons – and toxinology – the study of biological toxins, such as snake venoms.
At the launch, Mr Billson remarked that venomous creatures probably weren’t much of a worry to personnel on an aircraft. CDF ACM Angus Houston replied: “I have to tell you that having a spider crawl from inside your helmet down the outside of your visor while you are flying isn’t fun.”
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A social tragedy
In the lead-up to World Suicide Prevention Day on September 10, MAJ Kelly Gall, Directorate of Mental Health, explains about suicide’s effects. |
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Suicide is often thought of as an individual issue, an individual act, yet the links we have to others ensure the impact extends to friends, family and colleagues.
For those close to those who suicide, the act often leaves a legacy. Emotional reactions can range from anger, resentment, confusion, remorse, apathy and guilt to feelings that things have been left unresolved. These feelings can be directed at the person who committed suicide, towards themselves, or towards others within the member’s social networks and may affect current and future relationships.
A suicide can change the way people act towards a friend, family member or acquaintance in need, making them more caring or even causing them to back away. A suicide can lead a supervisor to be overly cautious in managing people with mental health conditions.
Even when we think that a suicide does not affect us, it often does. Seeing how others react to a suicide of a person we don’t know can influence our reactions to suicides in the future, our attitudes towards mental illness, or our inclination to seek help for mental health problems.
We are almost always unable to fully appreciate what the person who suicided was experiencing, and unable to justify their course of action. When we don’t understand others, we find it difficult to identify with them and tend to focus on ways in which we are not alike.
We each play a role in creating our social environment and, although it might not be our instinctive reaction, we can choose to focus on the ways in which we are all alike. We each can choose not to perpetuate or listen to rumours and gossip about members who may not be coping so well. We can choose to make the ADF an environment where people are encouraged to seek help for mental health concerns, negative life events and problematic relationships.
Raising awareness of suicide and mental health issues is a good first step. We all have to sit through mental health training, so use this time to think about how what is discussed relates to you, your partner, your family, your friends and your workmates. Think about how you would like these people to be treated when they are not coping well.
The ADF Suicide Prevention Program offers two further courses specific to suicide: the Keep Your Mates Safe – Suicide Prevention Training (KYMS-SPT) is a two-hour course for all unit members that aims to provide personnel with a greater ability to identify when someone is at risk and to refer them to first aid and health care. Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) is the next level of training and is aimed at those in supervisory or leadership roles, members of the health services and chaplains. ASIST teaches people how to identify those at risk and provide an initial “first aid” response. To be panelled on these courses, apply through your chain of command.
| WHERE TO GET HELP |
| Who can you contact when you or a workmate needs help? Your chain of command, your local medical or psychology personnel or your chaplain can all help to link people with appropriate support. The All-Hours-Support Line operates 24/7 and is able to help you link with appropriate support in your location. Phone 1800 628 036 (free call within Australia) or (02) 9425 3878 (outside Australia). |
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Something to get your teeth into
By Graham Davis |
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Defence Health is keen to know how many teeth you have in your mouth.
By having these details they can stamp out errors or fraud when it comes to payments for dental treatment. Defence Health recently introduced a new security measure where dental treatment taken place on individual teeth required tooth numbers to be recorded on all dental accounts.
“Identifying errors and fraudulent claims help us to offer affordable premiums and meaningful benefits,” Defence Health says, “so next time you see your dentist, please ensure your tooth numbers, if relevant, have been included on the invoice/receipt.” |
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