“I STARTED supporting Becky with her art eleven years ago. The first year we went to TAFE together and after that she worked with me in my studio. I could see that for Becky, art was a way of communicating, so I took over a mentoring role with her.

From an early age Becky’s mum taught her through the use of patterns. This is a process that involved putting words, numbers, colours, etc on the floor and Becky would crawl over them reading and learning as she went. The shapes and colours communicated to her even then. Becky’s Mum, one of the founding members of the Maleny Arts and Crafts Group enjoyed painting, so art was always around her. When Becky found she could paint and work with art, it was a way of decifering information and bringing it out again. “

Corrie has always been a career artist but at the same time has felt a need to commit to the broader community. She gained a Certificate IV in Disability and has worked with downs syndrome and cerebral palsy patients for 15 years. During that time Corrie has found that creativity has an important part to play in the disability sector because it offers a different approach to the way people learn.

“I believe that a lot of people with intellectual disabilities have a right brain approach to things. When I first met Becky, her way of getting information back out again was through her art. So we started using her painting as a way of learning. We started to tap into the other side of her brain that she needed.”

Sadly, Becky has other problems, particularly with her eyes. She has depth of field difficulties which make it difficult to diagnose. While this affects her art, it also impacts on the physical side of her life.

“When we started coming to gym Becky couldn’t even sit on a fitball because of a depth of field imbalance. But we started working with the trainers, Charmaine and April and now Becky gets on and off the fitball without any problem.

“One positive thing that Becky has had all of her life is her ability to say, I can do that or I will give that a go. I think that’s partly having lived in a family with six children and being treated as a normal child.

“In the gym Becky knows  that I am not just standing there to help her, because she can do it. I think you have to empower people to know that they can do it.

“April has been working with me on Becky’s programs and we are always targeting different things. At the moment it is Becky’s balance because her eyesight has declined considerably over the past two years. So exercises like balancing on the fitball and stepping up and stepping down are important. And with April, we have implemented a program that she can do at home too. It helps to give her confidence right now when her eyesight is not as reliable as it has been.

While care for the intellectually disabled is clearly demanding, the long relationship between Corrie and Becky has been sustained through a connection with art.

“We’ve gone all around the country doing workshops together,” says Corrie. “Becky goes into joint exhibitions and she has her own exhibitions. I am constantly surprised at the power of her art to communicate despite her intellectual disability.”

Maleny Community Gym trainers are experienced in tailoring programs for the elderly and disabled. Tel: 5429 6911

This is Stephen’s summary of key conclusions from the discussion.

eHealth panelists from left: Dr Richard Ashby, Medical Director, PA Hospital, Brisbane,Nigel Milan, CEO Royal Flying Doctor Service, Rosemary Huxtable, Dep. Sec. Dept of Health & Ageing, Kate Gunn, Director Balance Healthcare, Stephen Alexander, Strategic Industry Advisor (facilitator)

LEADING UP TO the recent federal election, both Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott promised more money to bring the health service into line with the rapidly expanding demands on the system. They both wanted to reassure voters that all is well, despite the ageing population and growth in chronic disease across all age groups.

The report from our panel discussion suggests that this promise of delivering a sustainable health service for us all is actually unachievable.

My role as facilitator was to tap into the experiences of this leadership group to see if we could get some agreement on what actually works from a patient perspective, and where to best spend the limited money available.

We saw the challenge as alternatives – either reducing the damage that the health system does to patients or identify evidence that demonstrates a tangible value in acute circumstances, managing chronic disease or generating more wellness.

It is clear that an affordable efficient health service needs to be interconnected in order to deliver what is referred to as a “continuum of care”.

Take, for example, the annual diabetes check up where coordination between the various caregivers, medical testing and hospitals are so broken that patients and their information gets lost in the system.

Early in 2010, Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd admitted that over 30% of hospital beds in Australia are filled up with patients who are direct casualties of the broken system of managing diabetes.

A recent examination in a Queensland region supported this finding and identified that 100% of GP referrals to hospitals had to be duplicated along with the medical testing because the information did not follow the patient. This also occurred in 40% of the referrals to the average of five specialists per patient per year is costing the Medicare system millions of wasted dollars.

Any proposed solution must also take into account the global trends. These include: healthcare costs going up;  demand for services also going up; people’s expectations are going up; there is no more money; there is at best limited success from the large information projects; there is a growing shift towards community or home care rather than hospital; and finally, the whole health system will have to migrate towards a patient-centric model rather than the current mix of administration and clinician- oriented service.

The Australian Treasury has announced that on current projections (which does not include the cost of new treatments), state governments will spend over 100% of their entire revenues by 2040?. No mention was made of when the tipping point would occur; where the rationing of health services would have to be introduced.

The general conclusions from our discussion were in line with those of the UK’s Sir Muir Gray, Chief Knowledge Officer National Health Service (NHS), who says that funders should put the “squeeze” on health and not throw more money at it.

This would encourage innovation, make the health systems actually work, and find other ways to deliver services via latest technology. This is in keeping with the core trends of patient-led innovation, the harvesting of clinical evidence and the creation of common systems for service delivery rather than the ad hoc approach of today.

