Some of the practice team at Brunswick Heads: Ange Heyning, Janine Slater and Marc Heyning.





National Heart Week 2006: April 30 – May 5

The experience of being a Collaborative practice has been challenging, uplifting and motivational. Working with Collaborative program manager, Sandi Hill, our “Mother Mentor”, we’ve been encouraged to question what we do and think outside the box. We believe that anything is possible if you devise a PSDA (Plan Study Do Act)! We always have “happy hearts” when Sandi is around.

As a result of team brainstorming and lots of enthusiasm, the Brunswick Heads Medical Centre will raise awareness of Heart Week in a fun, patient based and community based way. Activities will be conducted outside the confines of our practice walls. Clinicians will work with all other staff to promote measured improvement in our CHD patients, whilst encouraging patients to take more control of their disease management.

This activity is team based: all our staff will be involved. We aim to promote patient self management and the simple pleasures of living a healthier lifestyle. The Collaborative program has given us the confidence to form a partnership with the community around us and to strive constantly to deliver the highest standards of health care, whilst actively promoting good health to our patients. The enthusiasm of our practice principal, Dr Marc Heyning has been exceptional and his encouragement to try something different essential. Sandi Hill is awesome. She should be declared a national treasure!

Janine Slater is the office manager at the Brunswick Heads Medical Centre, one of the Collaboratives Wave 2 practices.

The Brunswick Heads Medical Centre National Heart Week 2006 Activities Plan.
It might be fun to use some of these ideas in your own practice during Heart Week.

MONDAY: Patients will be given the opportunity to have their blood pressure checked. There will be two lucky door prizes. For the patient, a T-shirt printed with “Ask me about my healthy heart”. For the staff member a T-shirt printed with “A collaborator and proud of it”.

TUESDAY: Three Pilates classes will be offered on the day. These will be gentle exercises classes. We might all go out for a de-stress session.

WEDNESDAY: Two gentle walking sessions. One in the morning, one in the afternoon. This will also include a trip to the local supermarket where healthy eating will be discussed. A Mullumbimby based CHEGS trained community nurse will be accompanying us and providing healthy choices, healthier options, hints and foods to watch out for.

THURSDAY: We will invite our ‘at risk’ CHD patients to come in for an appointment with our nurse for a review of their condition and advice on better self management. Each patient will be given a small gift to encourage them and to remember Heart Week 2006.

FRIDAY: 3PM “Mocktail” Party. Nibbles and drinks to say thank you to our sponsors, patients and the wider community. Food will be ‘heart smart’. The message will be given that you do not need alcohol to have a good time and that you can have a “happy and healthy heart” without it.

A note from Sandi Hill, Collabs program manager
It’s great to see practices focusing on promoting healthy lifestyles and on patients becoming more active co-managers of their health. The Lifescripts initiative is timely as it fits neatly into the Collaborative focus on the changing general practice environment.

Check out the photo gallery in the next GPSpeak to see how much fun the Brunswick team had. If you are running any activities in your practice, we would love to hear from you. So get your cameras out and submit your photos to Katherine at media@nrdgp.org.au for GPSpeak and the NRDGP website’s photo galleries.

Is Heart Week coming up too soon to organise yourselves? What about doing something in your practice during other health weeks, such as:
World No Tobacco Day: May 31
Men’s Health Week: June 12-17
Diabetes Week: July 10-16
Family Doctor Week: July 17-23
Breastfeeding Week: July 31-Aug 6
Healthy Bones Week: August 7-13
Asthma Week: September 1-7