General

Local training to help Tasmanian mental health advocates find their voice

For the lucky ones among us, being 21 means enjoying the first flush of adulthood: moving out of home, getting a job, studying, and exploring the world. For Dr Ivan Zwart, the years from 21 to 35 were an ordeal. During that time, Ivan’s mother was diagnosed with a rare form of dementia and, in…

Taking a Safe Place on the road in Break O’Day

Question: How do you give members of a local community a safe place to chat when they’re scattered up and along Tasmania’s east coast? Answer: You put it on the road. The Safe Place Café is a mobile coffee van that travels to a different part of the Break O’Day region for two days each…

Helping Tasmanians find cancer early

Shortness of breath, blood in one’s urine, skin spots that have started to change shape — they’re things you may already know to look out for as potential early signs of cancer. Even so, building community knowledge about a wide range of early warning signs is critical to helping people seek out medical and treatment…

Tasmanian practice nurses share lessons from APNA Conference

This year, Primary Health Tasmania made six sponsorships of up to $2000 available to practices nurses from across the state to attend the Australian Primary Health Care Nurses Association‘s national conference in Adelaide. Ultimately, six practices nurses and one Health Care Homes practice nurse made the trip to South Australia – a professional opportunity that,…

How social groups help third-agers preserve their dignity and pride

“Before, a man would retire at 65, mow the lawn for a year and die,” Rowena MacKean says over a cuppa in the library of her Montagu Bay home. “Now, he lives until 95. It’s so new, to live so long.” How to live well in one’s third age — that is, the period when…