Our group made three basic recommendations: to ensure wise investment of limited dollars; to ensure a patient-centred, community / home delivery model, and to encourage greater self-responsibility and self-management of chronic disease.

So what would this mean to health outcomes on the Sunshine Coast? Well new high tech hospitals have to be built and old ones maintained just to meet the current demands. But this will not fix the current escalating problem of managing the ageing population or the explosion of chronic disease.

Kate Gunn of the Super Clinic in Cairns, indicated that the Medicare funding procedures were in part to blame as they encourage a high rate turnover rather than encouraging GP practices to manage patients through the system, and to act as honest brokers between the various specialists. Her experience was that when this can occur patients get better faster as they can coordinate with a wider range of specialists including allied health care workers.

Here on the Range, Maleny already exhibits a great deal of collaboration between the various medical fraternities including medical testing and pharmacy, plus allied health. But this works because of the level of trust between the various parties where informal communications can fill in for the lack of an electronic transaction system.

Because of its size it’s also possible to keep track of patients. However, as Maleny grows it will start to experience the problems facing the Sunshine Coast health region where if you, as a patient, do not know as much or even more about the system and your own particular condition, then you run the risk of becoming a victim of the very health system that is funded to protect you.

So, the new federal government will need to increase funding for electronic health records.

Dr Ashby of the Princess Alexandra Hospital said that we need to spend another$6.5b and not the $1.5b currently on offer just to make available the basic information about a patient to each party in the form of a health record.

An e-health record is a means to an end, where all the parties at a regional level can establish, and then publish agreed procedures for all the key chronic conditions, treating patients based on the evidence of what works from the collective experiences of the clinicians.

Greg Moran, organiser of the Australia eHealth conference, said that the cost is falling for the collecting, storing and sharing of trusted medical information in a secure manner, along with the informed consent of the patient.

Greg predicts that by next year many individual medical practitioners and patients will have information on their own phones and devices like iPAD’s and Blackberries, irrespective of government guidelines.

“The discussion should now move away from eHealth issues and challenges”, said Greg, “and more on how we can adapt and align these latest advances and adoption of technology to benefit the health system.”

Greg also said that we could learn a lot from the UK NHS. For example, the Sunshine Coast region could take advantage of initiatives like the UK’s Expert Patient Programme. This programme has helped chronic disease support groups across the country train up their own members to better manage their condition.

Despite the initial apprehension of some medical practitioners in the UK who supported a more paternal approach, the results demonstrated that these selfempowered patients with chronic diseases reduced their hospital visits by over 40%, their stays by over 35% and visits to the GP by over 40%.

The Sunshine Coast region could profitably explore what it can do to reduce the burden on the health system and at the same time improve wellness in our community.

But like the key question in our recent federal election, where is the leadership? Who will show the initiative and be sufficiently focused on the health consumer to overcome all the self interests that have so far kept a lid on these empowering initiatives?

WE ALL experience three changing states of consciousness. They are waking, dreaming and sleeping states. Each state of consciousness corresponds with a particular physiological state. In the sleep state the mind and body are at rest, in the dreaming state of consciousness the mind and body are rested but there is measurably more activity going on while in the waking state the mind is alert and the metabolic rate is at its most active. These states of consciousness are called relative states because they are always changing.

The state of transcendental consciousness experienced during Transcendental Meditation is different to the other 3 states. The mind is in a state of increased alertness and orderliness characterised by increased EEG coherence in the brain while the body is in a state of rest that is twice as deep as deep sleep.

With regular experience, this state of Transcendental Consciousness can be permanently maintained. This means that even when we are asleep, dreaming or awake we are always functioning from this state of rested metabolic rate and expanded awareness. While stress is characterised by increased metabolic rate and limited vision; we are just trying to get through the experience that is causing the stress with little regard to anything else; higher states of consciousness are characterised by the ability to maintain a calm body and expanded vision; the bigger picture is not lost even in the midst of outer turmoil.

An individual in higher states of consciousness becomes less attached to the circumstances of life and finds more contentment within. This is different to detachment which implies somehow withdrawing from life whereas non-attachment means that the individual is not attached to anything outside of themselves for their state of wellbeing. In contrast as the awareness develops so does the perception of the world around and with that an increasing state of blissfulness. Higher states of consciousness bring more enjoyment in life and appreciation of the world around.

As our consciousness evolves our physiology becomes more resistant to stress. Initially the effect of stress on our physiology is like a rock being struck on stone, it creates a permanent indentation but then as  consciousness evolves the physiology becomes like sand so the rock creates some impression but the effect of it soon passes. With further evolution the physiology becomes like water, the rock creates a splash but the water quickly resumes its form, then eventually the physiology is like air, the rock passes through but the air remains the same.

Wendy Rosenfeldt is a Maharishi Vedic Health Educator and Teacher of Transcendental Meditation.

There will be an Introductory talk on Transcendental Meditation on Wednesday the 18th of August at 1.00pm. Please book with Wendy on 5499 9580 or on mobile 0438 507 188 .

