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Welcome to the 10th issue of the HealthInsite Newsletter.
Many thanks to Jill for taking care of the last newsletter. It's good to be back at my old desk after a few weeks working on another project.
My favourite time of the year has finally arrived! Autumn in Canberra is beautiful with clear, crisp mornings, a touch of frost and mild days. Hot air balloons drift across the sky and kangaroos graze on the parched hills beside the main roads. In the suburbs the leaves turn through every possible colour - yellow, gold, red, russet and purple before they finally add their weight to the thick carpet beneath bare branches. Have I gone too far? Probably!
This month we'll talk about the coughs and colds, viruses and infections that seem to turn up as the temperature drops. We'll also cover resources dealing specifically with men's health.
By the way you may be interested to know that HealthInsite is becoming more popular by the day. We now have around 10,000 visitors per day coming to look at the site. Most are from Australia but we also have users from the US, UK, Canada, New Zealand, Thailand, the Netherlands and lots of other places. Thanks for all your support. If you think HealthInsite might be useful to someone you know, feel free to pass this newletter on to them - they might like to subscribe or perhaps use us to find out more about a health problem.
As always, please feel free to also let us know if you have any problems or if you have any suggestions for future editions by sending an email to
mailto:healthinsite.feedback@health.gov.au
I N THIS ISSUE Volume 1, Issue 10
Men's Health -
Although much of the information available through HealthInsite is based on particular topics or conditions, we have also developed topic pages covering the specific needs of different population groups. The Men's Health topic page arranges information that is likely to be of particular benefit to men including:
The Men's Health Topic Page
http://www.healthinsite.gov.au/topics/Men_s_Health
Male Infertility
http://www.healthinsite.gov.au/topics/Male_Infertility
Mental Health of Men
http://www.healthinsite.gov.au/topics/Mental_Health_of_Men
Prostate Cancer
http://www.healthinsite.gov.au/topics/Prostate_Cancer
Sexual Health for Men
http://www.healthinsite.gov.au/topics/Sexual_Health_for_Men
Information Partners that deal with issues particularly relevant to men include:
Andrology Australia
http://www.andrologyaustralia.org/default.asp
Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations
http://www.afao.org.au
Australian Prostate Cancer Collaboration
http://www.prostatehealth.org.au/index.html
Department of Veterans' Affairs
http://www.dva.gov.au/
Haemophilia Foundation Australia
http://www.haemophilia.org.au/
Viruses and Bacterial Infections
At this time of year there are lots of coughs and colds about. There has also been lots of media coverage of the dangers of the latest flu virus coming to our shores and the need for flu vaccinations for particular members of the community.
We've also seen lots of recent media coverage and warnings about the dangers of some of the more serious viruses like meningococcal and pneumococcal. But what is the difference between a bacterial infection and a viral infection and why won't the doctor prescribe antibiotics anymore? What's the difference between a common cold and the flu? What about the other viruses that you hear about on TV?
It can all be very confusing.
For a very straightforward explanation of the differences between viruses and bacterial infections and the role of antibiotics, you may like to visit the Child and Youth Health (South Australia) page that discusses Antibiotics. It can be found at:
http://www.cyh.com/cyh/parentopics/usr_index0.stm?topic_id=1718
HealthInsite has also developed a number of topic pages that might help to sort out the confusion. I've attached a small selection below but if you don't find what you're interested in, just type key words into the search box.
Vaccine Preventable Diseases
http://www.healthinsite.gov.au/topics/Immunisation_and_Vaccine_Preventable_Diseases
The Common Cold
http://www.healthinsite.gov.au/topics/Common_Cold
Respiratory Tract Infections
http://www.healthinsite.gov.au/topics/Respiratory_Tract_Infections
Croup
http://www.healthinsite.gov.au/topics/Croup
Influenza
http://www.healthinsite.gov.au/topics/Influenza>
Meningitis and Meningococcal Infections
http://www.healthinsite.gov.au/topics/Meningitis_and_Meningococcal_Infections
Pneumococcal Disease
http://www.healthinsite.gov.au/topics/Pneumococcal_Disease
Pneumonia
http://www.healthinsite.gov.au/topics/Pneumonia
Viral Infections
http://www.healthinsite.gov.au/topics/Viral_Infections
Hepatitis
http://www.healthinsite.gov.au/topics/Hepatitis
Your Feedback - Am I normal?
We sometimes receive emails from people asking for advice of a personal nature. Some of these are from young people wanting information and reassurance about sexual issues. In most cases they are worried about something that they are too embarrassed to discuss with a family member or health professional. Sending an email seems to be a less confronting way of finding answers to their questions. Of course, it's important that queries are treated sensitively and with absolute confidentiality.
Although we are unable to provide medical advice, we point them towards HealthInsite resources that might address their questions and suggest other people or organisations who may be able to address their concerns.
In Brief
Tobacco and Poverty - A Vicious Circle
WORLD NO TOBACCO DAY
31 May 2004
for more information go to:
http://www.who.int/tobacco/areas/communications/events/wntd/2004/en/
Partner Spotlight - Consumer Participation
Have you ever wondered how you might be able to make a difference to the healthcare system? Lots of ordinary people play a very important and active role as consumer representatives on various committees or in health related organisations.
This month the partner spotlight falls on the National Resource Centre for Consumer Participation in Health which provides a range of resources to assist organisations to include consumer participation in all aspects of healthcare delivery. The Resource Centre is a:
- Clearinghouse for information on consumer feedback and participation methodologies. They distribute free publications (in print and on the website), maintain a library of resources and provide an online searchable catalogue
- Centre of Excellence where people can seek advice and assistance to develop, implement and evaluate consumer participation methods and models. They analyse strategies and approaches and operate a free advice service by telephone (1800 625 619) and email nrccph@latrobe.edu.au
- Centre for Research and Special Projects on consumer participation topics.
This may also be a good place for you to start to find out how you might be able to become involved. The Resource Centre has published The Little Purple Book of Community Rep-ing. This guide provides lots of important information in a humorous way - a great resource for anyone interested in becoming involved.
The Little Purple Book of Community Rep-ing can be found at:
http://www.participateinhealth.org.au/clearinghouse/docs/HandBook.pdf
The Resource Centre for Consumer Participation in Health can be found at:
http://www.participateinhealth.org.au/
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=13
Hot Tip - Searching for info in other languages
Did you know that you can limit your HealthInsite searches to information in other languages? Some of HealthInsite's partners publish their information in languages other than English, especially for major health topics.
Most of our users use the Quick Search option. This will give you a full list of all resources that are relevant to your search term. For example, if you type 'asthma' (without quotes) into the search box and click the quicksearch button, you would find 2371 items on asthma.
But if you only wanted resources about asthma in a particular language it is possible to refine your search by clicking on refine search (in maroon) on the search results page.
A refined search will give you the option of specifying the particular language that you require. By selecting a language from the drop down menu, you will be able to find resources about asthma in the required language if we have any in the database.
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You might also like to try using the language search option in the Power Search page. Power search allows you to conduct more complex searches by specifying some additional search criteria including language. The Power Search button is located underneath the Quick Search button on the right side of your screen.
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For example, to see what information HealthInsite links to about prostate cancer in Greek, you would first click on the Power Search button and type 'prostate cancer' (without the quotes) in the Power Search text box.
Then you would select 'Greek' from the languages list and then click on 'Submit Search'.This will give you all the resources on prostate cancer written in Greek.
In this case the HealthInsite database has only 1 search result written in Greek. It discusses treatment options for prostate cancer and is provided by the Multicultural Health Communication Service (NSW).
I hope this is helpful. Of course if you have any difficulties please let us know and we'll do our best to help you out. Just send an email to:
mailto:healthinsite.feedback@health.gov.au
What's on next month?
Next time I thought we might take a look at mental health resources and give you some more tips on getting the most out of Quick Search and Power Search. If you have any suggestions for future editions, please let us know
That's it for now. Have a great month...
from all of us at HealthInsite.
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