Wouldn’t it be great if your body knew how to tap into your fat reserves and use that fat for energy. Anybody can achieve this once you know how. First though, let’s see if you need to take this on.
Ask yourself;

• are you gaining weight and struggling to lose it
• do you feel tired both mentally and physically
• do you feel stressed or anxious more than you should
• do you crave certain foods such as sweets, caffeine or other carbohydrates
• after meals do you bloat and/or feel sleepy
• have you been diagnosed with elevated blood pressure or cholesterol.

If you fit into this symptom picture, there is a very good chance your body is running on the wrong kind of fuel and unless you learn how to reprogram your hormones to burn fat and not store it, you’ll remain overweight and unenergised indefinitely.

My clinical work using a holistic applied kinesiological approach will get to the cause of your weight gain and resulting sluggish metabolism. It’s uplifting to say the least when you finally learn how to burn fat and put it into practice. Not only does your body start to look better, your energy levels improve immensely and life just picks up. That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it – good energy.

Call me, I’d be more than happy to help.

Dr John Pirie
Chiropractor & Applied Kinesiologist
19 Coral Street, Maleny Phone 5435 2155

siaholistichealth.com.au

Your lymphatic system is vitally important in removing toxic substances from your cells and in combating the spread of disease in your body.

Throughout the lymphatic system are tiny bean-shaped glands called lymph nodes which contain large quantities of white blood cells that attack and destroy foreign bacteria.

When we have an infection the activity of these nodes is sometimes noticed as pain and or swelling as they tackle the problem.

The lymph system has tiny one-way valves that flow only in one direction. Also lymph is not pumped like blood but instead relies on movements of the body. Stress, cold tense muscles, inactivity or illness can impede the free flow of the lymphatic system.

Gentle self massage, warm epson salt baths, gentle stretches, yoga, walking, laughter, dance, play, breathing exercises, meditation (in short- movement in consciousness and of the body) together with a pure diet, fresh juices and pure water will all help to restore normal healthy function to a vital part of your Divine design.

Remember though it’s wise to seek professional advice for any lumps or swelling.

Marisa Kliese is a Clinical Member Aust. Counselling Assoc. Fellow Holistic Life Coach. Reiki Master. Fellow Aust. Natural Therapists Assoc.

Marisa can be contacted on 54942627.

This total solar eclipse won’t be visible here unfortunately, but its effects will still be felt strongly, especially where Cancer falls in your birth chart, and even more so if you have planets around 19 degrees Cancer. Eclipses demand respect, so take extra care and don’t take any unnecessary risks, especially in the time leading up to the eclipse.

Cancer is the sign associated with home and family, with a tenacious connection to the past. The New Moon in this sign emphasises the beginning of a new phase in our relationship with the past, especially for Cancerians who really don’t like to let go of anything. If your birthday is close to 12 July, this new cycle will be very significant for you.

Saturn re-enters Libra on Thurs 22 July, lining up opposite Uranus for the fifth and final time since late 2008, offering one last chance in this current cycle to integrate two opposing forces: radical new approaches and revered traditions. This means keeping what is worth keeping, but changing anything past its use-by date.

Jupiter goes retrograde on Fri 23 July, intensifying the tension of its square to Pluto, representing the classic battle between ethics and big business, between society’s moral standards and the machinations of corporate power.

The Full Moon falls in Aquarius on Mon 26 July, illuminating our collective needs, particularly at the environmental and humanitarian level. This is a time to reflect on how individuals can benefit the community, and find a balance between the personal and the collective.

With love Chirone

copyright © 2010 Chirone Witsen All rights reserved

Chevallum was happy to be involved in such an innovative program, as conservation and sustainability are important themes and objectives at the school.

The program, named “Simple Steps” was made possible from a Climate Smart grant (Department of Environment and Natural Resource Management). The LCD Community Funding Program supports organisations such as community groups, local councils and tertiary institutions to implement the Low Carbon Diet, a program to help reduce Queenslanders’ carbon footprints.

Every classroom ran its own environmental program for a four week period, measuring and recording the reduction in carbon emissions they achieved.

If you are someone who has tried again and again to lose weight unsuccessfully despite exercise and diets, you are most probably producing too much INSULIN. This fact alone means you will always struggle with food cravings and with your weight. So – unless you learn how to control your insulin levels, you’ll stay overweight, you’ll continue to crave the wrong foods and you’ll experience the following symptoms;

• Physical fatigue – you feel tired, perhaps even exhausted for part or all of your day

• Mental fatigue – you find it hard to concentrate and think clearly. In students, this may be diagnosed as a learning disability, but it’s not.

• Low blood sugar – prolonged periods of low blood sugar will make you feel jittery, agitated and moody. This will also make you feel depressed.

• Intestinal bloating – gas, gas, and more gas, all linked to the wrong types of carbohydrate.

• Increased blood pressure – as insulin levels elevate, so does blood pressure.

How do you fit into the above picture, because if you do, now is the time to learn how to manage your insulin levels. This means that you will reduce the levels of insulin in your blood thus allowing the stored body fat to be burned for energy. Energy levels improve, you get leaner, you look and feel better and this is something you can use throughout your life.

Give us a call and I’ll show you how.

siaholistichealth.com.au